The Steel Guitar Forum

Were any of the old lap steels acoustic? I'm looking for something I can play without amplification.

Thanks,

Counsel

WELCOME ABOARD!
The least expensive way to go acoustic on a lap steel. would have to be an old Oahu squareneck. Look on Ebay and they pop up between $100.-$200. depending on condition. Some of them sound pretty good too. Another route is to get a regular acoustic, put a higher nut on it, or a metal nut adapter to rase the action (check out www.harrymanx.com )
Of course their are lots of choices out ther if you can spend over $500. Goldtone has some Weissenborn style instruments.
Do a web search under lap steel guitars. Check out "Brad's page os Steel" for a list of most manufacturers.
It couldn't hurt

One other possibility would be an inexpensive acoustic with a nut raise installed. The accessory can be bought for about $15 or you can take a piece of aluminum or steak bone and make one.
I played for about a year on an acoustic "Baron" I bought for $5 and it worked just fine. Plenty of info on the net about how to do this. Basically you buy a fitting that goes over the nut up by the tuning head and it raises the strings up about 3/16 inch or more so the steel doesn't hit the frets. You can pick up a piece of bone or aluminum or brass and try this yourself by popping out the nut and filing some little grooves in the piece to hold the strings. Any acoustic guitar will work for getting started. Sometimes the cheapest ones have the coolest slide tone. If you can find a Stella or Silvertone from the 50s or 60s that would be cool, but any piece of junk acoustic should be considered to be a candidate for this experiment. As long as it will hold strings without imploding or causing you injury, it should be considered a viable subject for experimentation.
Have fun and welcome to the forum!!
Other people should chime in here too, since I have way less experience than Loni or the other fine people on this forum, but I still can yammer on, which is the great thing here.

You might consider a used resonator (dobro) type guitar. I have one that I use that way and it works very good.

<SMALL>Were any of the old lap steels acoustic? </SMALL>

The first acoustic dedicated for lap style playing (besides some regular acoustics with raised nut) were the hollowneck Weissenborn guitars that had their 'glory days' from around 1915 to 1930.

While the original ones are rather expensive (overpriced?), there are many good copies made today, ranging from approx $800 to $1500.
Loni already mentioned the Goldtone Weissenborns, and you will also find some nice guitars if you search for Lazy River, Celtic Cross and Superior Weissenborns.

Here's my Lazy River:


Steinar

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www.gregertsen.com

I have a Superior Weissenborn that I like a lot. I played it at church for the Christmas eve service. However, I had to have the string spacing narrowed up before I was satisfied with it. For the life of me I don't know why they stick with such a wide spacing.
Erv

Thanks for the welcome and all the information. I'll keep my eye open for an old Oahu squareneck on Ebay.

Checking eBay I find some acoustic guitars for .01 cent with $40.00 shipping. Wonder how long they'ed hold together.

Would like to keep the investment low until I know that acoustic steeling is something I'd be interest in.

Thanks again,

Counsel

Counsel,- there is a very nice Oahu on eBay now: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=2385&item=3772533761&rd=1

Steinar

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www.gregertsen.com

An Oahu such as the one on ebay (thanks for the link, Steinar) would be an excellent choice.

Counsel, since you mentioned ebay and "guitars for .01 cent with $40.00 shipping", as a guy who has sold a LOT of stuff on ebay, let me point out that although a 1-cent guitar with 40-dollars shipping may seem ridiculous or even some kind of ripoff, no seller has control over the price of shipping from the post office, UPS, Fedex or anyone else. Shipping costs are what they are, no matter what price you pay for the item. For $40 however, I would expect it had better be very well-packed and insured, since acoustics are quite light and not usually as expensive to ship as electrics, but they are also much more fragile and need good packing, which also adds weight and more cost to ship.

Now get out there and get a good steel and have fun.

<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Jim Phelps on 28 December 2004 at 08:12 PM.]</p></FONT>

I was doing some very basic recording and noticed that my small solid state amp ended up recording a lot of pick noise. My Fender tube amp did not. Maybe some amp settings would limit the pick attack sound.

ops, posted on the wrong thread. What I wanted to say on this one was that I picked up a "Royal Hawaian" on Ebay a few year ago of $70. I has a great tone as very long sustain. I really enjoy this one and it stays tuned for a long time. Vintage 1959.