Red Pine Lap Steel - DIY

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Originally Posted by Guvna19

I think wokkaboys steel has that tele bridge with slant? if so it looks sweet.
Dave any idea what a second hand one would cost me? Are they easy to find? i best start getting some parts organised sooner than later so i can lay out design once i get the body shaped up a bit

cheers Guvna

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Got your PM and answered it.

Woks has the slant because he's used the Tele bridge, a steel has slightly wider spacing than your average electric which is why the Tele pickup finished up on a slant to get the poles under the strings.

I think I still have a bridge laying around so I'll throw that in with the pups

haha nice one DK, seems to be a popular choice Coopers. Last year I hosted a Coopers Vintage vertical tasting, I cellared them and had 8 years back to 2008. DB was there he loved it too. The 2008, 2011 and 2012 were the most popular, they had rounded off nicely with the cellaring

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Originally Posted by dave.king1

Got your PM and answered it.

Woks has the slant because he's used the Tele bridge, a steel has slightly wider spacing than your average electric which is why the Tele pickup finished up on a slant to get the poles under the strings.

I think I still have a bridge laying around so I'll throw that in with the pups

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Thanks again Dave! Awsome forum - Guitar assistance and Beer Talk - feels like home!!

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Originally Posted by wokkaboy

haha nice one DK, seems to be a popular choice Coopers. Last year I hosted a Coopers Vintage vertical tasting, I cellared them and had 8 years back to 2008. DB was there he loved it too. The 2008, 2011 and 2012 were the most popular, they had rounded off nicely with the cellaring

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apart from Dr Tims (which is just ok) , I like (love) all the Coopers Family, Pales for daily usage after work and dont mind the Sparkling for spec. with a drop of stout added...mmmmmm.
Wokkaboy, i have started to like the crafty beers too, although they cost a fortune. brewer here in SA called Pirate Life make awsome rich beer, hoppy and pungent. might hafta start a beer forum and only talk abou guitars..lol

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Originally Posted by Fretworn

I made my lapsteel out of reclaimed structural wood left out for council rubbish collection. The bridge and nut were made out of aluminium angle bracket. I bought a second hand humbucker on eBay. And I bought new Wilkinson tuners. I had a lot of the other bits floating around

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Hey Fretworn, sounds neat ! got any pics, i think ill be needing to fashion a nut from angle bracket too

cheers
Guvna

Hey Guvna, still waiting for you to upload the avatar haha

yes I am well aware of Pirate life, expensive but worth every penny. We have started multiple beer threads but the talk always seems to creep into build diaries hahha

There are a couple of other lap steel builds on here. Here's Wokka's baritone http://www.buildyourownguitar.com.au...ead.php?t=6844 and Alm_63's art deco style. http://www.buildyourownguitar.com.au...ight=lap+steel

You only need fret markers for guidance, not fretting, so you can obviously pick out your own scale length, then use a fret calculator to work out the positions. After which you mark up the fretboard, cut some slots and either fill them with contrasting wood slivers or a white wood filler or epoxy. A lot of people haven't bothered to do that but bought a used cheap classical guitar and taken the fingerboard off that (complete with frets). That gives you around a 25" scale length plus a wider fingerboard than on a steel-string guitar, which is fairly common on a lap steel.

Lap steels also normally run with parallel strings, so you'll probably need to use a custom nut blank (not one for a classical or steel-strung guitar) to get the width required at the nut.

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Originally Posted by Simon Barden

There are a couple of other lap steel builds on here. Here's Wokka's baritone http://www.buildyourownguitar.com.au...ead.php?t=6844 and Alm_63's art deco style. http://www.buildyourownguitar.com.au...ight=lap+steel

You only need fret markers for guidance, not fretting, so you can obviously pick out your own scale length, then use a fret calculator to work out the positions. After which you mark up the fretboard, cut some slots and either fill them with contrasting wood slivers or a white wood filler or epoxy. A lot of people haven't bothered to do that but bought a used cheap classical guitar and taken the fingerboard off that (complete with frets). That gives you around a 25" scale length plus a wider fingerboard than on a steel-string guitar, which is fairly common on a lap steel.

Lap steels also normally run with parallel strings, so you'll probably need to use a custom nut blank (not one for a classical or steel-strung guitar) to get the width required at the nut.

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cheers Simon
appreciating your advice - im hearing ya, thanks also for build links. very nice, wokka sent me link too which made me wish i get somthin half as good. and Alm 63's is equally impressive.

im allready struggling with impatience, with all the usual commitments ,i.e, kids ,family , work, oh and beers with mates....lol = time poor

regards guvna

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Originally Posted by wokkaboy

Hey Guvna, still waiting for you to upload the avatar haha

yes I am well aware of Pirate life, expensive but worth every penny. We have started multiple beer threads but the talk always seems to creep into build diaries hahha

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Hey Wokka, i sorted the suggested avatar just now as suggested outa good respect - dont mind it btw ..lol
may change to any coopers logo in time....still... could be a keeper , cheers Guvna (Gav)

Good stuff Guvna looks as good as I thought