Red Pine Lap Steel - DIY

[Guvna19]

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

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

cheers
Guvna

[wokkaboy]

no worries Guvna, I think the avatar will look cool. Mash Brewery are Perth based and really cracking the craft beer market here. I have been a Coopers fan for a long time, probably still Australia's best commercial beer brewer (way better than Tooheys, XXXX, CUB and Swan). I have driven past Coopers Brewey about 5 times but never had time to call in for a tour ! Been during a conference nearby Grundfos pumps for work trips.

[dave.king1]

Coopers PA is my preferred drop too and also love their Vintage Ale, I changed over from Boags when San Miguel bought them out and there was a hostile takeover attempt being made on Coopers so I figured I would do my bit to help ( I think they'd go broke without me )

[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

[Guvna19]

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

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

[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

[Guvna19]

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

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)

[Guvna19]

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)

thanks for the loan wokka , Saved avatar for another day.
changed to true colours -RedPine / RedBeer 'sparkling'

Gav - (my pommy cricket teammates pronounced it guv an it stuck - *#*#$ poms..... )

[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.

[Guvna19]

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.

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