Lapsteel Players!

snipeguy

snipeguy

Andy Goldsworthy Wannabe
I'm a lapsteel player as well as regular ol' sixbanger. I was wondering if there are any other lapsteel players out there? What strings and tunings do you use. What's your setup? I play a '70's Gibson (not sure of the model) and a 60's Mason (made in Waterloo, Ontario by the long defunct Mason Amp & Guitar Co.) Being self taught my tuning is a weird GBEABD (that's low to high)
It works for me. My strings are the old Dean Markley Jazz that come off my Strat. Reuse-Recycle-Reduce!
 
I play a little. Just some small fills in songs. I used to have an old Black Gibson Lap Steel but stupid me went and sold it.

I have a cheap old POS now but it gets the small jobs done I suppose..

LOL I recycle too. If I break a string (rare) i just use an old GHS or Slinky..
 
I have a late '40's Supro. I string it with Ernie Ball slinkies (.010 E) but I use a .20W in place of the G, and move the .017 to B and the .013 for the E. The .010 I throw away. I have used E (E-B-E-G#-B-E), Em (same, with G# tuned down to G), E6 (same as E, with the high B tuned up to C) and E7 (either E-D-E-G#-B-E or E-B-E-G#-D-E) over the years. I also play a little pedal steel (E9) and a lot of Dobro (E).

Glad to see someone playing lap steel. I played it a LOT until I got my Dobro in '84 (and suddenly went from being the "last guy picked" to actually being in demand!
 
Mine's a Rick Electro with a horseshoe pickup. I tune it to open E except the A string (B) is raised to C#.

Now that you mention strings, I really should change them, they're Gibson Mona Steels that have been on there forever. Very heavy, probably .050 for the E string. The B and G strings are changed out to like 11's and 19 (unwound) to B string type bending behind the bar.
 
What's the diff between a lap steel and a squareneck resonator (Dobro)? The one's electric (Hawaiian) and the other acoustic?
 
patlang12 said:
yeah, but there are acoustic lap steels, such a this: http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=home/search/detail/base_pid/518537/

unless these are not considered lap steels, I thought they were though.
Click to expand...

They are very different in sound and texture. I have a squareneck Dobro and a '20's Weissenborn in addition to the Rick lap steel and I'd say the most noticeable difference are in attack and sustain. Each has their strong points though.
 
There is a guy here in Ontario who plays acoustic lapsteel as a session guy. His last name is Rook. I heard him awhile back and he was very impressive. He was definately introduced as an "acoustic lapsteel" player.
 
Running on Empty

You guys got me thinking about Jackson Browne's "Running on Empty" album. I loved the lap steel work on that album. I was just a kid when that came out but I tried replicating the sound by playing slide on a regular six string.
If you're too young to remember "Running on Empty" and you like lap steel then check it out; the lap steel isn't on every track but what's there is great.

I used to think the lap "steel" guitars were made with cast iron for long sustain, but I guess not. (That was just because a friend had a cheap pedal steel that was made with a cast iron "neck" mounted on a wooden body.)
 
A "steel" guitar, just to clarify, is a guitar played with a "steel." A "pedal steel" guitar is one played with a steel that has pedals. A "steel pedal steel" is a guitar made out of steel that has pedals. A "Peddle steel pedal steel" is one that is for sale. A "steal peddle steel pedal steel" is...


...oh, the hell with it.
 
jhughs said:
You guys got me thinking about Jackson Browne's "Running on Empty" album. I loved the lap steel work on that album. I was just a kid when that came out but I tried replicating the sound by playing slide on a regular six string.
If you're too young to remember "Running on Empty" and you like lap steel then check it out; the lap steel isn't on every track but what's there is great.

I used to think the lap "steel" guitars were made with cast iron for long sustain, but I guess not. (That was just because a friend had a cheap pedal steel that was made with a cast iron "neck" mounted on a wooden body.)
Click to expand...

That was a great band featuring David Lindley on lap steel. Great tone and sustain.
I remember Running On Empty, he wrote that not long after Steve Gillette opened for him on a tour swing.....one of Steve's songs was Ridin On Empty......small world.

Believe it or not a good song to take apart on a lap steel is Sleepwalk, the standard by Santo and Johnny.....it's a clinic.

There was a flood of lap steels in the 30's and 40's with the Hawaiian music craze...Western swing too. In fact, that reminds me, forget everything I've said and get every Milton Brown and his Brownies recording that features Bob Dunn. These were some of the first recordings of an amplified guitar.....before getting a steel he used a Marting with raised strings and a telephone coil for a pickup. The riffs are off the chart.

Anyway, lap steels were sometimes all steel like mine, or a plastic called Bakeite, or wood.
 
Speaking of steels, what kind do you use? I've got some big ol' fat ones, like about 3/4 of an inch in diameter, and a thinner one with grooves in the side, and a thinner one yet attached to a plastic type handle.

I use the big ones for pedal steel, but they seem a little unwieldy for dobro and lap steel for slanting, so I use the thinner grooved one.

I don't play for shit, so don't really know what I should be using.
 
crazydoc said:
Speaking of steels, what kind do you use? I've got some big ol' fat ones, like about 3/4 of an inch in diameter, and a thinner one with grooves in the side, and a thinner one yet attached to a plastic type handle.

I use the big ones for pedal steel, but they seem a little unwieldy for dobro and lap steel for slanting, so I use the thinner grooved one.

I don't play for shit, so don't really know what I should be using.
Click to expand...

I use a regular Stevens steel....never been able to get used to anything else.
Can't believe they're so expensive:
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/search/detail/base_id/117544/src=00631
 
I use a Jim Dunlop model that I think is called a "Lap Dawg". Very comfortable. I've also used a Craftsman 11/16" chrome socket. I like the weight and the kind of vibrato I can get. BTW I think David Lindley rocks. Check out him playing "Rocket In My Pocket" with the Bottle Rockets. Very smooth with a groove that is deep and wide.
 
I got home from work and checked out my steels. One is a Stevens (the grooved one), the two large round ones are Ernie Ball and Emmons.

My lap steel is an Oahu Diana, made in the early 50's I believe. Unfortunately several of the tuner buttons have disintegrated, so it's pretty hard to tune. :)

I just got a cheap squareneck resonator a couple of months ago that I'm trying to learn to play It's a lot harder than pedal steel - a completely different animal. The open G tuning seems pretty limited. C6 is not very intuitive for me. I'm currently experimenting with ADF#ACE, but don't particularly like the voicing of the minor AACE in relation to the major ADF#A. But I sure like having the 7th (C) available.

Can anybody recommend a good instructional video or CD? It's hard to learn this stuff in a vacuum.
 
I used a Stevens steel for 20 years and couldn't use anything else. Then I got the pedal steel and started using a bullet nose (Dunlop) steel. Now I can't go back to the Stevens. I love the way you can do pull-offs and slides into a string from the side with the bullet nose. Because of its weight, it sounds better on Dobro also.
 
lpdeluxe said:
I used a Stevens steel for 20 years and couldn't use anything else. Then I got the pedal steel and started using a bullet nose (Dunlop) steel. Now I can't go back to the Stevens. I love the way you can do pull-offs and slides into a string from the side with the bullet nose. Because of its weight, it sounds better on Dobro also.
Click to expand...

I've got a Dunlap around somewhere but for some reason I can't be as accurate with it, and it's harder to bend strings behind the bar with my ring finger.

Holy crap! I just found the last box of the strings I've been using on the lap steel. I thought they were Gibsons but they're Black Diamond 'Hawaiian Guitar' strings out of 'Iron Alloy'. They must be 50 years old. Probably a collector's item now. An old mom and pop music store was going out of business over 20 years ago near here and I bought all their old strings.

It really is time to restring the lap steel.
 
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