Lap Steel

[gcapel]

Anyone experinced in the lap steel guitar department? I am intrested in buying one. But where to start? Any first hand experince?

 

[daddymac]

I have played around with one a little, after getting interested in people like Jerry Douglas, Robert Randolph, Cindy Cashdollar, etc. They are a lot of fun and not too hard to learn a little at first. Of course like anything, it takes skill and practice to get good. I bought one of those cheap Artisan lap steels from Musicians Friend on the internet. It won't blow you away but for about $80 it's not bad! One thing, if you can replace the nut that comes on the Artisan, it will improve things a lot. They come with a rosewood like cardboard nut. The strings on mine would not sit level. When you barred the strings at the first fret, the bar wouldn't touch all the strings! I was able to cut a piece of angel aluminum stock and make my own bridge. Toughest part is filing the slots for the strings. BUT, the difference in tone is like - WOW, this thing will actually sing!

Though I haven't replaced my strings yet, I'm sure a good set of strings would make another leap in sound - the stock ones are pretty lame.

And get a good bar to play with. I bought a Stevens of ebay. That makes a big difference too!

Go to this web site for more info.

http://www.well.com/~wellvis/resource.html

Hope this helps

 

[hixmix]

I've got a Gibson BR8 lap slide from the 1950's. For a new one these look pretty nice for the money:
http://www.elderly.com/fmic/items/FS52.htm

I'm considering getting one myself.

 

[Anfontan]

I've got a Gibson BR8 lap slide from the 1950's. For a new one these look pretty nice for the money:
http://www.elderly.com/fmic/items/FS52.htm

I'm considering getting one myself.

The first lap steel I messed around with belonged to my friends family-it was an old Gibson blue/greenish bakelite model with the mother of pearl highlights. It definitely sparked my interest in slide guitar playing!

 

[TelePaul]

Artisan do a nice one for about 100 bucks on e bay if you want a cheap entry into it...just to see if you like it.

 

[32-20-Blues]

Artisan, the way to go. Yeah, I got one for about a hundred, but I bought it in a guitar shop, so I was able to check out the nut and action and everything. Quality varies hugely with these - I think the model is EA-1 - so if you can see and put your hands on the one you are getting, that would be an advantage.

One single coil, one tone pot, one vol. The pick-up is nice and quiet, sounds far better than you would expect for the price.

Finish on mine is beautiful - metal flake red.

Buy a keyboard stand for about 15 bucks, and you're good to go. Talk nicely to the shop and they should throw in a free tonebar (slide) for you. It's great fun, sounds great too. Go for it.