Nigel Stanley's first lap steel, English sycamore [Pictures] - created 03-04-2004

Stanley, Nigel - 03/04/2004.09:11:34

I thought people might like to see my first attempt at a lap steel.

It's made from a solid (and pricey) chunk of English sycamore. This is apparently very similar to maple.

The 'fret' board is made of stained walnut veneer, with the 'fret' and fret markers routed with a dremel. The bridge and nut are both made of brass rod, and the tuners are straightforward Klusons. It has a 24 inch scale.

The pick up is a George L, and there's a volume and tone lifted from a bass guitar - I need to upgrade these at some stage.

If anyone is interested I can upload another picture showing the stepped profile in more detail.

I like the asymmetric shape, but my original thinking was this would make it easier to turn it into a double neck.

I have to say that it sounds pretty fine, though not quite the way I play it!

The two main mistakes I made were:

1) to make the headstock too narrow for the first step from the nut. While the structure makes it very strong I needed to add some extra washers to the machine heads.

2) the dremal router wandered a little and the fet lines aren't entirely straight. One needed filling, and recutting. This is not a big problem on a lap, but would have been on anything with real frets.

Nigel Stanley

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sysop - 03/04/2004.09:14:30
Deb Suran

If anyone is interested I can upload another picture showing the stepped profile in more detail.

Please do!

Stanley, Nigel - 03/04/2004.10:05:30

Ok .. So here's the profile.

It's not that sharp a picture, but I'm no expert with the (borrowed) digital camera.

N

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Stanley, Nigel - 03/04/2004.10:06:24

And here's the pick-up and bridge.

Nigel

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frassetto, david - 03/07/2004.22:35:12
lapsteel fanatic

Nigel

BIGDave

frassetto, david - 03/07/2004.22:38:12
lapsteel fanatic

OOPS, I forgot to ask, How is the pickup? I haven't tried one yet (haven't built any 8 strings yet)and am wondering about pickups for 8's.

Searcy, Clint - 03/08/2004.07:47:26
MIMForum Staff, Nashville

Very cool Nigel, I've been asked if I could make one of these cheap and your pictures make me think I just mite be able too. Tell us more about the pickup and I would love to see a closer shot of the head area.

Stanley, Nigel - 03/08/2004.09:04:21

Thanks for the kind comments.

Taking the questions in turn.

Bridge - I have limited metal working skills (and tools). It just seemed easier to cut up some angle, and a brass rod. There was no strategic decision to put the bridge straight on to the wood.

The headstock is very strong. The tension from the strings is not against the relatively thin dimension. You should have no hesitation in adopting this design for that reason. I'm afraid I don't have a close-up.

The pick up came from Bobbe Seymour in Nashville. He seemed to have the keenest price, and gave great service as one went missing in the mail to the UK.

I think it sounds great, but I have nothing to compare it with.

The wood looks good - and could have been better if I'd spent more time on it. I finished it with danish oil, and liquid wax.

Nigel