Some of my earlier work.

[ljs]

Hi All,
New member just recently and I thought that I might post some pictures of my earlier lap stels. These first two pictures are of my very first excursion into lap steel building. It looks really rough I know, but I found the neck, body and tuners in a trash hopper at my place of employment before I retired and I thought it had possibilities. Whoever started the project apparently bought the neck, tuners and originally it had a Telecaster type bridge on it. They had gotten a piece of Textolite for the body which is a very hard dense manmade insulating material used for circuit boards, etc. I have since put my own bridge on it. It is a through the body with a pickup I got free from a local music store. It just has a cheap nut riser on it. This is my first time at posting pictures so here goes. Sorry about the rotated picture.

Front view2 (Small).JPG (32.85 KiB) Viewed 1955 times

Front Body (Small).JPG (39.72 KiB) Viewed 1955 times

[ljs]

Here is some more. This one is made of Hard Maple and it was my second lap steel, first 8 String. It's not the prettiest thing, but it did play well. A little improvement from the first one. I was playing a GFI 10 string at the time so I made this with the same scale length and string spacing as the GFI. I put the original Barcus Berry PU from the GFI in it and it also worked well.
LaVern

'04 8 strg .JPG (21.18 KiB) Viewed 1938 times

#3 Key head.JPG (39.92 KiB) Viewed 1938 times

#6 PU bridge .JPG (39.01 KiB) Viewed 1938 times

[ljs]

Here is the third of my lap steel projects. I made it during the winter of 2007. It came out a little better than the previous two, though I don't care for the shape that much. I think the body has too much of a flat on the end, and I don't particularly like the neck to keyhead transition. It's made of White Ash that my brother and I harvested from my father's original dairy farm here in Erie County, Pa. I used all water based finish on it. The fret board is dyed/painted on, with pin-striping from an auto-body shop. I used mother of pearl for markers. It is a 22.5" scale length and a 3/8" parallel string spacing. It has a Wallace TT pick-up which I am very happy with, Grover tuners. For the bridge and nut I used 1/2" steel stock purchased at the local hardware store. It is thru-the-body string mount. It had a wider neck on it when I first built it but I cut it down because I was having problems seeing where the top string was while playing it. I just couldn't get used to it the way it was originally. Though I like the look before I cut it down better.

I used Red Oak for the tuner mounts, which I screwed onto the head from behind. I saw on another post I believe someone questioned whether any problems were found mounting the tuners like this. I have had no issues yet, though I know that a pedal steel may have more issues due to the raising and lowering of the strings, whereas the tension on a lap steel is fairly constant.

Now before any body asks, I don't have a way of recording or posting a sound clip, nor would anyone wish to hear my playing of one of these. I definitely can't play these things, but I do enjoy building them.

1 Full Frt B4 8strg 2007 .JPG (21.57 KiB) Viewed 1913 times

2 Full front view.JPG (23.01 KiB) Viewed 1913 times

3 Keyhead .JPG (37.56 KiB) Viewed 1913 times

[Bent]

LaVerne, your projects look great. You sure have a sense for detail and fine workmanship. I love what I see and please know that your ideas will be an asset to this forum.

[ljs]

Bent,
Thanks so much for your kind remarks and encouragement. After browsing around here for a while, I do say that there is an awful lot of talent, skilled craftsfolk, and creativity here. I'm am sure this forum will be a large part of my schooling when it comes to my projects. I am so amazed by what I have seen and read on here, that I am somewhat hesitant to post my pictures, but I guess we all have to start somewhere, and I haven't seen a better place yet. I do hope that I will have some good to contribute to this forum. I have one more completed project to post, and a picture of my next one in progress. I'll get to those in a bit. Thanks again and I look forward to spending time learning and sharing on this forum.
LaVern