A lap steel guitar is typically played on the player's lap with finger picks.
A lap steel is a type of guitar that is played on the player's lap or on a stool in front of her. It's strings are raised at the nut and bridge ends of the fingerboard and are typically plucked using a plastic thumb pick or metal or plastic finger picks. It's a popular instrument used in folk, country and bluegrass music. It's fairly easy to build compared with other guitars and can be a fun instrument to learn.
Instructions
1. Choose your wood. The guitar is made from one plank of wood that should be well-seasoned hardwood such as maple, mahogany, walnut, cherry, oak, beech, alder or basswood. The body will keep the shape of the original wood, but the peg head must be shaped.
2. Shape the peg head. Clamp the plank upright in the vise and cut a notch 1/4-inch deep across. Cut down from the top of the plank to the notch and remove the extra piece of wood. Smooth the angle between the body and the peg head with a rasp until it is a nice curved transition. Draw lines from each side of the transition to the top of the peg head a distance of 3/4-inch from the side. Cut the two triangles off each side tapering the peg head and sand around the peg head until smooth.
3. Drill the holes for the tuners. Measure the diameter of the tuner's mounting nut to establish the diameter of the tuner holes. Drill three holes on each side 2 3/8 inch from the lines you drew to taper the peg head for the tuners.
4. Cut out the pickup cavity. The pickup cavity should be cut between the end of the fretboard and the bridge. Lap steel guitars have the best sound when it is close to the bridge. Put the single-coil pickup on the plank and align the centers of the pole pieces above the harmonics line. Outline the plank and add 1/32-inch to all sides. Drill out the cavity to a 5/8-inch depth and remove extra material with a chisel.
5. Cut out the control cavity. Drill another cavity on the side of the plank for the control and use a chisel to finish. Then drill a 1/4-inch tunnel between the pickup and control cavities. Finally, drill holes for the bridge based on the length of the bridge you purchase.
6. Stain or paint. Once all the drilling and cutting is done, you can stain or paint the wood assembly.
7. Make the pickup and control cavity cover. Plane a 1-5/8-inch-wide and 8-inch-long wood strip to a 1/8-inch thickness and drill 11/16-inch holes in the ends.
8. Add the hardware. Fasten the tuners into the tuner holes and the control and pickup parts into their respective places. Wire them together with the cord jack following the schematics from the pickup kit. Glue on the fretboard.
9. String it up. Add the strings with each one wrapped around a tuner. Once they are on, tune it using the tuners and an electronic tuner. After they have had a chance to stretch, tune again, bringing the strings to pitch.
Tags: each side, control cavity, diameter tuner, finger picks, from plank, pickup cavity, pickup control