I’m also considering offering a stainless steel bridge assembly with string anchor points and over-wound single coil pickup for 6, 7, or 8 string lap steel guitar construction as well as other items that would be of use to amateur builders. So, here are the questions I’d like some input on: 1. Preference for 7 or 8 strings? For more fun projects, please visit my YouTube Channel:is a video showing the steps of me building. We recently received these plans from “Hubcap John” Hayward which were originally featured in Practical Wireless Magazine in London in 1965. The plans feature a lap steel guitar with full schematics. They were scanned from the original and sent in eight different parts. We did our best to match them up into one complete PDF. The original lap steel had a simple sound hole pickup that was easy to install, but it gave me a bit of buzzing sound in concert due to lack of grounding. For this second guitar, I opted for a cheap and gnarly $20 dual-rail humbucker from C. Gitty and hardwired it to the guitar jack. Title: Its Easy To Build Your Own Lap Steel Guitar M, Author: WendyTalbott, Name: Its Easy To Build Your Own Lap Steel Guitar M, Length: 5 pages, Page: 1, Published: 2013-10-05 Issuu company logo.
It's likely that a few readers may like to play slide guitar, whether with a finger length slide or perhaps just a partial slide. It really provides a whole new dimension to playing and requires a skill beyond just fretting the strings with your fingers.
Now if we take that slide to the next level, by removing all fretting and playing all the strings with a heavier metal or glass slide we almost start playing an entirely different musical instrument. Acoustic , electric , and lap steel guitars are all so very similar, yet at the same time the lap steel can take on a life of its own!
The lap steel guitar is really fun to play, comes in a variety of styles, and can be bought or built at a low cost. Some of the more popular lap steels use pedals and are incredibly expensive, and these are the ones you most often hear on Hank Williams tunes. Resonator guitars, like Dobro's, are often played like lap steels but have metal resonating cones to help amplify the sound.
The key difference between a regular guitar and a lap steel is that the strings are placed much higher above the frets. That way when you rest the bar on the strings it does not touch any frets.
This is one reason why it is sometimes ok to buy lap steels that are not too expensive. When we play a regular guitar it is important that the action and neck bow are just right, otherwise it can be too difficult to play with buzzes or impossible fretting . However, with a lap steel, the action can be incredibly high and no big deal.
Get Free Chords, Scales and Fretboard Ebooks:
Be sure to check the free download area: you'll find several pdf ebooks that will teach you new chords, scales, fretboard notes and theory. A great help for improving your skills!
Lap steels are often tuned to specific chords, because standard tuning doesn't work well for sliding on all strings. If you tune your lap steel guitar to an open G chord , this will allow you to play specific major chords up the fretboard. Another common tuning is C6 , which is also the tuning of ukuleles. C6 tuning is what gives us that ' Hawaiian Sound ' so often heard in Hawaiian music and early country, including the famous Mele Kalikimaka !
E7 tuning is also common and so is open D , if you purchase a lap steel with more than six strings than you can start using tunings like E9, C13, and even B11 . I love B11 tuning, it can give the song a moody Hawaiian feel.
How to play lap steel guitar
The key to playing good lap steel lies in buying a suitable bar and using proper barring technique .
Some musicians like to use lighters, or hollow bars to play slide guitar, or even anything that is straight and flat enough to cover all the strings. These will not work the greatest for playing proper lap steel, you want the bar to be heavy and flat.
In fact, a good lap steel bar is what I call a ' toe breaker ', because if dropped they can do serious damage! After getting a proper slide the next step is using the right technique .
As the bar rests on the strings you want to place your middle or ring finger BEHIND it so it will mute out any screeches or unwanted noises. The index finger will be placed on top and as you glide back and forth make sure to always keep the back of the strings muted.
As far as picks go, it is fine to use a simple guitar pick to strum or pick single strings. Even better is purchasing a thumb, index, and middle finger pick, that way you have three fingers to pick melodies. The more picks the better , for a very simple reason; because you are limited on what chords and notes you can play.
Say you have a lap steel tuned to C6, as you move to the next fret it will be C#6, D6 , and so on up the guitar. So how do we play a minor chord or a seventh?? We simply have to pick the notes for chords that aren't playable. And with 3 picks this allows us to use the thumb for bass notes and the other two fingers for treble. This is a common issue for folks who play wind and brass instruments. A saxophonist cannot play a C major chord , but they can pay the underlying notes of C, E, and G . This is why the lap steel is great for playing melodies and solos because we are often picking single notes.
Since 2013, FaChords Guitar has grown a lot (12.000 subscribers and counting!) and server bills are getting bigger every day, so, to keep the site free for everybody, I'm following the Justin Guitar Honor-System: if you can afford it, please consider supporting FaChords Guitar by buying the ebooks:
Chords Domination: Play Any Chord You Want Across All The Fretboard
This ebook is for those players who want a deeper understanding of the chords they are playing. You'll find more than 800 chord voicings all along the fretboard that will help you learn how to move freely on the neck and play any chord you want in any position.
The book is packed-full with color-coded diagrams that show chord tones, note names, and finger positions, a handy visual chord formula table, and the tones fretboard maps of 44 different chord types.
Poor man DIY Lap Steel Guitar
In reality it is not all that difficult to start playing a lap steel guitar. In some cases, you can literally flip your guitar over, lay it flat, and start playing it just like a lap steel or dobro. In some cases it doesn't take much to play a simple slide steel guitar, here below Jack White shows the basics:
As mentioned before you will not usually want to use standard tuning so find any steel string tuning you like and try it out. If your guitar action is to low, try finding an old acoustic that has high action and it can be repurposed to serve as a lap steel. This makes an excellent DIY project , even if you aren't the most mechanically inclined person. You can even take out the old nut of the acoustic guitar and add a thicker one to raise the strings up.
There are a variety of possibilities when 'building' your own lap steel. Say you have an old acoustic with high action, there is more to experiment with than just the string height. (Make sure you are using a steel string acoustic and not a classic nylon string, or you could have a guitar snap on you!) Try using different strings to get different tunings and sounds. Clearly we can take standard tuning strings and use them for different tunings , however we are limited at times.
You always have to watch how much you tighten a string or it will break, loosen it too much and there will be too much slack to play. By experimenting with different gauges and metals we can come up with all sorts of sounds for our cheap little lap steel. We can also take pickups out and replace them with other styles. I personally like to buy a simple and affordable lap steel and then replace the pickup with a more expensive one . This gives me a great sounding lap steel on a budget.
Some readers may wonder why bother with playing a lap steel, perhaps the acoustic or electric is enough. However, a whole new world is opened up when we stretch our instruments capabilities. It allows us to learn the fretboard with different tunings, it gives us a unique sound, and teaches us new techniques of sliding and slurring. It is also a great way to get into building guitars , as it doesn't require specific luthier knowledge for the most part. You may find you love building your own lap steel guitar and advance on to bigger and better ideas. Whether you use an old acoustic, turn your guitar on its back, or buy a fancy pedal lap steel you will find the world of lap steel and slide guitar quite enjoyable!
Further resources
- Video tutorial on how to transform your old guitar in a lap steel guitar: click here
- In this lessons Neal Walter teaches you how to use the slide
- Learn how to play the bottleneck slide
These free plans come from our sister website, www.CigarBoxNation.com (the #1 resource site for cigar box guitars)
Cigar Box Nation’sArchive of
Homemade Musical Instrument Plans
From the simple 3-string cigar box guitar instructional that started the Cigar Box Guitar Revolution to historical plans dating back to the 1800’s…we’ve collected them all.
These are easy-to-follow plans that started the Cigar Box Guitar Revolution. Build a simple 3-string CBG using an empty box, a plank of wood (easily found at your local hardware store) some strings and tuners.
Once you’ve downloaded these plans, join these Cigar Box Nation discussion groups for building and playing tips:
Brian Lemin’s Cigar Box Guitar Plans
Brian Lemin presents his own take on building a cigar box guitar. Pictures, descriptions and more. .pdf format (Thanks Brian!)
Need more help? See links above for Cigar Box Nation discussion groups.
Smokehouse Guitars presents Advanced Course in Cigar Box Guitar Building and Design
- Pt. 5 Necks – Scarf Joints
- Pt. 5 Necks – Carving
- Pt. 5 Necks – Fretboard
- Guitar Wiring Basics
From Guitar Player Magazine, 1976. These are the plans that inspired Shane Speal to build his first cigar box guitar. These plans are based on the cigar box guitar that rockabilly legend, Carl Perkins played as a child.
5-String Cigar Box Banjo– Oldest known cigar box instrument plans
Build an Uncle Enos Banjo first published circa 1870 The oldest known plans for a cigar box instrument, the Uncle Enos Banjo plans were written by Boy Scouts founder Daniel Carter Beard for a childrens magazine. The finished product is a very playable 5-string banjo.
Cigar Box Violin
Build a Cigar Box Violin first published 1949.
Build a playable 4-string violin. Also includes plans to make your own fiddle bow, too. Get more help, tips and join the discussion at Cigar Box Nation’s group, Cigar Box Fiddles
1920’s Cigar Box Ukulele
Vintage cigar box uke plans – fully detailed. Ukulele geeks and cigar box freaks unite!!! It’s time to get your strum on. Plans are a high res .jpg scan. Once you have downloaded these plans, join the uke discussion in our Cigar Box Ukulele Group
1910 Cigar Box Ukulele
From the article: “The one-string banjo, cigar box guitar and similar Vaudeville favorites are giving way to the tantalizing ukulele…” Oh yeah, baby! (Plans download in .jpg file)Once you have downloaded these plans, join the uke discussion in our Cigar box Ukulele Group
Popular Mechanics, September 1923 (pdf file). Get additional tips, secrets and more in the following Cigar Box Nation Groups:
- Dulciworld (cigar box dulcimers)
Cigar Box Tube Amplifier
Way cool vintage plans from a 1954 issue of Science & Mechanics Magazine. Plans are in a 2 page .pdf Please note: the pages are mistakenly reversed in the .pdf. Get more cigar box amp tips, designs and ideas at the Cigar Box Nation group It Goes To Eleven (Cigar Box Amps)
Discovered in an old 1936 patent. The instrument uses a cigar box like a slide on a fiddle made from a pitchfork. This picture features proof that someone actually made and performed with this style instrument. Anyone wanna attempt this? Get more tips, ideas and join in the fiddle discussion at the Cigar Box Nation group, Cigar Box Fiddles
Vaudeville Fiddle
Build a Cigar Box Violin first published 1949 Create a 1-string cigar box “cello” violin, similar to instruments used by the great Yiddish vaudeville performers of the turn-of-the-century. W. C. Fields appeared in a movie playing this instrument. Get more tips, ideas and join in the fiddle discussion at the Cigar Box Nation group, Cigar Box Fiddles
Shane has just discovered a lost set of plans for a one-string “Cigar Box Jazzolin,” originally published in Popular Mechanics in 1920. With help from Cigar Box Guitar Museum curator, Bill Jehle, we have these plans available for you to download right now. We encourage you to build your own “Cigar Box Jazzolin” and post pictures. Learn to play it and post videos, too! Let’s bring back the great tradition of Yiddish vaudeville fiddle playing! Once you’ve downloaded the plans, join our Diddley Bow (1-string instrument) Group and our Cigar Box Fiddles Group.
Dr. Oakroot’s Diddley Bow
Dr Oakroot’s plans for a great Cigar Box Diddley Bow The diddley bow is a traditional one string instrument fundamental to the early blues. You can easily make a diddley bow using a cardboard cigar box, a guitar tuner, and a few other things. Get more help, tips and secrets at our Diddley Bow Group
Vintage Lap Steep Plans (link broken…we’re working on it)
How to build this ultra-hip LAP STEEL GUITAR! (pdf document). Once you download the plans, join these groups to discuss building secrets for this instrument! VINTAGE LAP STEEL PLANS GROUP. (dedicated to these vintage plans) and Lap Steel World (a great group discussing all aspects of lap steel construction)
Vintage Rebek Fiddle Plans (link broken…we’re working on it)
Build this cool world-music Rebek Fiddle and crank out some one-string goodness. (pdf. document). Need more help? Cigar Box Nation has discussion groups for Cigar Box Fiddles and Diddley Bows (One Stringed Instruments)
Fun With a 2×4 Bass (link broken…we’re working on it)
Cool plans found in a 1960’s Popular Science magazine. Build your own solidbody electric bass from a standard 2×4!!! Get your thump on and join the discussion group Cigar Box Basses
Lap Steel Guitar Plans Pdf
Funky and primitive cigar box bass that uses a lever tuning/playing system. From an old children’s book. Download is a 2 page Word document. More help at Cigar Box Nation’s group Cigar Box Basses
Building Lap Steel Guitar Pdf Picture
Not a cigar box instrument, but cool nonetheless. Check out these plans, originally posted in the old Cigar Box Guitar Yahoo!Group. (Thanks to Jim “Gutbucketeer” Bunch for compiling and archiving the information.) Download is a Word document. Bass tips and inspiration at Cigar Box Nation’s discussion group, Cigar Box Basses