My Guitar Page

I took lap steel guitar lessons way back around 1950 but switched to standard guitar in high school. A coiuple of years ago I wanted to see if I could learn to play steel again. I decided to build my own when I saw what 50-year old lap steels were going for on EBAY. So far, I have built five guitars.

The first four guitars use the prewired Stratocaster-type pickguards, available very economically from Stewart-MacDonald. The pickguards had to be cut down considerably and pots/switches moved or removed. The nuts and bridges of the first two are made of Corian and the fretboards (23"-scale) are homemade with painted-on fret lines and inlaid dots. The third and fourth guitars have a 25" scale and a purchased, adjustable bridge unit. Some of the guitars have wood hand rests covering the pickup nearest the bridge or the bridge.

This is my first homemade steel guitar. The wood is popular and the finish is a gaudy, metallic auto paint.

This is my second steel. The wood is ash and the finish is polyurethane.The two pickups are wired in parallel, which is hum-bucking. The through-the-body string mounting provides great sustain.

This is my third steel. The wood is Bubinga (East African Rosewood) and the finish is polyurethane.This wood is very dense, so I hollowed much of the body to reduce the weight. It also has through-the-body string mounting and brass frets (for looks).

The fret dots are inlaid simulated turquois.

This is my fourth steel. It is from the same slab of Bubinga as the third guitar. This one has a 25" scale and the handrest is mounted over the bridge. It is also hollowed to reduce weight. It has a bone nut and brass frets.

Above is my latest lap steel. It may be the only one in the world that was turned on a wood lathe! It was made from an Ash 2x6 and was turned between centers on the lathe. The beads and coves on the neck are aligned with the frets. It was designed to be a "minimal" steel guitar in terms of overall size, although it has a normal 23" scale. I am looking for a 9-Volt preamp that I can install so it can be played through a headset.