| Author |
Topic: Hello From A New Member |
Timothy Kelly Sr
From:
Pennsylvania, USA
|
Posted 22 Apr 2020 8:30 pm |
|
Hello! I am a new member to the Steel Guitar Forum. My voyage started out over at the Telecaster forum with inquiries about using my Squire Telecaster as a make shift lap steel guitar. I had several questions which where answered and I was kindly pointed in this direction for more lap steel intervention.
I had carpal tunnel surgery on both hands. At 71, I can no longer fret a regular guitar and barr chords are completely out of the equation. So I thought lap steel may fill in the void.
The telecaster did not pan out very well so I decide to purchase a Rogue RLS-1 as a basic lap steel guitar just to see if I have what it takes to play one. I ordered .015 - .058 strings and a Shubb slide bar.
I also ordered the “C6 Tuning Basics - Volume 1, Parts A & B†from “Lessons With Troyâ€. So I am basically ready to start when everything arrives this Friday.
Requested information and questions yet to come.
Until then I quote from the infamous Cyberdyne Systems Model 101 . . . . . “I'll be back†|
|
|
 |
Bill Sinclair
From:
Waynesboro, PA, USA
|
Posted 23 Apr 2020 8:34 am
|
|
| Welcome Timothy! Congrats and good luck with your new lap steel journey. Sounds like you're gearing up for a good start. The string set you've chosen seems more appropriate for open E than C6. I believe the Rogue guitars are a short 21" scale so maybe they'll work. I haven't seen a string gauge chart for that scale but I think that .058 is still going to be too heavy for a C. If it sounds kind of "flubby", that's probably why. Troy's lessons are a great place to start. I believe Georgeboards offers an upgrade kit that, among other things, changes the scale to the more common 22.5". Let us know how it goes! |
|
|
|
Bill Groner
From:
QUAKERTOWN, PA
|
Posted 23 Apr 2020 8:57 am
|
|
This guy is from the UK........not the usual lap steel player......flat pick, odd tone bar, but you have to admit he does know his way around. I saw a another video where he calls the big string the fatty and I am pretty sure it was 58, 60 or 62? The steel is the UK version of the Rogue. There are many name variations of the Rogue. Harley Benton, Artisan are some that come to mind, but they are the same lap steel. Oh and welcome from another Bill.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfLqwx6g7Sk
_________________
Currently own, 6 Groner-tone lap steels, one 1953 Alamo Lap steel, Roland Cube, Fender Champion 40 |
|
|
|
Nic Neufeld
From:
Kansas City, Missouri
|
Posted 23 Apr 2020 9:09 am
|
|
I agree, getting a 58 up to C is going to be liable to break. Short scale can take heavier gauges but most C6 tunings have somewhere in the low 30s for the low C. If you have some spares around though, you might be able to sub in some "middle" strings and extend, say, the 5th string to the sixth string...
_________________
Waikīkī, at night when the shadows are falling
I hear the rolling surf calling
Calling and calling to me |
|
|
|
Gene Tani
From:
Pac NW
|
Posted 23 Apr 2020 4:02 pm
|
|
Welcome, I got my first lap steel, mm, a couple years ago (maybe) took it home, and
| Quote: |
| Ah, but the horns, they blowin' that sound |
It was quite a moment, hope yours is as memorable, ask lotsa quesitons.
_________________
- keyless Sonny Jenkins laps stay in tune forever!; Carter PSG
- The secret sauce: polyester sweatpants to buff your picks, cheapo Presonus channel strip for preamp/EQ/compress/limiter, Diet Mountain Dew |
|
|
|
Timothy Kelly Sr
From:
Pennsylvania, USA
|
Posted 24 Apr 2020 8:53 am
|
|
| Bill Sinclair wrote: |
| The string set you've chosen seems more appropriate for open E than C6. I believe the Rogue guitars are a short 21" scale so maybe they'll work. I haven't seen a string gauge chart for that scale but I think that .058 is still going to be too heavy for a C. If it sounds kind of "flubby", that's probably why. Troy's lessons are a great place to start. I believe Georgeboards offers an upgrade kit that, among other things, changes the scale to the more common 22.5". Let us know how it goes! |
I do not know anything about choosing string gage and guitar scale length. I do know that the fretboard will bend the tighter the strings get, so I would not want to break the guitar neck. Does one chose a lesser string widths with a shorter scale length or visa versa? I was under the impression that as you go up on tunings the larger the string thickness should be (C6, Open D, Open E, Open G).
The Electro Hawaiian set of strings that I ordered are .015 - .018 - .026 - .38 - .048 - .058. From what I read on the internet they can be used for C6, Open D, Open E and Open G tunings without breaking. I will probably never use the Open G tuning. But then I did not know about scale lengths.
Once a set is put on the lap steel are you committed to just that tuning? Can you raise the tuning and then go back down to another? This would be to practice and play songs and maybe some blues licks in the other tunings.
Finally, is there an easy way to figure out how to begin finding what notes to pick when one wants to learn a favorite song from the past?
I have sooo much to learn!
Thank you. |
|
|
|
Bill Sinclair
From:
Waynesboro, PA, USA
|
Posted 24 Apr 2020 12:23 pm
|
|
Lap steels have a lot more material than regular guitar necks so there's much less likelihood of warping or breaking a neck but yes, you don't want to overdo the string tension. Here's a link to a couple of string gauge charts. I guess you can extrapolate the approximate gauges for a 21" scale. The John Ely site gives a better explanation of gauge choices than I'm able to.
https://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=264468 |
|
|
|
David DeLoach
From:
Tennessee, USA
|
|
|
|
Jeff Highland
From:
New South Wales, Australia
|
Posted 24 Apr 2020 6:19 pm
|
|
| Timothy Kelly Sr wrote: |
| Bill Sinclair wrote: |
| The string set you've chosen seems more appropriate for open E than C6. I believe the Rogue guitars are a short 21" scale so maybe they'll work. I haven't seen a string gauge chart for that scale but I think that .058 is still going to be too heavy for a C. If it sounds kind of "flubby", that's probably why. Troy's lessons are a great place to start. I believe Georgeboards offers an upgrade kit that, among other things, changes the scale to the more common 22.5". Let us know how it goes! |
I do not know anything about choosing string gage and guitar scale length. I do know that the fretboard will bend the tighter the strings get, so I would not want to break the guitar neck. Does one chose a lesser string widths with a shorter scale length or visa versa? I was under the impression that as you go up on tunings the larger the string thickness should be (C6, Open D, Open E, Open G).
The Electro Hawaiian set of strings that I ordered are .015 - .018 - .026 - .38 - .048 - .058. From what I read on the internet they can be used for C6, Open D, Open E and Open G tunings without breaking. I will probably never use the Open G tuning. But then I did not know about scale lengths.
Once a set is put on the lap steel are you committed to just that tuning? Can you raise the tuning and then go back down to another? This would be to practice and play songs and maybe some blues licks in the other tunings.
Finally, is there an easy way to figure out how to begin finding what notes to pick when one wants to learn a favorite song from the past?
I have sooo much to learn!
Thank you. |
For C6 the low C note on the 6th string is what you would play on the 3rd fret 5th string on a regular guitar That is why the 58 guage 6th string is too heavy for C6.
The set of strings you have ordered will work for the other tunings ok
_________________
Duesenberg Fairytale
1949 Supro Supreme
1950 National New Yorker
2008 Highland Baritone Weissenborn
2020 Highland New Yorker.
2020 Highland Mohan Veena
2021 Highland Weissencone |
|
|
|
