How many lap steels do you play on a regular basis?

Michael Papenburg · From: Oakland, CA

By it's very nature, lap steels are easy to collect. For many years I only owned 1 lap steel (a Magnatone) but I bought a Supro in August of last year and just bought a National Dynamic which will arrive today.

I mostly play my Supro and only occasionally play my Magnatone. I'm hoping to play my National on a regular basis as well. Do most of you tend to play 1 or 2 lap steels or do you switch around all the time? While I'm sure that there are others like me who only have a couple, I've noticed that a number of you have fairly large collections. Do you play all of them on a regular basis or do you tend to play 1 or 2? If you gravitate towards a few favorites, which do you play most often?

Eddie Cunningham · From: Massachusetts, USA

Hi Michael , I have owned several lap steels over the years ; Electromuse , Gibson E H 150 , three Rickenbachers & two Dobros all that I stupidly sold !! I still have a Sho-Bud J B fry pan and an old National Duolian resonator that I will keep forever and play occasionally. You can never have too much of a good thing ! Some lucky and smarter guys have kept all their toys and are happier for it !! Eddie "C" ( the old geezer ) P S . I forgot I also had a 1947 National D-8 console, three different Fender D-8 s and a T-8 Magnatone , all sold and gone !!

Brad Bechtel · From: San Francisco, CA

I have a decent collection, but the ones I'm currently playing the most are a Gibson EH-150 and a Fender Champion. That may be because they're both strung up with C6th tuning, and I'm trying to get better on that tuning.
Acoustically, I split my time between my Wechter Scheerhorn resonator and my National tricone.
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Brad’s Page of Steel
A web site devoted to acoustic & electric lap steel guitars

Randy Reeves · From: LaCrosse, Wisconsin, USA

I have four laps. my regular is a 1940 Epiphone Zephyr. the pickup was rebuilt by Lindy Fralin.
I love this lap, so it is my go to all the time.
the other laps have different tunings...C6, A something.. I am tuned open G and having a blast with that.

I hop around musica style wise so I am on my strat, tele, and Martin acoustic every week.
but I jam and gig with my lap steel 99%.

Edward Meisse · From: Santa Rosa, California, USA

I mostly play and own one guitar at a time. I have now gone to two. This is because there are places that I do not want to take my good guitar. I have a Remington S8 and a Morrell S8. My Superior Weissenborn style guitar is on ebay. I'm saving up for a resonator. I was thinking National Tricone. But it seems now that I need 8 strings. So maybe the Auldridge model. Either one costs more than my car. Also, I'm beginning to experiment with a second tuning. That may call for an additional guitar. Like Mr. C above, if I still had all the guitars I've ever owned, I'd have a million dollar collection. Crying or Very sad

Roman Sonnleitner · From: Vienna, Austria

I currently own two lap steels, my homemade 6-string with a P90, and a 1952 Supro Supreme, recently sold a Melobar Rattler (didn't like the sound); while I love the way my Supro looks, and also like it's great sound (that's why I used it to record a few tracks for some friends' CD a while ago), I almost exclusively play my homemade one - mainly due to ergonomics (string spacing, placement of vol. & tone pots, etc.); maybe it's because I learned lap steel playing on this one, but I just feel "at home" on it, whereas the Supro always needs some adjusting to it on my part.
Oh, and soundwise, I'd say, my homemade one is just as good, but different (let's say, the Supro screams - it's wild, raw and raunchy; my homemade one sings - it's sweeter, even with overdrive on, and it's got a great angelic chime)

Andy Sandoval · From: Bakersfield, California, USA

I own a 54' Fender Champion, late 40's Oahu Tonemaster, early 50's National Chicagoan, a 41 Ricky B7 and a 37' Silver Hawaiian, plus several other non pedal guitars. I don't want them to just sit and collect dust so to speak so I usually rotate them bout every couple weeks. The slight differences in string spacing and the way each one has it's own special tonal characteristics really keeps me interested in practicing.

Rick Alexander · From: Florida, USA, R.I.P.

I have a few lap steels, and I play whichever one seems like a good idea at the time. These days I'm playing the 35 Ricky B6 (A6 tuning), the National New Yorker (E7 tuning) and the National Dynamic (E tuning). I've also been playing my newly acquired Goldtone Reso (G tuning) quite a bit.
That's besides playing the Steelmaster T-8 and Stringmaster Quad and Georgeboard D-8. I guess it just depends on the song, or the mood.
They all have a good set of strings and they're all ready to play. A long time ago a real smart fella told me that the best guitar in the world is the one you're holding in your hands.

RA
BIG STEEL

Bill Creller · From: Saginaw, Michigan, USA (deceased)

I have six that are 7 string that I play all the time, from one to the other, sometimes two or three the same day. One six string, a New Yorker, which I'm beginning to play more often. An Excel D8 which I hate except it sounds OK with C#m on the inside neck. A Fender dual Pro which is being fixed up.

Scott Thomas · Posted 3 Apr 2007 5:30 pm

Hey, Bill
Would you mind giving a few more details on those 7 stringers you have?

I can't imagine six of them?

Bill Creller · From: Saginaw, Michigan, USA (deceased)

Well... there is a 30s frypan, a '47 or ',48 bakelite, a Vega,A Corian frypan I built, a white ash frypan type, a walnut frypan type, and a Gibson 7 string EH150.
I like the Vega quite well. It was a six and I converted it to a seven. It has a humbucker type pickup.
The white ash guitar has a detectable Fender sound, maybe because of the wood??
They have string spacing like a bakelite 7 string.

Hey that's 7 not 6!! Forgot about the Gibson. It's different.

Don Kona Woods · From: Hawaiian Kama'aina

I have the following steel guitars which I like for different and varied reasons. I enjoy the fact that each instrument has a different sound. But if I were forced to have to part with all of them, I would start at the bottom and work to the top. My most favorite steel guitars are the 1935 Rickenbacker and the 1950 Magnatone Lyric.

1934 RICKENBACKER A-25 FRYPAN - 6 STRING

1950 MAGNATONE – D-8 LYRIC

JERRY BYRD EXCEL FRYPAN – S-8

EXCEL D-8 – ROSEWOOD

1960’S FENDER STRINGMASTER – D-8 – BLACK

1980 CUSTOM MADE KOA WOOD LAP STEEL S-8 with RICKENBACKER PICKUPS

SIERRA S-8 LAP STEEL –

ACOUSTIC OAHU LAP STEEL - has excellent deep tone.

All of these steels are in excellent condition.

Aloha, Smile

Don

Todd Weger · From: Safety Harbor, FLAUSA

I look at different guitars as tools to be used for their intended purpose, or more accurately, for the sound I need for a particular genre. If I'm playing western-swing, I use one of my Stringmasters. I could use one of the frypans, and it would work, but the tone wouldn't sound right to me. For 30's era hapa-haole Hawaiian, the aluminum have THAT sound that I'm looking for. My '39 Epiphone has a very woody and sweet, bright tone that can be nice for some things, although it's not usually the tone I go for. It has no tone knob on the guitar, so I can't play it through an amp without a tone dial on it; but, when I do play it, it sounds nice with the tone dialed back on the amp.

I always seem to love whichever one I'm playing at the time, though.
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Todd James Weger --
1956 Fender Stringmaster T-8 (C6, E13, A6); 1960 Fender Stringmaster D-8 (C6, B11/A6); Custom-made 25" aluminum cast "fry pan" with vintage Ricky p'up (C6); 1938 Epiphone Electar (A6); 1953 Oahu Tonemaster; assorted ukuleles; upright bass

David Cook · From: Florida, USA

Hi, I have a Sierra 8 with a Jerry Wallace True Tone, an 8 string Tradewinds,a Melobar 6 string,and a Dickerson 6 string. I keep different tunings on them---C6 with G on top,G6 with D on top,A6,and E6 respectively. I end up playing dobro mostly at jam sessions so I try to play the G6 or A6 tuning the most. Damn all those different tunings! No, really it's all fun!!

Dan Sawyer · From: Studio City, California, USA

The two i've been playing most are the White/Fender for standing up and the Ricky B6 for sitting down. but the one i really want to play is the Dual Professional, but it needs new strings and i'm lazy.

Gary Lynch · From: Creston, California, USA

Like many of the members, having a number of lap steels is a great idea for one simple reason; each steel can be in a different tuning making it a lot easier to pick them up and practice than restringing and retuning when you get an urge to change tunings. Rickenbacher/Rickenbacker is my game. They are classic and dignified. The main goal is to enjoy yourself through musical expression.

Jim Ives · From: Los Angeles, California, USA

One at at time.
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Mullen D-10
Fender Stringmaster Deluxe 8 lap steel.

Rick Alexander · From: Florida, USA, R.I.P.

I neglected to mention those National string-through pickup guitars - The Supro Supreme or Supro Clipper and all its clones - Oahu, McKinney, Bronson etc. Back in the day they were student models. Some of them are better than others of course, and those better ones are amazing. Plugged into a small tube amp they will sustain all night, and as Denny Turner once said: "scream like a shackled banshee"

Dan Tyack · From: Olympia, WA USA

I own the following lap steels:

60s Fender Deluxe 8
Asher 'Ben Harper' model lap
English Electronics 6 string (Valco/Supro/National)

I have three of the English Electronics, one of which I added a Gibson humbucker to in the neck position. I play the modified English Electronics steel about 99.9% of the time.

The addition of the humbucker to the EE steel made the best sounding lap steel I've ever played even more versatile: I can now *nail* that Derek Trucks SG through the neck pickup sound.
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www.tyack.com
Capetown girls sing this wrong: "da doo, da doo"

Fred Kinbom · From: Berlin, Germany, via Stockholm, Sweden.

The amount of lap guitars one can aquire in a short period of time is quite worrying. Wink

I only have one electric lap steel (1947 National New Yorker) but four acoustics - three cheap vintage Oahus and one Lazy River Weissenborn. I must say that since I got the Lazy River (with its reliable tuners - this guitar can be brought to a gig to be used in several tunings, whereas I wouldn't want to any radical cranking of the ancient tuners of my Oahus in front of an audience Wink

), only my favourite (first, $81, warped, bellied and lovely!) Oahu has gotten the playing time it deserves. Therefore, I will give away the second Oahu to my brother-in-law for his birthday and am considering converting the third (1926-1931 Stromberg-Voisinet ladder braced parlor with a reset neck and new frets) back to "Spanish" playing, like it was when I bought it.

I know for a fact that I will want to get more lap steels in the future (a baritone acoustic being first on the list), but for now, being at the beginning of the exploration of this great instrument, I have more than enough guitars to keep me busy.

Smile

Fred
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www.fredrikkinbom.com - New lap steel album out now - listen here: fredrikkinbom.bandcamp.com/album/songs-for-lap-steel-and-harmonium

Dan Tyack · From: Olympia, WA USA

In terms of acoustics, I have National tricone, a Mermer baritone Weissenborn, and a new Beard 'Mike Auldridge' model (which is a demo guitar that had spent some time on the road with Jerry Douglas). These have drastically different sounds, and I use them all, but most of my playing is on the dobro (this is a killer instrument). I really, really miss my 'Howlett' weissenborn, which was stolen last year. This was an instrument made on Fred's island (in Wales). It's probably sitting in a land fill some where near Seattle .
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www.tyack.com
Capetown girls sing this wrong: "da doo, da doo"

Steinar Gregertsen · From: Arendal, Norway, R.I.P.

John Bushouse · Posted 13 Apr 2007 5:19 pm

Alan Brookes · From: Brummy living in Southern California

Including all the ones I've built over the last 45 years, I've lost count. But most of them are hung on the wall nowadays. I have a Sho-Bud D10 Crossover permanently set up and I play most of my lap steel stuff on the C6 neck. I do have a couple of rebuilt Artisans bolted together and thrown in the trunk of my car in case I need one at short notice. They're tuned E major and A6.

Jamie O'Connell · From: Medford, Massachusetts, USA

This is an old thread, but it turned up in a search, so I thought I'd add my 2 cents... Smile

I am learning different tunings, so I keep many of these in different tunings. I also keep some steels in different rooms of my apartment so one or two is always nearby. I also have one at work so I can play while I am waiting for a build of SONAR to finish Wink

. I am pretty much out of room to acquire any more.

Although I have played bass professionally for 40+ years, I have only been playing steel for a year and a half, but I am completely obsessed with it.

1950's Gibson Console Grande 3 legs - D8
1950's Gibson Console Grande 4 legs - D8
1954 Fender Dual Professional - D8
1956 Fender Stringmaster - T8
1959 Fender Custom 6
1970s Fender Champ 6
1939 Richenbacher Model B Bakelite
1940's (Post-war?) Model B Bakelite - Black plates - Old Logo
1947 National New Yorker
1955 Blonde MOTS Oahu 6 (National/Valco)
1947 Brown MOTS National/Valco (No name, but likely Supro) -- this one's at work.
2006 Gretsch Electromatic
2006 Fender FS-50?
2007 Gold Tone Weissenborn LM

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