epiphone pee wee lap steel project

Mike McBride · From: Indiana

I am just starting the process of transforming a second hand Epi Les Paul Pee Wee into a lap steel. This will require no cutting, drilling or welding. I expect to do it for less than $100. When I get tired of it, I plan to turn it back into a standard guitar for my young sons to play with.

D Schubert · From: Columbia, MO, USA

I'd think that you could install a $5 metal extension nut, raise the bridge to the max height, adjust the pickup heights, put on a set of 0.016 to 0.056" strings, and you'd be done. That works on full-size electrics.

Paul Arntson · From: Washington, USA

Absolutely! I use one of those Toys R Us guitars with the amplifier built in. The neck comes off with 4 screws and the thing fits in my overnight bag when I have to go on a business trip.
Paid $25 used and added a nut riser. Plus you can practice with headphones.
The thing to watch is that they need a stratocaster type bridge so you can adjust it flat. The les paul type bridge often has no curvature adjustment.
When trying to use it as a regular guitar I found the nut was a tiny bit too close to the first fret, causing intonation problems.

David Mason · From: Cambridge, MD, USA

I've gotten fond of using a Shubb dobro capo for this sort of thing: http://www.shubb.com/dobro/index.html
It takes no modification at all, and you can switch it around between guitars with no damage. It flattens all the strings out automatically, though you have to put it on at least the second fret or higher or the strings will jump out of the nut.

Chris Walke · From: St Charles, IL

Y'know, every time I see those mini guitars I think, "there's a lap steel in there just screaming to get out." With a extension nut, it's a very inexpensive way to start. Then again, there's also Artisan for a super cheap starter, which will offer a better string spacing, and well, it already IS a lap steel.

Charles Dempsey · From: Shongaloo, LA

I bought the kids each an Epiphone PeeWee for Christmas four years ago. They were 7 and 9 at the time, and it didn't take.

They are cool little guitars. I intonated, fret leveled and filed one of them and it played very well. The PeeWees are usually tuned up 5 half steps so I used it as an alto guitar (my name for it). You can get some interesting inversions. No difference from capoing up to the 5th fret, but what the heck.

My daughter (now 13) turned into a singer, she'd like to play but lacks the gumption to practice. Son is 11, and has turned into quite a good piano player. Oh well....

Charlie

Mike McBride · From: Indiana

Thanks for all the feedback guys! This guitar is hard to tune. I suspect that the metal nut is moving sideways a little as each string is tuned to the correct pitch. As a result, the previously tuned string goes out of tune. Any suggestions for securing the metal nut?

Mike

Paul Arntson · From: Washington, USA

The tiniest drop of superglue ought to do it. It will snap off when it's time to take it apart. Just enough (like a microscopic amount on the end of a toothpick) to increase the friction.
I found on mine I had to stretch the strings really carefully, too. They seemed to take a long time to seat in the tuners.

Mike McBride · From: Indiana

Wow! I finally got the nut glued like you suggested, corrected the intonation and tried the Don Helms book out on my Epi project. IT sounded so good that I got goosebumps. I had never tried that Don Helms book before & am just a beginner on lap steel but am extremely happy with the results. I am playing thru a 20 yr old Peavey Backstage and have adjusted the gain knobs a little to "dirty up" the tone.

I have $ 90.00 in the whole guitar and gig bag. Plus it is a lot better looking than the Morrell I used to have.

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