Thomas Bray
From:
Ohio, USA
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Posted 2 Feb 2022 8:45 pm |
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For the last 17+ years, I've been restoring and building electric guitars to give my kids quality instruments while they grew to be great guitarists, but never looked into playing to keep them from feeling I was crowding into their "thing." Well, they're now adults and on their own, and I'm driving my wife crazy still itching to make something. I decided to hit a pawn shop not far from home to see what battered acoustics they had that I could bring back to life.
I struck out there, but one of those Rogue lap steels caught my eye, and I haggled it out the door for $55 (basically unused) with the intention to grab measurements to make my own design.
My wife gives me a great idea... why don't I learn to play it instead? It was inexpensive, and I can spend time learning to play instead of buying more guitar parts.
I decided she's mostly right. I'm going to jump from home luthier to newbie player at 60 years old. But first, I've got to throw time and money at this to make it something I want to listen to. I have some things on hand now, brass angle to make a new bridge and nut. A workbench full of pots, caps, resistors, about 50 pickups of all types, (though not many single coils), uncut fretboard in various wood species. Odds and ends electronics, switches, knobs.
I'm probably just going to buy an acrylic 22.5"scale fretboard. Besides increasing the scale, I want to find a better pickup, I'll replace the guts, throw in a nice cap, maybe one of Bill Lawrence's Q-Tones, move the output jack off of the top, plug the hole, maybe with a kill switch I'll never use, or a toggle to switch from the tone pot to Q-Tone if I go that route. I'm going to make it mine, not give it away or sell it.
I've never had to choose pickups specifically for slide guitar, so I'd love to hear a bunch of ideas for what single coils are out there that I can get some grit for blues-rock, country, even funk, if I'm not too old to learn to play halfway decently. It'll need to sound ok as I go through the journey. I know I won't ever be a Robert Randoplh, but I'd like to get that vibe even if it'll never come from these hands.
Other questions I have are concerning what pot and cap values should I go for? I don't want it so muddy or bright that my dog attacks me.
Any other mods that folks have done, or considered doing on this thing? I'm still going to build me a "purdy" one after I'm comfortable playing this, where I'll go all out, with a stained glass fretboard, and use my years of luthier, woodworking and glassmaking hobby skills to go all out, but this will be my beater that I learn on and treasure for that if nothing else.
I'm not concerned about time or cost, with the exception of the pickup. I'd like to keep it under $100,
Hopefully, I haven't run everyone off with my rambling. As I start playing, I promise my posts with questions will be shorter. Thanks! |
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Mark Mansueto
From:
Michigan, USA
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Posted 3 Feb 2022 6:09 am
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I am also a longtime guitar modder and I've also built a few. FYI, lap steel guitars are fun and easy to work on so you should have no trouble creating something from scratch. The nice thing is that the neck is much simpler than a standard guitar. No need for raised frets, no radius fret board, truss rod, etc.
That said I still like the look of a rosewood fret board over plastic but that's just my personal preference. Most pickups will get you a nice gritty blues/rock sound with the right amp and pedals. I like the Bill Lawrence L500 because it's a humbucker with rails that allows me to set the string spacing to where I like it without worry about aligning to the poles. If you want to hear how gritty it can sound go to my Bandcamp page and listen to "Panademic Blues"
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https://markmansueto.bandcamp.com/
https://open.spotify.com/artist/65dQ3EyZC2RaqawA8gPlRy?si=dOdqc5zxSKeJI9cISVVx_A |
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