Intonation And Lap Steels

[j. pierce]

I'm thinking of building a square neck lap steel type instrument with some materials I have kicking around from past projects.

It occured to me, since it's to be played with a bar and not fretted, you would simply make the scale length "perfect" across the entire string spread, am I correct? That is, if you have a 24" scale (or whatever) then my bridges would just be set to 24" from nut to saddle with no real need for much adjustment since there's no compensation to figure in?

Pictures I've seen of these things, they all seem to have frets. (I've never touched one, which is something I plan on doing before I undertake building one!) Is there really a need for this, other than looks?

[Setch]

I'm thinking of building a square neck lap steel type instrument with some materials I have kicking around from past projects.

It occured to me, since it's to be played with a bar and not fretted, you would simply make the scale length "perfect" across the entire string spread, am I correct?  That is, if you have a 24" scale (or whatever) then my bridges would just be set to 24" from nut to saddle with no real need for much adjustment since there's no compensation to figure in?

Pictures I've seen of these things, they all seem to have frets.  (I've never touched one, which is something I plan on doing before I undertake building one!) Is there really a need for this, other than looks?

←

No frets, usually just veneer or painted fretlines. No need for compensation - ie: a straight saddle at the end of the scale length.

[Mike Sulzer]

http://www.buildyourguitar.com/resources/lapsteel/

That's right, but some people compensate any way.

[JPL]

I was talking to a friend who was chuckling because a customer brought in his fretless bass to be intonated. But the conclusion we came to was that intonation would still be important so that the notes would line up on the board eliminating the need to compensate with your fingers.

It makes sense to me but what do I know? Can some of the bass players answer this one?

[GregP]

You do not need to compensate, which counteracts the effect of pulling the string sharp by pressing down on it when fretting a note. It should be mathematically perfect without compensating.

The guy from BuildYourOwnGuitar mentions this, but uses an LP JR bridge anyhow, seemingly because it was what he had on-hand or what fit his budget. But you shouldn't compensate under normal circumstances.

Greg