GregP Posted May 4, 2006 Report Share Posted May 4, 2006 I'll try to be brief, but the forum regulars know I'm not usually. Here it is: (Slightly larger duplicate of the exact same pic: Click me for larger version) Click for Alternative view (the string pull IS straight, it's the over-the-nut angle that creates the skewed illusion in this perspective) It started off when I discovered the EZ-Bender, and when I started getting an interest in country music, in which the pedal steel figures prominently. I loves me some pedal steel now. I don't have the space for a pedal steel guitar, and I remembered that Koch had a free tutorial on building a lap steel here: http://www.buildyourguitar.com/resources/lapsteel/ I knew that I could modify it with the EZ-bender and that with any luck, the resulting product would be usable enough to emulate some pedal steel sounds. Since then I've learned about "slants" in conjunction with tunings like the C6 (CEGACE) and I realize that the bender isn't strictly necessary; however, in my little bit of time messing around with it, I feel that the bender will still come in handy, but maybe on a different string and with a modified tuning. A few hopefully quick notes about the construction: - Wood: A convenient size of wood blank wasn't available in basswood when I went shopping. They had mahogany, but I was then reminded that with either basswood OR mahogany, I might not get enough snap. So I went with a 2-piece design, Mahogany and Cherry. It looks like Maple, but it's Cherry. Fretboard is a rosewood pre-slot from LMI. The rosewood for the pickguard and controls were from the headplate that supposedly matches the fingerboard. It's not a perfect match, but the impression of matching is close enough for me! - Staining: Once I decided on 2-piece, I decided to make contrasting colours. After much debate, I used plain old gel stain, which worked well enough UNTIL 2 things: a ) I used steel wool on the danish oil finish, and it took off some of the dyed wood at the same time, lightening it considerably. It didn't penetrate very deeply! Oops! b ) Even before the wool lightened the mahogany part, the Danish oil DARKENED the cherry more than I thought it would. There's now still contrast, but not as much as I originally intended. - Fretboard: I used a Gibson-scale preslotted fretboard blank that I ordered for another project. I hacked off the 1st fret, then measured from "nut" to "fret" 12 to get my half-way point, and doubled it in order to position the bridge. It's something around 23" scale. I then ordered MOP dots from DePaule because I didn't want to mess around with inlaying (I'm not skilled yet) and put them in the right spots. - Frets: I had fretwire that fit the blank, so I decided to use it more as practice to see what it felt like to put frets into a fretboard than anything, but I like the results more than the "veneer/putty" markers I've seen on other steels. One of the guys at the local music shop commented on how classy true frets looked, so I guess I done good. - Plans: Once I had all the materials and parts in place, I drew up some to-scale plans: Some plans and a test headstock I spent a LOT of time with the plans, because I was using a different "headstock" style than Koch, and I also wanted a bit of elegance to the shape. It looks like a "plank", but there are 3 different angles on each side. By the time sanding was done, I realized that one of the angles was so subtle I shouldn't have bothered. Forgetting the headstock for a moment, one "line" goes from the nut to the bridge, then the two sides are perfectly parallel until the stop tailpiece, and then there's a sharper angle toward the end. The plans weren't enough to ensure the headstock would be lined up, so I also used some scrap to test. This led me to discover that I needed to use a router to "shave" off about a sixteenth of an inch from the top of the headstock area, to "drop" the tuners down a bit for proper angle and also to make the Cherry thin enough for the tuners to fit. As it turns out, the plans were accurate for straight string-pull, though! - Controls/Cavities: The controls were a pain to mount. I pre-routed channels into the mahogany before gluing: Click me for preliminary channels But I should've made them wider. This would've given me far more room for the wires as I pushed the switches and controls back into the guitar itself. I ended up having to drill out a spot for the strat-style jack plate because another idea I had fizzled, and at the same time I bored out more space in the other areas. So my tidy work served as a good "beginning", but ultimately I had to go in thug-style to make space. - Bridge: I had to make the bridge myself. I took some roller saddles that Frank Falbo sent me, and after MUCH screwing around with design, ultimately just screwed them directly to an inexpertly shaped aluminum angle. Here's a bit of a close up of the bridge, along with a shot of the controls and pickup cover: click me for shot of bridge You'll notice another weird thing there, which is a "tone bar" made by using CA to attach a Dunlop slide to a shaped piece of limba. I already own a Shubb GS1 "lap steel bar", and this is modeled after that, giving me the glass tone as another option. It looks silly with all those rocks inside, and the extra weight isn't completely necessary, so I might just keep it as plain glass. - Wiring: The pickups also proved to be a pain, as some of you might have seen in a recent thread. Robert the Damned helped me out a bunch, and guided me toward this finished wiring scheme with a 5-way switch: Click for wiring diagram The diagram is a modified version of one that Robert himself drew up for me. I just superimposed new lines over it. It's worth mentioning that Frank Falbo, who found the saddles for me at a swap meet of sorts and sent them to me for just his cost price, generously supplied the pickup as well, along with a few small rotary tool bits that came in handy along the way I might add. I guess that's it, or I'll go overboard. You'll see a few nicks and burn marks there already, which is no worry to me. Character. Greg ------ PS, these threads and others went into the making of this steel. No need to click them, I'm just putting them there for posterity! http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.ph...23344&hl=pickup http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.ph...15667&hl=pickup http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.ph...topic=20299&hl= http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.ph...30&hl=lap+steel http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.ph...97&hl=lap+steel http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.ph...72&hl=lap+steel http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.ph...36&hl=lap+steel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
!!METAL MATT!! Posted May 4, 2006 Report Share Posted May 4, 2006 WICKED MAN!! I did not know that you played Slide good work man !!METAL MATT!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregP Posted May 4, 2006 Author Report Share Posted May 4, 2006 WICKED MAN!! I did not know that you played Slide good work man !!METAL MATT!! I'm not truly a "slide player" any more than most people who muck around. But it seemed like a good project and easier to complete than my 335 project that keeps getting bogged down. I'll post some sound clips of poor playing, soon. Thanks for having a look, and I'm glad you like it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tirapop Posted May 5, 2006 Report Share Posted May 5, 2006 SWEET! Very nice job. How well does that EZ-Bender work? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregP Posted May 5, 2006 Author Report Share Posted May 5, 2006 Once your string gets stretched, it works flawlessly. It's sturdier than I thought it'd be, but not QUITE as sturdy as I'd ideally like with the monster strings I've got on the steel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert_the_damned Posted May 5, 2006 Report Share Posted May 5, 2006 looks great Greg! I so wouldn't have thought about cutting the first fret section off to get a shorter scale length that was genoius! what're the EZ-bender's like? I thought they looked quite intresting and a bit differant. How easy are they to setup and use? sound clips would be great!! Robert Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregP Posted May 8, 2006 Author Report Share Posted May 8, 2006 Due to the overwhelming demand of 2 respondents, here's a sound clip. The obligatory "I don't actually know how to play this thing yet" disclaimer is in effect. It should be known that the clip is cheesy, and also that it uses "bar slants," which are an intermediate technique and partially explain some wonky intonation issues. http://www.wusik.com/song.php?id=1236 I have a few extra pictures, too, but they need to be resized. I'll use them as a lame excuse to bump sometime later tonight or tomorrow. The EZ-Bender didn't make it into this clip. As it turns out, C6 tuning (which I've decided to tackle) doesn't have intervals that lend themselves well to bending. A member of Steel Guitar Forums has made a tuning recommendation to me that I will likely pursue at some point in time, but for now I don't want to muck around too much outside of C6. Keeping a "straight-C6" guitar handy makes me think to myself.... hmm... one should really make ANOTHER one of these! I ended up needing to buy a proper tone bar, so I went to Steve's Music in Ottawa. One of the salesmen is one of Ottawa's more well-known guitar techs/builders, and he was understandably "medium" impressed-- as someone familiar with the work involved, he knew that it wasn't a feat of absolute genius. Another salesman spent a LOT of time playing it, though. He's a pedal steel player, and knew his way around a neck. He never plays in C6, and had never tried a palm bender before, but he put the bender AND the tuning itself to good use, running off some very impressive licks. I could tell he was well-impressed by the instrument and he seemed to be having a lot of fun playing it, which was the important bit. He kept trying to put it down, but then he'd grab the bar and play another few licks. <chuckle> Point of THAT story: even in C6, the bender was sounding GREAT, but I just don't know how to put it to good use myself yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert_the_damned Posted May 8, 2006 Report Share Posted May 8, 2006 I like that clip Greg though I see what you mean about the wonky intonation! sounds like you're going to be making another one soon! I get the same thing with regular guitar tunings! have to have at least 3 or 4 gutiars to play in all the tunings I like! maybe you could use the bender for vibrato like effects rather than for full pitch bending? though I'm not so sure if you can do that in lap steel or not Robert Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
!!METAL MATT!! Posted May 9, 2006 Report Share Posted May 9, 2006 Sounds Wicked man !!METAL MATT!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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