Spruce for Lap steel guitar?

[zeegeit]

Hi people

Just wondering, I saw a tutorial for a lap-steel guitar this afternoon ; http://www.buildyourguitar.com/resources/lapsteel/

And since I don't know where from, and don't have the money to, get woods like Alder and maple, I was wondering if spruce is a good material to buy a simple lap steel out of. I found some spruce at the local hardware store, it has some knots in it..is that a bad thing? The size of the wood is 59 millimeters high, 156 mm wide and 1 meter in length..do you think it is a good idea to use this material?

BTW..using teak as veneer strips to cover the control cavity..would that be a good idea? or teak for the whole body?

[litchfield]

where is your location?

Teak would be better than spruce

[charlleyw]

I think Spruce is kinda soft for a lap steel. It's a tonewood used for acoustic tops. I had one of the mid 80s Bluesbirds with a spruce top, and it was so mid-rangy I got frustrated with it and sold it. What do the rewst of you guys think?f

I'm thinking about building a lap steel myself with some walnut I've been hoarding for the last ten years. (My wife wants me to get rid of it.)

Let me know how the spruce works out!

[kenneth_b]

I've seen lap steels that use <gasp> formica for the top. It's cheap, and sounds surprisingly good. I'm building a formica hollowbody. Rick Turner makes a formica top guitar: http://www.renaissanceguitars.com/modelt.html and a lot of people like it.

Best of all, Formica is cheap and comes in myriad cool finishes. Guitar makers/players are too conservative. Don't rule out new/different materials. Especially on your first few guitars. I screwed up one of my Formica bodies...who cares. It only ruined a couple of bucks worth of laminate.