Gettin my first lap guitar

[PickPeg]

hi folks, I am smitten by the sounds of a lap guitar. I am a total novice to guitar, took piano lessons more than 50 years ago.... so, I love the sound of the lap king rodeo, but that price..... so, folks I would love your opinions on a similar sounding lap guitar. All suggestions welcome.
Got to see Cindy Cashdollar last night!! Wowzer!
Thanks to all who post

[Silly Moustache]

Hi, what kind of "lap" guitar?

Weissenborn style, or Resonator style?

More details ! (and pics!)

[Rudy4]

Originally Posted by PickPeg

hi folks, I am smitten by the sounds of a lap guitar. I am a total novice to guitar, took piano lessons more than 50 years ago.... so, I love the sound of the lap king rodeo, but that price..... so, folks I would love your opinions on a similar sounding lap guitar. All suggestions welcome.
Got to see Cindy Cashdollar last night!! Wowzer!
Thanks to all who post

Congratulations!

I used to build custom laps and I posted some basic lap steel info and building plans if you happen to be interested in making your own.

http://web.archive.org/web/201604062...com/page5.html

[lfoo6952]

Hi PickPeg

I love the sound of the lap Steel Guitar but would recommend you take lessons. Also look up the Steel Guitar forum. Its a great resource. Cindy Cashdollar has 2 DVDs teaching lap steel on Home Spun Tapes.

You need to decide what tuning you prefer and how many strings, 6 or 8?

I have a Recording King RG-35 I could sell you. Please PM me if interested.

Best,

Luke

[Mycroft]

Afternoon Pickpeg. Welcome to the Monkeyhouse.

There are basically three flavors of Lap Steel. Resonators, which then can be divided by type of cone (Biscuit, spider and tricone) and also by body material (metal [brass or steel] and wood [various]). Wood bodied squarenecks, also called Dobros (there is also a "dobro" company) with a spider are often found in country and bluegrass. Cashdollar plays a lot of dobro. Various configurations are also used in blues, old time and pop/rock.

Second flavor is electric lap steel, which is what the Lap King that you mentioned is. Comes with either humbucker or single-coil pickups, which give a different tone. You might have a look at a Recording King lap steel as a way to get your feet wet for not too much cash. They seem to be available for around $200 US, although probably not near as good. If you ever listened to much Pink Floyd, you might be surprised how much of the guitar work is David Gilmour on an Electric lap steel.

Third flavor is a wood-bodied acoustic. That can be subdivided into a standard body acoustic, with or without a square neck, set up with high strings. Any 6 string can have a nut riser placed over the nut to give enough room for lap steel playing. I have an old Kay from the 30s with a square neck; great bluesy instrument. The other is a hollownck, usually called a Weissenborn for one of the original builders in the 20s. First designed for playing Hawaiian music, it is used in many styles. I love Weissenborns.

Tunings: there are a plethora. Dobro country/bluegrass players usually use the highG variant of Open G: GBDGBD, or C6th. Other styles used Low-G DGDGBD, or Open D DADF#AD (my fave...). Beware of high G on an instrument not braced for it, like a Weissenborn, due to tuning up the 5th and 6th strings up a step.

Picks? You got me there. probably can get started with the banjo picks.

Steels. Everyone has an opinion on those. Two basic flavors: a Stevens and a bullet (named for the shape.) You could pick up a Dunlop or a Shubb and have a go to decide what you like. I started with a Dunlop Lap Dawg, which I still have and use, but eventually upgraded to a fancy-pants custom Stevens-style Charlie because I like the rails to stick out more so that it hangs from my fingers without having to squeeze it, which hurts my 62-year old hand. But you really have to try for yourself.

Here are a couple of interesting youtube clips with Cindy Cashdollar..







And then there are these...



Eventually you will want them all...