Official Luthiers Forum!

I'm starting to put together some thoughts about building a six string lap steel and I am wondering if anyone can offer advice on the placement of the pickup vis a vis the scale length of the instrument. It seems like there should be 'sweet spots' that affect the placement. I'm considering a Lollar http://www.lollarguitars.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=LGP&Product_Code=224&Category_Code=PP pickup on a solid wood (probably mahogany) lap steel with a 25" scale. I'd appreciate any advice from the electric builders out here!

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Jim Howell
Charlotte, NC

25" scale seems long to me, the Rickenbachers I had were about 22".

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Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/

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Scale length depends on the tuning you want to go for.
Most of the old short scale lappies where intended to be played in C6 tuning
I have mine in various tunings including Open D and the bottom string tends to get a bit floppy even with large strings.
If I were building from scratch and intended to use open E or D I would go with a 25" scale.
Most have the pickup near the bridge, not critical how far.

Thanks guys! What I have in mind is aimed at open D, G and E tuning, so it looks like I might be on the right track. Close enough to start drawing anyway. I'm not an electric guy, so this will be a learning experience on serveral levels.

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Jim Howell
Charlotte, NC

]Here are a couple of pics of one I built for myself a while back. The building process was very straightforward, and the obnoxious paint scheme seemed to fit!




It's a 25" scale with a Danelectro lipstick tube in the neck position and a Kent Armstrong humbucker at the bridge. I usually leave this in open G tuning (for the Pink Floyd stuff!). The pickguard is 1mm swirled aluminum plate, and the bridge is a Rickenbacker replacement from Allparts. Sperzel locking tuners.

By the way, the basis of this design was something I picked up from http://www.lapking.com/belaire.htm. I reworked the design to fit some scrap lumber I had laying around, and mine certainly doesn't have the very cool embellishments and zz Jason Dumont puts into his lap steels.

Jim,
I got a lot of info off of the "Steel Guitar Forum" under the "Steel Without Pedals" section. There's a lot of guys that have built their own on that site w/plenty of photos.
Dave

Russ--

Compared to my old mother of toiletseat Supro, your lap steel is subdued!

Wyodave--

Thanks for the link! That is a pretty interesting forum and I wasn't even aware of its existence.

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Jim Howell
Charlotte, NC

G'day Jim,

Over the past few years I have built six lap steel guitars. All with different wood combo's and pickup placements. The 25" scale length is possibly the most versitile. If you want the traditional lap steel sound the 22/12" scale length is better. I have heaps of pics if you would like some idea's.

Cheers

Alan

Cool stuff....

Mt friend, Joel Eckhaus, splits the difference between modern and trad scale lengths on his Eckenbacher.

[url]http://www.earnestinstruments.com/eckenbacher.html[img]

[/img]http://www.earnestinstruments.com/jpgs/eckenbacher_ft.jpg[/url]

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Geoff Davis
Explore! Discover! Create!
Blue Stone Folk School
Noblesville, IN
http://www.bluestonefolkschool.org

Corrected links...



http://www.earnestinstruments.com/eckenbacher.html

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Geoff Davis
Explore! Discover! Create!
Blue Stone Folk School
Noblesville, IN
http://www.bluestonefolkschool.org