Lap Steel Measurements - Questions - 8 string

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Author	Topic: Lap Steel Measurements - Questions - 8 string
Gary Shepherd Member From: Fox, Oklahoma, USA	posted 29 December 2004 11:43 PM profile send email edit I'm working in my CAD program on an 8-string (and soon 10-string) lap steel that I want to build. It looks a lot like a GeorgeBoard that I saw on ebay recently. Anyway, I'm getting close to milling the routing template. My guitar has a 25" scale length. The key head is like that of a normal pedal steel. And the entire body, neck, key head, etc will be routed from one board. Probably a 12-quarter that's at least 6" wide. What I'm concerned about is the total length of my instrument. It's 3' long. Is that too long? What are the measurements of some of your 8-string lap steels? How long and wide is the body? What's the neck width at the nut, the 12th fret, and at the widest point. Where does your guitar's neck flare out to include enough width for the pickup. And how many pickups do you have? I'm considering putting 2 on my guitar for tonal variance. And a switch set to the center would allow the pickups to hum-buck each other. I'll be winding my own pickups so I may just make it a humbucker to begin with. Now how far from the bridge is your pickup? Whats the best place to put the controls (volume, tone, switch)? I'm considering the top of the guitar on the trebel side - away from the player. I'm also considering putting the controls behind the bridge - which will be a string through the body type. Where should I put the output jack? Should I use a Tele or Strat type jack? Does brass make for a good bridge and nut? Should my nut and/or bridge have rollers? What kind of metal on the rollers? What's the best string spacing for an 8-string? I'm thinking of usin 0.3" all the way up the neck - parallel strings. My neck and keyhead will be raised 1" off the main body. How high do I need to raise the strings off the fretboard? Is 1" too much or just enough? What's the best material to use for my routing template? Right now, I plan to have a buddy mill the template from aluminum. Even with all the questions I have, I'm feeling pretty good about what I have so far. ------------------ Gary Shepherd Sierra Session D-10 www.16tracks.com
Dave Boothroyd Member From: The Malvern Hills	posted 31 December 2004 01:36 AM profile send email edit Here are the dimensions of my National Console 8 Scale length 23" Overall length 32.5" Width at the widest point 6" String height above "fretboard" 0.5" Bridge to pickup magnets 1.5" The National is an asymmetrical guitar, with an extension on the far side for the Jack socket and controls. I'm thinking of doing a similar project to yours (maybe a 10 string because I've got a pickup for one of those), and my plan was to fit the jack socket on the back edge of the body, so that with a right angle jack, the wire will go straight down the rear leg and can be clipped to it. The volume control will be raised slightly, and close enough to the bridge cover to reach with my little finger. That way I can play without a volume pedal if I need to. I can't see why you would need rollers unless you are having a whammy bar- string tension is constant. I have used brass for bridges a lot, but you might need to consider the weight if you are using brass on an acoustic instrument. On an electric, more weight at the bridge means more sustain. ------------------ Cheers! Dave [This message was edited by Dave Boothroyd on 31 December 2004 at 01:40 AM.] [This message was edited by Dave Boothroyd on 31 December 2004 at 01:41 AM.] [This message was edited by Dave Boothroyd on 31 December 2004 at 01:42 AM.]
Danny James Member From: Columbus, Indiana, USA	posted 31 December 2004 08:18 AM profile send email edit This is an interesting thread. I too am building an 8 string lap steel. I also am building a changer to accomodate 3 adjustable tunings. Just a thought for what it is worth. I would consider installing nut rollers. How many times when tuning a guitar and you tweak it a little bit more, and ping the string goes high? This is caused by the string hanging up on the nut and then letting go and going high. Then you back off and start over on that string. I find this happens more often on the wound strings. Best of luck on your building project. Keep us posted on how it is going. Danny
Dwayne Martineau Member From: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada	posted 05 January 2005 10:48 AM profile send email edit One thing I would suggest is looking hard into tone knob placement, and style. If you get into lots of tone-knob work (for that p-wah that Speedy, Byrd, Jody Carver, and Leon McAuliffe were so good at), that'll be ultra important. I wish I could just move my tone knobs around until they were in just the right place, and the right size for my hand. I'd LOVE to have a big Bigsby-style tone knob, mounted on the right end plate of the guitar... As far what kind of pot and capacitor to start with, there's a little info on that here: http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum2/HTML/005931.html

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