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Author
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Topic: Spring spacing at the nut - wide or narrow?
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Roman Sonnleitner
Member From: Vienna, Austria
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posted 06 December 2005 04:24 PM
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You may remeber my post a few days ago - I'm a newbie, just starting out with the lap steel, and I want to build my own guitar.Now, I finally have everything I need together, have been making some drawings of what I want to make, but I have one more question: Looking at pics of lap steels on the web, I saw that some of them have a narrower string spacing at the nut, and wider at the bridge (just like a 'regular' guitar), and others have parallel strings (the spacing at the nut and bridge is identical).
What would be pros and cons of either type? Would slanting the bar be more/less difficult with one or the other?
Going from the pole-pieces on my P90-pickup, I'd get a distance of 5cm/2" from highest to lowest string, and a 22.5 scale length. BTW, I have been noodling around with an old Strat with one of those raiser nuts, working with the Mel-Bay 'Basic C6th Non-Pedal Lap Steel Method' book and CD, and I can already play Red River Valley more or less flawlesssly (though my girl-friend complains that it sounds like a cat in heat...  ) Roman[This message was edited by Roman Sonnleitner on 06 December 2005 at 06:39 PM.] |
Rick Alexander
Member From: Florida, USA
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posted 06 December 2005 04:47 PM
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Hi Roman, welcome to the forum!
Building your own steel is an admirable ambition.
It's true, a lot of steels have a taper. It's usually 3/8" or 7/16" at the bridge tapering to 5/16" at the nut. I'm used to it, because Fender Stringmasters & Customs and Remington Steelmasters have the 3/8" to 5/16" taper and Supro Supremes and their clones have the 7/16" to 5/16" taper. It seems fine to me, and has worked for generations of Steel Players who have preferred these guitars.Jerry Byrd has said that 3/8" string spacing nut to bridge and 22 1/2" scale is the correct ratio for accurate slants. That's what Ricky Bakelites are, and they seem fine also.
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Gary Boyett
Member From: Colorado
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posted 06 December 2005 05:35 PM
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The GeorgeBoards are also 3/8" at the nut and very nice. It does seem easier to hit slants over the Fenders. It took a little to get used to but now I like it a lot. Has anyone ever re-done the nut on a Fender?
Mr Ron Vitoria, can you do it? ------------------
JCFSGC,RMSGC,HSGA member
Do it with "Glass"
Boyett's Glass Bars
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Stephan Miller
Member From: Silver Spring, Maryland, USA
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posted 06 December 2005 06:26 PM
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Roman-- http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum2/HTML/007724.html |
Fernando Fernandez
Member From: Cadiz,Spain
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posted 09 December 2005 01:14 PM
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In my experience I've found that 3/8" at the nut and bridge and 22 1/2 scale works very well . regards[This message was edited by Fernando Fernandez on 09 December 2005 at 01:18 PM.] |
Roman Sonnleitner
Member From: Vienna, Austria
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posted 09 December 2005 03:20 PM
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Thanks for the helpful info, guys! I've decided to go with 3/8" both at the bridge and the nut, indeed (OK, actually, 10mm, which is about a hair's breadth more (3/8" would be 9.525mm) - metrical measurements are just more natural for a European like me )
BTW, just about an hour ago I completed cutting the contours for the headstock - I'm using mostly hand-tools, which takes much longer, so I'm taking it one step at a time...Roman |
Stephan Miller
Member From: Silver Spring, Maryland, USA
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posted 09 December 2005 04:34 PM
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Roman-- this is a 6-string, right? Have you decided on the wood(s)? |
Roman Sonnleitner
Member From: Vienna, Austria
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posted 09 December 2005 05:59 PM
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Stephan,
yep, a 6-string - I'm coming from the 'regular' guitar, don't even play lap steel yet (though I have started learning with that C6th Method book from Mel-Bay a few days ago), and thought I'd rather try learning on 6 before maybe going to 8 strings in a distant future.The wood is African mahogany (a bass neck blank - 830x110x35 mm -I bought on Ebay a while ago); the bridge is going to be made from rosewood; maple finger-board (mainly chosen for light-on-dark contrast to the mahogany; I'm going to make fine cuts filled with dark wood putty for fret markers). I'm using bone for both bridge and nut; Kluson tuners w/ tulip-shaped pegs; Seymour Duncan P90 pickup; strings will be be going through the body at the bridge end, and then pass over the rosewood/bone bridge; the body is going to be shaped a bit like on an Epiphone Electar Century (but slimmer on the player-side, slightly asymmetrical); oil/wax finish. I will post a picture once the thing is finished - but that will take a while - I'm quite busy with work and only have about 1 or 2 hours every other day to work on the lap steel... Roman[This message was edited by Roman Sonnleitner on 09 December 2005 at 06:02 PM.] |
Stephan Miller
Member From: Silver Spring, Maryland, USA
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posted 09 December 2005 08:42 PM
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Sounds like it's going to be a beauty--African mahogany is a great looking/sounding wood... Have you figured out what kind of bar you'll use, or tried a few?
Just curious-- why "slimmer on the player's side"?
--Steve |
Roman Sonnleitner
Member From: Vienna, Austria
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posted 10 December 2005 01:27 AM
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Hmm, difficult to describe without a picture (and with not being a native speaker of English...): I have this other piece of similar wood that I am going to use for the body 'wings' - actually, I'm only adding those for looks and for placing the volume and tone controls, the guitar could also be made as a mere plank. This other piece is too short for two identical wide wings (which are not needed, anyway, as I said), so I'm cutting it in half, with an upper wing wide enough for the electronics cavity, and the lower one (the one on the player's side - which is only there for looks) made from the smaller piece left over. This will make more sense once the lap steel is finished and I have a picture... About the bar: I have only been playing for a few days (with 'Red River Valley' and 'Little Brown Jug' being the top-hits in my set  ), so it is a bit early for making preferences in that field - at the moment I'm using a Shubb-Pearse SP-2 that I ordered along with some other stuff I needed to get started. Roman[This message was edited by Roman Sonnleitner on 10 December 2005 at 01:07 PM.] |
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