Most of us know thatLeo Fender was not a guitar player. After his job as an accountant did not work out, he borrowed some money and started his own business as a TV and radio repair man. Shortly after this and before building his first six string standard solid body Spanish guitar, Leo was supplementing his income by building slide steel guitars and amplifiers. His original designs were fairly simple, but professional and I am certain he was aided in this endeavor by his friendFreddie Travares, who was a rather good steel player.
It has recently been pointed out to me that a lot of people carrying on Leo’s tradition by building their own lap steel guitars. Some of them rival professionally made instruments and some are very primitive. But they are functional and seem to bring a lot of joy to the builders and players.
Recently a friend sent me some pictures of a simple homemade slide steel guitar he had made by using some scrap wood, an old guitar neck, a pickup, some wooden shims, a rubber band and what appears to possibly be a religious tract. The design is much simpler than Leo's first shot at building a steel guitar, but it is functional.
String Slide Guitar
My friend said he was tired of lugging around his double neck pedal steel every night and setting it up, then taking it down, so he built this instrument. (Check it out in the video below)
In looking around, I find there are plenty of other slide players that have homemade instruments that use everything but duct tape to build their guitar. (Although I bet someone is using duct tape.) So I thought I would share a few of these unique instruments.
This model, made by Darren Landrum, uses door pulls for bridges and saddles and a cupola style drawer pull for the tailpiece. The body is made from a piece of scrap wood. The tuners are inexpensive Schaler-style guitar tuners. The pickup was given to the maker from a friend and is wired directly to the output. The maker states he wants to add 'fret' lines on the neck.
Gitarren Slide Bar, Edelstahl Slide Tone Bar E Gitarren String Slides, Gitarren Slide Tonleiste Mit 4 Metallplektren, Gitarrenrutsche Für Lap Steel Gitarre Hawaii Gitarre
The ‘Star’ markers cover screws that hold a steel back plate for strength. As a plus the back plate resonates and enhances the sound.
The pickup is made from a ‘stoners tin’ and the bridge is from a hash pipe. In the tin box are two homemade piezo pickups wired to the volume and tone controls. The nut is made from a small branch off of a cherry tree. The tailpiece is off of an old archtop guitar.
The next three guitars, including the one above, were built by Ken Rodgers who went into sticker shock when seeing what old lap steels were going for on eBay. He thought, I can do better than what they are selling. And I'd say he certainly did.
Easy Guitar Lessons Online
The instruments are beautiful. This odd looking lap steel pictured below and made by Rogers features a body that was turned on a wood lathe.
Above are a couple of instruments built by guitarist and woodworker Allan Brisley. The upper one is a nice handmade six-string model lap steel guitar and the lower is a one string diddly bow with a homemade pickup. The six string model has bridge saddles similar to those on an old Telecaster.
Featured above is a homemade lap steel from a fellow named Frank James Pracher. The wood plank he used for this guitar is 90 years old and was taken from an old Catholic boarding school that was being demolished. The tuners are off a broken guitar. The fret board is made of a piece of walnut scrap wood. The fret lines were made using a wood burning tool. The nut and bridge are angle aluminum. And the pickup is off of an old Kramer guitar, with a walnut surround.
Dec Handcrafted New Orleans Cigar Factory Electric Cigar Box Slide Guitar
Dave Begalka decided to put away his Emmons for gigs. He now plays Country music on this souped up 4 by 4 lap steel guitar and gets plenty of attention and comments.
The fretboard is made of plywood with frets drawn on with a fine tip blue Sharpie. For position markers, Dave used nails.
What caught my eye was something that looked like a Bigsby palm pedal. In fact it is a homemade device he designed utilizing two aluminum door hinges. The levers are also made of aluminum. The screws that hold the levers onto the hinges act as adjustments so the player can achieve a whole note interval. Dave can depress the B and D levers to pull the strings up to C and D.Turn a hunk of scrap wood or salvaged material like this baluster into an electric 4-string slide guitar! This project was created by Shane Speal who saw the potential of our Hard Tail Bridges and Gittybucker style pickups as a way to make fun lap steel guitars on slab boards.
Rogue Rls 1 Lap Steel Guitar With Stand And Gig Bag Metallic Black
Yesterday, I got the urge to build something new, so I went into my woodshop and challenged myself to make something within one hour. The time restriction made the project even more interesting and added an element of excitement.
The first thing I did was to use a C. B. Gitty Centering Ruler ($9.49)to find the center point for bridge mounting. This ruler is a genius tool that is essential in my workshop. Simply place it on your project, match the numbers up on each side of the ruler and bazinga, you have a centerline.
Now that I had a center line, I could mount the bridge. These Hardtails are a delight to use. I especially liked the 4-string model for this project because it is designed to have the strings fed through the body and up over the saddles. Since the salvaged baluster was weakened due to age, having the strings fed through the body gave the bridge one extra anchor to hold it tight.
Amazon.com: Vicasky 4 Pcs Thumb Protector Black Slides Bass Picks Bottle Neck Guitar Slide Glass Bottleneck Guitar Slide Guitar Slide Rail Electric Guitar Accessories White Slip Ring Cylinder
I must admit, the headstock was a bit of a mess. I used a 1 forstner bit to remove some wood from the backside where the tuners would be mounted. This is because the wood was too thick for the tuners' shafts. The end result is kind of ugly on the back, but that's the challenge of building something within one hour!
I drilled and mounted the tuners. Because I didn't have a lot of room for the tuners, two of them are actually mounted at the top of the headstock. It just adds to the quirkiness of the guitar.
The pickup was easy to mount. Dan Sleep's SleepTalker pickups are so thin, you don't need to route the body for them. Just screw 'em to the top of the body! I drilled a small hole under the pickup for the wire, which dangles out the back of the lap steel. I then hardwired it to the Neutrik jack and mounted the jack plate.
Improvements To Slides In Tablature
I chose a C. B. Gitty floating bridge as the nut because I knew I could dig some very deep string slots in it. (They need to be deep to handle the radical angles of the headstock string pull.) I used a cutting bit on my Dremel to cut the string slots.
Finally, I strung the beast up. The biggest challenge was positioning the nut and the string angles at the headstock. I had to add some round head screws to act as string trees. It's tuned to open G (GDGB) or G Minor (GDGBb)
0 Response to "Slide Guitar Made Easy"
Posting Komentar