Explorerlover
Hi Guys
Has anybody got any info on Wahine guitars and how to play them?. I got one from my grandfather shortly before his death and would like to attempt this thing. Can I assume that it works more or less the same as a lap steel guitar?
Thanks
AlanRatcliffe
You mean Hawaiian? Basically the same thing as a lap steel only electric. Like the old K&F (Kaufman & Fender) guitars or the Rickenbacker "Frying Pan". Plank of wood with strings, pickup,bridge and tuners and played with a slide. Eventually became the full-blown pedal steel guitars that you see/hear on a lot of country music.
Renesongs
Take a gander at Robert Randolph or David Gilmour, then when you are completely disheartened I will take thing off your hands for a nominal service charge ?
AlanRatcliffe
Robert Randolph
That boah shure kin
play! Only pedal steeler I've seen who uses distortion and wah pedal too.
Riaan
Alan how difficult is it to build a slide guitar compared to a standard fretted instrument? Sounds like it should be easier? I've had this idea for some time now, to take a nice piece of hardwood, bolt it to a metal stand so it stays straight, and fit pickups and strings. Maybe even several pickups and lots and lots of strings, all connected to different amps, effects and so on...
Perhaps I'll only end up with something that sounds exactly like my table saw!
Heath
It's actually dead easy , if you hand with wood working tools , made one a few years ago .
heres a good site you can check out
http://buildyourguitar.com/resources/lapsteel/
Riaan
@ Heath: Thanks, that looks interesting and is more or less what I had in mind - basically just a plank with strings. You don't need frets, just markings on the proper places along the scale length where frets would have been?
Come to think of it...maybe I should just fit strings and pickups directly to our dining room table top... ?
AlanRatcliffe
Not difficult at all. There's no radius on the board or strings, no neck profile needed and you don't need a truss. The most difficult part is measuring for the lines and scale length. You can get plans online too.
http://www.bluestemstrings.com/page3.html
http://www.well.com/~wellvis/diy.html
Some of the early Fender ones had pickups which basically became the Broadcaster (Tele) pickup. There's a guy on the Harmony Central Electric Guitars Forum who makes some gorgeous ones.
Heath
now theres an idea , when the conversation gets dull at the dinner table , plug in some head phones and start playing .........
i believe the cheaper models actually dont have frets at all just some silly silk screened outlines .
to get good priced parts to build it try terryd.co.za , they in cape town , and there parts are actually quiet good .
Explorerlover
I've seen David Gilmour play something that looked similiar on the Pulse DVD when he played the outro solo for High Hopes....just wasn;t sure if it was the same thing. Thanks for the info.
Explorerlover
Right, so I decided I need a lap steel guitar in my life after listening to Red Rider's Lunatic Fringe and Floyd's High Hopes...I love that haunting sound of the solos. Can anybody tell me what pickups I should be looking for if I was planning to get one together. Would any of the Telecaster pups more or less work. The sound from those songs' solos sound reminiscent of a Tele although I know there are other factors to bring into the sound aswell.
Thanks
AlanRatcliffe
The Tele bridge pickup was developed from the Fender lap steel pickups and is similar in design.
Otherwise, the authority on steel guitar pickups is Jason Lollar - he does a wide range of pickups for lap and pedal steel guitars:
http://www.lollarguitars.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=steel-guitar-pickups
DonovanB
check this...
AlanRatcliffe
Nice! Good usage of a Gibson control arrangement (the original "killswitch"). Also shows you you don't need a specially made lap steel - normal electric set up with a high action and played flat with a slide does the job well.
Strangely I never got into any slide playing (unless you count fretless), especially as the second solo in Hendrix's version of All Along the Watchtower has always blown me away.
FenderBender
A great performance! Uncle Ben is very busy on the plank there.
