Stray Dog
March 5th, 2007, 09:28 AM
I'll get the ball rolling!
This is my 'lap steel strat'.
The basis is a squier strat, my first guitar. The frets were really worn. So I thought Id just not use them, and turn it into a lap-steel guitar! It originally had silver hardware and a white pickguard.
I sanded down the headstock, removing the squier logo.
All the hardware has been replaced. So the only original pieces are the body, maple neck, rosewood fingerboard, and worn-up frets.
Everything else came from GFS.
New gold tuners, strap buttons, input jack, tremolo bridge.
The pickguard is one of the GFS 'superstrat wiring kit' ones. It has three mini-switches, instead of a three-way toggle. One for each pickup, it is on/off/out of phase. This way I get two extra strat pickup configurations.... bridge/neck and bridge/middle/neck, which is my favourite. It also gives me LOADS of strange out-of-phase combinations, some of which are subtle, and some of which are really out there.
The pickups are GFS premium alnico staggers, their general strat set. New cream covers too.
The knobs are cool ones from GFS, gold with black shell tops. At least two are... I only got two, so there is a plastic gold gibson knob filling in for the volume pot until I get another!
The key to making it good for lap steel was the nut. I replaced the original nut with a gibson-style one, which on a fender-style guitar is a good 7mm off the fretboard! Consqequently it is pretty much physically impossible to fret normally, but this makes it great for slide... I can do some really subtle stuff on it and there is no danger of touching the frets with the strings.
So here are the pics...
http://img477.imageshack.us/img477/6305/0000442zt9.jpg
http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/4697/lapsteelstratcf9.jpg
To hear me playing some steel guitar, go to my soundclick page in my signature. Check out Western Theme. Its a really simple bit in the chorus, I had only just done the convert now. I can do more complex stuff now! But just single notes one string can sound awesome, as long as you've got lots of reverb!
I think there is also some steel on my cover of I Shall Be Released, but thats not very good guitar and singing wise. (the steel is though!)
I would record some more stuff, but my computer's sound capabilities are down.
I like to jam to alot of tracks with this thing in my lap... Faves to jam to are Knocking On Heavens Door, Bob Dylan's Blind Willie McTell Neil Young's Look Out For My Love, and the Band's version of I Shall Be Released.
This is my 'lap steel strat'.
The basis is a squier strat, my first guitar. The frets were really worn. So I thought Id just not use them, and turn it into a lap-steel guitar! It originally had silver hardware and a white pickguard.
I sanded down the headstock, removing the squier logo.
All the hardware has been replaced. So the only original pieces are the body, maple neck, rosewood fingerboard, and worn-up frets.
Everything else came from GFS.
New gold tuners, strap buttons, input jack, tremolo bridge.
The pickguard is one of the GFS 'superstrat wiring kit' ones. It has three mini-switches, instead of a three-way toggle. One for each pickup, it is on/off/out of phase. This way I get two extra strat pickup configurations.... bridge/neck and bridge/middle/neck, which is my favourite. It also gives me LOADS of strange out-of-phase combinations, some of which are subtle, and some of which are really out there.
The pickups are GFS premium alnico staggers, their general strat set. New cream covers too.
The knobs are cool ones from GFS, gold with black shell tops. At least two are... I only got two, so there is a plastic gold gibson knob filling in for the volume pot until I get another!
The key to making it good for lap steel was the nut. I replaced the original nut with a gibson-style one, which on a fender-style guitar is a good 7mm off the fretboard! Consqequently it is pretty much physically impossible to fret normally, but this makes it great for slide... I can do some really subtle stuff on it and there is no danger of touching the frets with the strings.
So here are the pics...
http://img477.imageshack.us/img477/6305/0000442zt9.jpg
http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/4697/lapsteelstratcf9.jpg
To hear me playing some steel guitar, go to my soundclick page in my signature. Check out Western Theme. Its a really simple bit in the chorus, I had only just done the convert now. I can do more complex stuff now! But just single notes one string can sound awesome, as long as you've got lots of reverb!
I think there is also some steel on my cover of I Shall Be Released, but thats not very good guitar and singing wise. (the steel is though!)
I would record some more stuff, but my computer's sound capabilities are down.
I like to jam to alot of tracks with this thing in my lap... Faves to jam to are Knocking On Heavens Door, Bob Dylan's Blind Willie McTell Neil Young's Look Out For My Love, and the Band's version of I Shall Be Released.