This is my first lap steel. I have never played one of these, but a while back got a strange hankering to give it a shot. I have seen a few of these lately and had admired their funkiness. And there is a twang quality that can’t be duplicated without a slide.

 

The body is made from curly big leaf maple. The top is bird’s eye maple (check out that figure). Fret markers are inlaid black veneer. I also inlaid my logo on the top. The nut is ebony. I used black binding with black/white/black/white purfling on the top and fingerboard.

 

The electronics include handwound JeSTone telecaster pickups (wound a little hot), and standard three way switch. I normally prefer the sound of an uncovered neck pickup (the cover kills some of the frequency response at the high end). However, for this one, I decided to go for the full bling with gold cover, and matching gold hardware. The bridge cover is rarely used on standard telecasters, but works and looks great on this baby (provides a handy place to rest the right hand).

 

Now I just have to learn how to play this bad boy.

 

The basic body and neck shape is pretty conventional for this style of guitar. However, the headstock is a bit different. I decided to rotate the tuners by ninety degrees so as to tune from the top. This is a handy orientation for lap playing (that is not meant to sound obsene). I decided to hollow out the headstock between the tuners. I am pleased with the appearance. However, on the next one (there is always a next one) I will add a little bit more spread between the tuners for the third and fourth strings.