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The place for our latest members to say hi! and for us to welcome!
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New to Lap steel but not guitar

Wed Dec 30, 2020 11:45 am

Hi and thanks for letting me join. I've been playing guitar for a few years and my wife bought me a second hand lap steel at Christmas. It's a Guyatone HG-91 which has been in someones loft for years. I did a bit of restoration on it and it plays well enough in Open G but needs some work on the electrics as the pots have corroded and also a new string set. I'd like to be able to investigate other open tunings and wonder what are the best replacment strings for variable tuning.

Look forward to getting to know you on the forum.

Cheers for now,

Lawrence ( South Devon)

Re: New to Lap steel but not guitar

Wed Dec 30, 2020 1:34 pm

Hello Lawrence, and welcome to the forum, and a Happy New Year when it comes.
The lap players on here are a font of info, they're sure to steer you right. I can't help with the strings for variable tunings, but C6 seems to be thee starting place for lap. I'd also recommend a look at Joe Wright's lessons, on here, for a good grounding on technique and more.

http://sierrasteels.com/lessons/lap-lessons.html

Happy pickin' an' a slidin' :guitar:

Re: New to Lap steel but not guitar

Wed Dec 30, 2020 2:02 pm

Lawrence , welcome to our forum, great news that we have another new steelplayer to our fold.
Some say we are a dying breed, that's :censored: there's plenty of talent here ready to give you any advice or help that you want.
Best wishes for the coming new year, hoping it's better than this one has been.

Re: New to Lap steel but not guitar

Wed Dec 30, 2020 5:12 pm

Hi Lawrence, welcome on board.
You’ll get lots of advice from Lap Steel players on this site.
Once you decide which tuning you will use, head over to John Ely’s site and check on the string gauge chart.
If you wish to play C6 or A6, John Davis on our site will be able to set you up with top class SIT strings. The C6 SIT PSG string sets he sells will be OK for both tunings.
Good luck and let us know how you get on.
Regards,
Keith.

Re: New to Lap steel but not guitar

Thu Dec 31, 2020 9:23 am

Thanks all for the kind welcome and advice. I'll take a look at the sierrasteels site and Contact John Davis once I have some fluency in playing. Currently I've set the lap steel up in Open G as this seems to be fairly straightforward but I'm aware that other tunings may be preferred as I improve. The new pots should arrive today so I'll be getting the soldering iron out over New year and rewiring the electrics.

One question I've wondered about is how I can join the society, or do I have to be a forum member for a certain period etc ?

Once again thanks for the welcome and look forward to more dialogue etc.

Kind regards and Happy better New Year,

Lawrence

Re: New to Lap steel but not guitar

Thu Dec 31, 2020 11:25 am

Lawrence wrote:One question I've wondered about is how I can join the society, or do I have to be a forum member for a certain period etc ?


Don't panic, Lawrence, there's no rolling up of the trouser leg, or sitting backwards on farm animals, or any other humiliating initiations to endure :lol:

Just contact our beloved leader, Uncle Roy, and furnish him with 12 of your hard earned pounds, and for the next year you'll receive the informative and entertaining BSS Newsletter. All the best for 2021.

Re: New to Lap steel but not guitar

Thu Dec 31, 2020 12:40 pm

Thanks Danny, I did try but may have used an old email address. Do you or anyone else know Uncle Roy's email address so I can contact him ?

Thanks for also allaying my fears that animals or leg revealing may be involved !.

Kind regards

Lawrence.

Re: New to Lap steel but not guitar

Thu Dec 31, 2020 2:44 pm

Hi Lawrence,
[email protected]
Is the email in the newsletter, or you can send him a private message, accessible from your user control panel.
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