Hi everyone

[tpj]

I just bought a lap steel guitar last month and am coming to grips with it. I'm a semi-pro bassist and have always wanted to play lap/pedal steel but have come to the conclusion I wont have the time/money/space to dive into pedal steel...my little terraced house wouldn't cope .

I had tried a few tunings and then found Mike Neer's advice in a few places about starting with C6 and growing from there, so I'm now starting over from that point. My 6 string lap steel has a Duesenberg multi-bender with levers on strings 1 and 2 which worked great with open D/E but was proving problematic with C6 until I tuned them to bend semitones and now it's pretty cool. I helps cut down some movement. The levers are well lubed and folded almost perpendicular to the saddles so they are very easy to depress with the ring or little finger and don't hamper palm muting.

I got myself a Ben's Bars 3/4 bullet tone bar to start and just bought a Shubb SP2 but I think I like the Ben's Bars one better. Might have to invest in a 7/8. Being a bassist (both electric and double bass), I'm well acquainted with G.A.S. so now have two instrument types to eat up all my income...lol.

I'll try to keep up to date on the forum with my progress

[Danny Mitchell]

Hello and welcome tpj

That sounds like you're well sorted with the Duesenberg. One of the gents at Gartcosh plays one, D tuning, and it sounds the dog's b:censored:s.
A couple of pointers that you may not be aware of.....Excellent beginner lap steel lessons, on the Sierra Guitars site from Joe Wright, that are well worth a look. And, as yet another option for you, Basil Henriques Eezee-Slide bars are also well worth checking out.

Good luck with the journey

[tpj]

Thanks for the welcome. My lap steel isn't a Dusenberg, just has one of those bridges on it. It's a no name job bike but seems to play well. I'll check out the Sierra site.