12 String Steel Guitar Pickup
In this, my first Instructable, I will attempt to chronicle the construction of a simple Lap Steel guitar. Disclaimer; power tools and sharp cutting tools will be used and I take no responsibility for people who use these things carelessly, read and understand manufacture's instructions and safety guidelines for their proper and safe use. The nice thing about a lap steel guitar is that the fret board can be super simple or non existent at all.
You don't need to install fret wire and if it isn't perfectly flat or crowned it doesn't matter. Here I am trying to decide if I should use walnut or some lovely bird's eye maple I had on hand.
Since they both looked good I decided to use them both. You could assemble the fret board right on the guitar or do as I did and glue it up and mark it off before I attached it to the guitar. The end product should be 2 1/4' wide by 1/8' to 1/4' thick by about 18' long, it is better to go long and trim later. Also, a word about scale length, I will be using a 22 1/2' scale length with 25 fret positions. This link has a great fret calculator. Now is the time to start thinking about how the electronics are going to work, in this step I show the process I went through to make the pick-up cover plate. I started by using a 1/8' X 2' X 4' piece of maple I had left from the fret board.
It is important to have extra of what ever stock you are going to use because this step is deceptively difficult to pull off in one go. Lay out must be accurate and your cuts need to be clean. I'll let you get the exact dimensions from the link I posted in the intro.
I used a variety of tools here, a drill press, a rotary tool with a steel burr attachment a copping saw and a variety of files and rasps. Cutting the cavity for the pick up is where things have the potential to go terribly wrong. Once again be sure of your lay out and where on the guitar neck it will go. There are all kinds of theories about the perfect placement of a pick up that you don't need to get into. What you need to know is what space do you have available to work with?
Since the scale length is 22 1/2' then we know the bridge will be exactly 22 1/2' from the nut. We also know where our fret board ends, since you have glued it on by now.
So, pick a spot about half way between the bridge and the end of the fret board.Here I used a drill press and a 3/4' bit, use a bit that has a flat face, something like a forsner(sp?).You will remove most of the material with this and work to the lay out lines with a hammer and chisel. I set my drill press to cut to a depth of 3/4' but you can go only 5/8' deep if you wish. In this step I'll show how I created the cavity for the volume pot and cord jack. As with all things, begin with locating where on the guitar you want to place the controls. Since this guitar will be played right hand, I placed the controls on the side facing away from the player.
I started with physically placing the components on the blank and deciding how much space I need to provide for them. After that it was only a matter of centering the space on the blank and drilling out the cavity.Like with the pick-up cavity I used a drill press to remove the material. I found there was no need to do any chisel work here because the components were round. Be sure you drill deep enough for the guitar cord to plug in without the end striking the bottom of the hole. I then went ahead and drilled a 1/4' hole at an angle from the control cavity into the pick up cavity to run the wires. One of the things to do now is make your perminant wire connections from the pick up to the volume pot and phone jack. You could also add a tone control pot if you want but this is, after all, a basic build.
I like to use a fine tip on my soldering iron because of the tight spaces you are dealing with and the small guage wire involved. Simply follow the diagram and make your connections. Chances are you have used a stereo jack so orient the jack upside down with the long metal tab that makes contact with the guitar plug (I'm sure this bit has a name) nearest to you. Then use the tab directly away from you and the one to the left. The wonderful thing about building a guitar from scratch is that there are so many little projects involved.
While I wait for my client to send some parts he wants on this I started work on the bridges. I am using 3/4' X 1/2 ' aluminum L channel cut to the same width as the fret board. I then sanded it through the stages up to 600 grit.
Be sure to knock off any sharp edges and corners too. I then located and drilled the holes for the mounting screws on the 1/2' lip.Make 2 of these, one acts as a nut, the other a bridge. Then measure in 1/16 ' in from each end. Those marks will be for the E strings. Then, divide the remaining space to accommodate the other 4 strings. When notching the aluminum for the strings it is important to keep in mind that the tops of the strings all need to be at the same hight so all you are really doing here is making shallow notches to permanently locate where the strings will sit. You will do the final fitting during the set up phase right at the end of the build.You will also need to make a way of holding the strings at the bridge.
There are, again, all kinds of ways to do this, I chose to use a tail block. Like any time you try something new, you can make mistakes, in this case for example, I learned that lacquer doesn't like ink, and that I should have tested the application first. Oh well, learn and move on.
I used a gloss lacquer for the finish of this project because of many past successes. If you start with a good surface preparation then there is little or no sanding between coats. Spray lacquer is a great way to go but brush on is ok too. I did a brush on application for the first coat because I was dealing with very dry wood and I knew there would be a lot of absorption. The final 3 coats were sprayed.Warning, this stuff is very nasty to breathe and very flammable so good ventilation, and no open flames please. A respirator would be a good idea too.
So, I have laid out and drilled for the machine heads, the next thing to do is to attach the machines. Next I did the final setup on the bridge and nut, which was just a case of filing the notches down to get the all the strings at an equal height. The thing to try and do here is make sure the bottom of the notches are round.
This prevents the strings from buzzing. After that is done string it up and run it through the amp! I won't offend the real lap steel guitar players out there by posting a video of me testing it. I'll post a video at a later time of a friend playing it (he actually knows how).I hope you enjoyed this rather long instructable and try building one yourself. One thing I might be concerned about with this instrument is with the wood lamination part. It may or may not be a problem, but at least theoretically it could be.
Using pine and maple, especially back to back, could cause warping, due to the different expansion and contraction characteristics of the two different woods. This probably wouldn't be a problem if you make sure that you cover every square millimeter of the wood with your finish so that there would be no possibility of moisture transfer from the air to the wood (and vice versa) in varying humidity conditions. With laminating the body, you could also have made a groove down the middle of one (or both) of the pieces and placed a piece of steel rod in it before laminating. This would help strengthen it and also help keep it from warping.
Pretty cool instrument though! I hear ya on the movement differential, but that again is of little concern because of the nature of the guitar, so long as you don't get such a massive twist that the strings are radically uneven, it would remain playable.
I seriously doubt a truss rod would do much good here. I did seal the end grain with epoxy to prevent that sort of thing happening before I put 4 coats of lacquer on it. If anything the lamination of pine to the maple will help stabilize the natural tendencies of maple to twist.
(damn site cheaper than solid maple too).
(Image credit: Shane Speal)This is one of the easiest homemade guitars I've ever built, and it took me only an hour to make.This lap steel was made from an extra 2x4 I had in my shed, with just a few saw cuts to the wood. I even used a pre-wired acoustic sound hole pickup, so there was no wiring needed.Anybody can build this lap steel guitar! The lap steel plays great, too. It's set up with a standard 23-inch scale, just like the store bought-lap steels! The whole thing feels great on your lap and looks absurdly cool. Here’s a quick video (below).As you can tell, I’m still learning how to play this properly. (I built it so that I could learn how to play it).
These plans will give you a very basic, yet absolutely playable lap steel. It might look like a lot of steps, but trust me, this instrument is easy to build. You are basically just marking down a few lines, making a couple cuts to the 2x4 and installing simple hardware.This is my first prototype 2x4 lap steel.
I have a second one on the shop table right now. Look for a followup column on installing better pickups and adding some cool “hobo” mods.Parts needed. 32” section of 2x4 pine lumber. (Note: Due to harmful chemicals, do not use pressure-treated lumber!). Two (2) 1/2” diameter allthread rods, 3.5” long (Allthread rods are like bolts without a head. You can find these at hardware stores.
I found a box of them at a flea market.). One pack of guitar tuners, three-to-a-side. Pre-wired acoustic soundhole pickup.
One pack of medium-gauge electric guitar strings.Tools needed. Electric drill + two drill bits: 3/32” and 5/16”. Table saw or circular saw. Small screwdriver.Directions01. Cut a standard pine 2x4 into a 32” length.02. Cut out the headstock: Turn the 2x4 on its side and mark a vertical line 4” from the left end.
Mark a horizontal line 5/8” from the top (as pictured). Cut away the bottom portion in the headstock area (shaded are in the picture). I used a dado blade on my table saw.You can also do the same thing by running the saw in multiple passes over the shaded area and then using a chisel to remove any extra wood chips.03. Optional: I smoothed out the underside of the headstock on my belt sander. It also provided a little heel curve.04. Drill tuner holes: Mark your tuner holes on the underside of the headstock. I went in about 5/8” in on each side and spaced the tuners roughly an inch apart.
Use a 5/8” drill bit to drill the tuner holes.05. Turn the 2x4 back over and the following marks on the board, starting from the butt end and going up toward the headstock: a) 1.5” (this will be our through-body string feed) b) 3” (bridge location) c) 4.5” (pickup cavity) d) 6” (pickup cavity) e) 26” (nut location)06. Cut out the pickup cavity: Notch out the wood between the 4 ½” and 6” line. Go about ¾” deep. Use the same dado technique as above with the headstock.07. Drill the string feed holes. Use a 3/32 drill bit to drill six holes for the strings to feed through the body.
12 String Steel Guitar Pickup Cover
Quite honestly, I eyeballed these holes. The rough measurements from left to right are: 3/4”, 1 1/8”, 1 ½”, 2”, 2 ½”, 2 ¾”08. Mark your fret guides: Measure out the frets by starting at the 26” nut location and making pencil marks for each fret location. Then use a contractor’s square to draw the fret lines. (I used a Sharpie for some quick and dirty fret lines.
You also can paint or woodburn them if you want.)Fret markers.: 1 1.29” 2 2.50” 3 3.65” 4 4.74” 5 5.76” 6 6.73” 7 7.64” 8 8.51” 9 9.32” 10 10.0” 11 10.8” 12 11.5” 13 12.1” 14 12.7” 15 13.3” 16 13.8” 17 14.3” 18 14.8” 19 15.3” 20 15.7” 21 16.1” 22 16.5” 23 16.9” 24 17.2” 25 17.5” 26 17.8” 27 18.1” 28 18.4”09. Optional: Carve grooves for bridge and nut. Use a wood rasp to notch grooves at the 3” mark and the 26” mark. These grooves will keep the allthread bolts from moving. (You can see these grooves in the picture at Step 13.) 10. Install the tuners and bushings at the headstock.11. Install the pickup.
Depending on the pickup you choose, installing could be one of many different ways. As you can see, I just bent the cheap mounting tabs down on my pickup and shoved a couple screws into them to mount to the guitar. My pickup cavity was too deep, so I put a little bit of cardboard to raise it up. Ideally, you want the pickup to rest approx. ¼” away from the strings.12. String up the lap steel, but leave the strings slackened. If the strings start to pull through the soft pine wood, place a small nail through the ball loop of the string to keep it anchored.13.
Carefully wedge the allthread bolts into the 3” and 26” marks. These will act as your nut and bridge.14.
Steel Guitar Music
Space the strings evenly over the pickup, using the threads on the nut and bridge bolts as your string slots.15. Tune the guitar. Try an open D chord to start (D, A, D, F#, A, D, low to high).16. Optional: If the strings keep pulling out of the threads on the nut, use simple roundhead wood screws to act as string trees. Simply slacken the offending string, position the screw beside the string (so the screw head holds the string down) and insert it just deep enough to provide tension on the string.17. Use your choice of slide or just grab a beer bottle and go. In the video qt the top of this story, I’m using a deep well socket!NOTES: If you can’t find allthread rods to serve as bridge and nut, try other bolts, pipe pieces with notches cut into them or sections of ham bones.
Please spread the word and share this story on Facebook! Wanna build more? Read my story,.I used the Stewart MacDonald fret calculator for these measurements. (Thanks, StewMac!) They have been rounded off to the nearest hundredth.Shane Speal is the 'King of the Cigar Box Guitar' and the creator of the modern cigar box guitar movement. Hear the music, see the instruments and read about his Cigar Box Guitar Museum at.
Speal's latest album, is on C. Gitty Records.