The Steel Guitar Forum Store 

Post new topic Skateboard Lap Steel
Reply to topic
Author Topic:  Skateboard Lap Steel
Joe Engledow

 

From:
California, USA
Post  Posted 5 May 2016 1:49 pm    
Reply with quote

Hello to all my new friends!

I've joined the Steel Guitar Forum finally, after showing up at Larry Chung's inaugural Steel Guitar Summit with my humble "Franken-Skate" lap steel.

She came into my life as a broken skateboard deck from the manager at Skateworks in Los Altos. The cracks around the bolt holes only affected its rideability and they were parallel with the strings so I went with it.

I built this trying to keep the amount of "guitar parts" to a reasonable minimum. The tuning keys and ferrules came from C.B.Gitty. The P-90 pickups were sourced at The Gryphon stringed instruments. Almost everything else came from Lowe's hardware. The nut is simply an aluminum angle bracket. The bridge is 2 cable clamps suspending an aluminum turnbuckle.

The measurements were made with a plastic ruler and aren't accurate due to the curves of the material. The fret lines were burned in the wood haphazardly with my soldering tip.

Despite all this, it resonates beautifully and sounds good. Pitch bending and vibrato is accessible just by flexing the board. Scale length is 22.5 inches. It's wired in the Les Paul style.

At the moment it's tuned to Open A (E-A-E-A-C#-E) because it has electric guitar strings and not lap steel strings.

I welcome any and all discussion and questions. Pictures and video to follow in this thread.


Last edited by Joe Engledow on 5 May 2016 2:17 pm; edited 1 time in total
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail

Joe Engledow

 

From:
California, USA
Post  Posted 5 May 2016 2:09 pm    
Reply with quote




View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail

Joe Engledow

 

From:
California, USA
Post  Posted 5 May 2016 3:25 pm    
Reply with quote



View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail

Joe Engledow

 

From:
California, USA
Post  Posted 5 May 2016 4:05 pm    
Reply with quote

The following two photos are by Alan Brookes and reposted from his photo thread on this forum.

Here is the event organizer, Larry Chung, tuning it up.



This is my combo amplifier. Built by Xenrelic Amplification, it's a Champ-Amp circuit and a little 5 inch speaker, housed in a Wollensak tape recorder case.


Here are more pictures of the amp hosted on Imgur.com.
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail

Charlie McDonald


From:
out of the blue
Post  Posted 6 May 2016 4:25 am    
Reply with quote

I like it. Clever use of materials on the bridge and string trees.
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail

Joe Engledow

 

From:
California, USA
Post  Posted 15 May 2016 7:38 am    
Reply with quote

I took the skateboard lapsteel to Reno this weekend for an open mic performance.
Musicians and skaters came up to thank me. This is new territory for me.



View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail

Joe Engledow

 

From:
California, USA
Post  Posted 31 Aug 2016 1:02 pm     Second Steel Summit at the Gryphon
Reply with quote

Photos by Alan F. Brookes






View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail

Joe Engledow

 

From:
California, USA
Post  Posted 31 Aug 2016 1:07 pm     #Rocksmith5th
Reply with quote

I also made a video on YouTube of my instrument, finally! It's the last third of this recording praising my guitar teaching tool, Rocksmith.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_W51BvfW6k
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail

Stu Schulman


From:
Ulster Park New Yawk (deceased)
Post  Posted 2 Sep 2016 3:26 am    
Reply with quote

Joe,How incredibly awesome!!!
_________________
Steeltronics Z-pickup,Desert Rose S-10 4+5,Desert Rose Keyless S-10 3+5... Mullen G2 S-10 3+5,Telonics 206 pickups,Telonics volume pedal.,Blanton SD -10,Emmons GS_10...Zirctone bar,Bill Groner Bar...any amp that isn't broken.Steel Seat.Com seats...Licking paint chips off of Chinese Toys since 1952.
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail


All times are GMT - 8 Hours
Jump to:  

Our Online Catalog
Strings, CDs, instruction,
steel guitars & accessories

www.SteelGuitarShopper.com

Please review our Forum Rules and Policies

Steel Guitar Forum LLC
PO Box 237
Mount Horeb, WI 53572 USA


Click Here to Send a Donation

Email admin@steelguitarforum.com for technical support.


BIAB Styles
Ray Price Shuffles for
Band-in-a-Box

by Jim Baron
HTTP