Its here, 1st self-tuning Lap Steel

Chuck Fisher · Post by **Chuck Fisher** » 23 Jan 2008 1:29 pm

Nobody was doing it, so Ryan Rukavina and I came up with this. Sure came out neat. Memorizes 6 tunings

More later, Ryan and I will add more pics and answer questions. He did a beautiful job I think.

All best,
Chuck

Chuck Fisher · Post by **Chuck Fisher** » 23 Jan 2008 3:02 pm

Steinar Gregertsen · Post by **Steinar Gregertsen** » 23 Jan 2008 3:07 pm

Send them to me at steinar AT gregertsen DOT com and I'll host them.

Steinar

Steinar Gregertsen · Post by **Steinar Gregertsen** » 23 Jan 2008 6:59 pm

Beautiful!

Steinar

Chuck Fisher · Post by **Chuck Fisher** » 23 Jan 2008 7:05 pm

Ali Lexa · Post by **Ali Lexa** » 23 Jan 2008 7:08 pm

Did you use the same self tuning system as the Gibson "Robo-Guitars"?

Chuck Fisher · Post by **Chuck Fisher** » 23 Jan 2008 7:27 pm

Yes, partially. We used the strat bridge and the wiring is modified a bit. Odd knob locations have to do with my disability, I do fade-ins with my forearm.

Hopefully Ryan will comment a bit soon..

Bill Hatcher · Post by **Bill Hatcher** » 23 Jan 2008 8:14 pm

Take that back cover off and lets see inside that thing!!

Bill Leff · Post by **Bill Leff** » 23 Jan 2008 8:33 pm

Very cool Chuck! Congratulations to you and Ryan. I'd love to stop over sometime to check it out.

Off topic but Santa Cruz related (Chuck and I both live in the area), Friday night Jan 25 show at the Rio Theater not to be missed - Bob Brozman and David Lindley!

See you there!

Ryan Rukavina · Post by **Ryan Rukavina** » 23 Jan 2008 9:51 pm

Hey all,
Hey Chuck, you jerk...I want that thing back. I miss it, and I cry when I have to tune 'normal' steels now...

Anyhow, I'll just give a quick rundown of some material specs, and explain the tuning system somewhat to those who are unfamiliar:

Body - African Mahogany, nicely figured.
Fingerboard - Figured Koa, Ebony, Abalone, & more Koa. The fingerboard inlay references slant chords; Chuck's brainchild.
PUP - Chuck's clever mod conception...?, wired to a 5-way switch for: coil A, Series, Parallel, Out-o-Phase, or coil B. Lots of tonal variety from one humbucker.
Headcap - Ebony, w/Koa purfling & koa logo.
Control cover - Maple, dark translucent blue.
Knob ring & riser - Koa(ebony center on player side knob).
Nut - Delrin, serving 2 main purposes:
-it's a very hard and slippery composite material,
ideal for smooth tuning w/out the clingy
string/nut syndrome.
-it's non-conductive, a requirement for the tuning
system. Power and data to the servo powered tuning
machines is actually conducted through the strings
themselves.

The Tronical system was acquired by a diligent Chuck, and is a mix & match set. Tronical gave us the 3/side LP tuners that we desired, but with a Strat bridge that can be leveled, as the LP bridge is arched & and not well suited for lap steel. The push/pull knob(next to switch) is the system's CPU, that has a display & pulls up to access saved tunings. The CPU features an accurate programable tuner that senses pitch via communication w/piezo pickups/saddle on the bridge, and in turn it powers the servo tuners up or down, accordingly...an understandable liberation to anyone w/a disability, let alone and steel guitar junkie. Charging the system's battery simply requires setting the knob to charging mode, and plugging in the charging unit with a standard guitar cable to the output jack. Both Chuck and I had our concerns about reliability of the system when first discussing the project, but thus far it had proven to work wonderfully.

That's all for now. Take care all,
Ryan

Jim Mitchell · Post by **Jim Mitchell** » 24 Jan 2008 6:22 am

I do not under stand compleatly

How is it self tuning
My guess is by electronics
I heard FENDER has a Guitar out also

HOW IS IT DONE

I found this

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/0 ... ode=thread

http://roboticguitartuner.com/

http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/19462/

Peter Jacobs · Post by **Peter Jacobs** » 24 Jan 2008 6:34 am

Ryan - that is stunning work. Each of your steels gets more and more interesting -- I especially love the fretboard!

Question about the bridge -- does the radius of a standard Strat bridge cause any problems when barring across all the strings?

Nice job, as always!
Peter

Ryan Rukavina · Post by **Ryan Rukavina** » 24 Jan 2008 7:36 am

Hi Jim, Sorry for the vague tuning system explaination. If you visit
http://www.tronical.com/products
you'll find a demo video of the tuning system in action, and a more thorough explanation than I provided.

& Peter, 'Question about the bridge -- does the radius of a standard Strat bridge cause any problems when barring across all the strings?'...
Actually, between a LP(Les Paul) and a Strat bridge, the Strat bridge is the only one w/individually height adjustable saddle pieces(2 allens per saddle). So not a problem to set up level for clean barring.

Jim Mitchell · Post by **Jim Mitchell** » 24 Jan 2008 7:49 am

Thank you now I see the light
Very impressive

May be I could put on my 6 string MULTI KORD----- NOT

But read this
http://blogs.cnet.com/8301-13526_1-9828751-27.html

I also build amps SUPRO 6420 BASS THUNDERBOLT
My site SORRY here it is

http://www.geocities.com/insp/SUPRO6420.html

Bill Leff · Post by **Bill Leff** » 24 Jan 2008 8:10 am

Just checked out the automatic tuner video on the Tronic site. What a cool piece of technology and particularly well-suited to the lap steel guitar (6-string only at least for now).

Chuck Fisher · Post by **Chuck Fisher** » 24 Jan 2008 7:24 pm

Bill Hatcher · Post by **Bill Hatcher** » 24 Jan 2008 9:20 pm

What kind of battery set up to power this??

Chuck Fisher · Post by **Chuck Fisher** » 25 Jan 2008 12:45 am

The battery is a 4.2v nimh rechargeable, slightly bigger than 2 aa cells, It takes 3 hrs to charge.

Much of the guitar is hollow, I like to hear wood, I am fitting a piezo pickup to the body now. It will mix in with tuning knob when its not tuning. The pickup is slanted which we see a lot, but opposite. This makes quieter bass notes with less mush, and louder smoother high notes. This guitar is amazing in sustain and evenness of notes volume, I love the pickup/switch setup. The pup is super-hot, making the single coil and parallel positions very useful..

Michael Papenburg · Post by **Michael Papenburg** » 25 Jan 2008 9:04 am

Beautiful work, Ryan. I really love the position markers. The wood is stunning as usual. I love the idea of a self tuning lap steel - especially because you can change tunings. Cool idea.

BTW, I've been really enjoying my Rukavina 8 string. It took a while to find a tuning but it's been getting a lot of playing time

.

George Piburn · Post by **George Piburn** » 27 Jan 2008 6:50 am

Gary Lynch · Post by **Gary Lynch** » 27 Jan 2008 8:02 am

Major breakthrough in lap steel construction. Plus, this one looks excellent. 180 degrees from the mechanical looking sci-fi units out there.

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 27 Jan 2008 11:56 pm

...now if you could do the same thing for a pedal steel....

Tom Pettingill · Post by **Tom Pettingill** » 28 Jan 2008 12:17 pm

Congrads on a sweet steel Chuck, very cool

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Its here, 1st self-tuning Lap Steel

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