We're Building a REAL Steel Guitar

[Alan Brookes]

This is something I've had on my mind for some time. Back in 1963, when I built my first lap steel, I put the words "Solid Steel" conspicuously on the top. The response from most people was, "That must be a very heavy instrument, made of solid steel..." Of course, they didn't get the message. It was, of course, made out of wood, but it was solid and I played it with a steel.


Move forward 46 years. Now I'm the CFO of a large manufacturing company in San Francisco. We have a multi-million-dollar laser machine that cuts steel like butter, to thousands-of-an-inch tolerance. I believe a lap steel can be made out of one piece of stainless steel, cut and bent appropriately. Over the weekend I'm going to make a mock-up in cardboard, which I shall hand over to one of our CAD engineers, and he will plot it on the computer in Solid Works, which he will feed into our Trumpf machine. Then the cutout will go to the Trumpf Press-Brake, where it will be bent to shape, and to the Welding Dept., who will weld the box closed.


As far as I know, no-one has ever built a lap steel out of steel before. I know that Fouke Industrial have built them from Aluminium. The laser machine will cut aluminum, but you have to clean it out afterwards before you start cutting steel again, which would be an expensive and time-consuming proposition.

I shall be giving a running commentary on progress. I'm excited to find out how it will sound. The President of the company is also excited about the prospect. He's a musician himself, and his daughter is a well-known singer and composer. If this goes well I have ideas for a resonator guitar with a steel body. Maybe even a hammer dulcimer.

[Darrell Urbien]

Don't forget the compensation!

[Tom Pettingill]

Thats a hell of a bunch of fun toys Alan, looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

[Bent Romnes]

Alan, this I am really looking forward to!

Is there such a thing as a "poor man's laser machine"?
Bent

[Mitch Druckman]

Im looking forward to seeing and hearing this steel steel guitar.

How heavy do you expect it to be?

What kind of body shapes are you considering?

[Alan Brookes]

...How heavy do you expect it to be? ...What kind of body shapes are you considering?

I don't know how heavy it's going to be. I'll check out what steel sheet is available. I'm going to use offcuts left over from our manufacturing process. I'll use as thin sheets as I can. I think if the steel is too heavy it will absorb the overtones and produce a purer sound. I expect it to sustain well.

For now, the body shape will be rectangular. When I produce the acoustic version it will be shaped like a Weissenborn, but with a resonator.

[Alan Brookes]

Here are a couple of shots of the Trumpf laser machine.
I finished the cardboard mock-up of the lap steel yesterday and handed it over to a CAD Engineer.

Things are moving...

[Gary C. Dygert]

I hope that mind never turns to evil!

[Ferdinand van den Berg]

Hi Alan!

This looks very exciting!
It must be a nice way to make a prototype with this laser cutter...

Anyway, back to my handheld router and wood...

Good luck and I look foreward to read about the result!

[Darrell Urbien]

How about one of those metal-powder laser-sintering RP machines? (I forget what they're called)

[Alan Brookes]

How about one of those metal-powder laser-sintering RP machines? (I forget what they're called)

I don't know anything about those machines, but anyway we don't have one.

...Good luck and I look foreward to read about the result!

Dank je Ferdinand. Ik heb veel opgewondenheid.

[Les Anderson]

To build one out of stainless would be a historic event in two ways. Not only being the first ever built but, if humans are wiped out by some "whatever" that stainless steel guitar of yours would be around for a couple of hundred thousand years from now.

[Ferdinand van den Berg]

Alan!

I am impressed!
Ga zo door!

[Craig Stenseth]

Can you laser up a few hundred Fender Stringmaster and pedal steel tuner pans? Those seem to be requested about every 3 months on the forum.

http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum2/HTML/005591.html

Or maybe just some guitar picks, that would probably be simpler.

[Chris Drew]

Real interesting project, Alan... I'm looking forward to seeing your progress.

That's one beast of a laser you have there! I've seen a few like that over here in the UK.
I only work on the small ones though - the biggest being a puny 5'x4' bed and a measly 200watts & the only one we do that's able to cut steel!!
The one I installed yesterday was a 25watt desktop laser with a 16"x12" bed - a flea compared to your monster! hehe.

[Alan Brookes]

Can you laser up a few hundred Fender Stringmaster and pedal steel tuner pans? Those seem to be requested about every 3 months on the forum.
Or maybe just some guitar picks, that would probably be simpler.

Craig, if you notice, I currently have a want ad looking for a Stringmaster tuner pan. http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopi ... highlight=
Unfortunately there's no way of making them out of a flat piece of steel. They're made out of pressed brass, and then nickel-plated. We don't have one of those machines.

[Alan Brookes]

Here's the prototype so far...

That's Tom Trayer Jr. holding the working prototype. He's the grandson of the Company's founder, and a blues guitarist.

It doesn't look pretty yet. Right now we're mocking one up to see how it sounds. The machine head has been designed to take any number of tuners in any configuration. The two brackets that he's holding on will be screwed on. The nut and bridge will be rollers on tapped thread, so you can wind them along the thread and get any separation you want. The hole for the pickup we can cut to accomodate any size or shape of pickup, and any number, just by altering the drawing. The fretboard will be etched. There's an access hole underneath to get to the wiring. When we get more advanced, with more experience, we might extend the body a little to take the Duesenburg Multibender or the Hipshot Trilogy. There certainly won't be any cabinet loss in stainless steel We might even experiment with small resonators.

Progress is slow, because the CAD work has to be fitted into a tight production schedule in the factory.

It's going to be a lot of fun.

[Tom Pettingill]

Very cool Alan, can't wait to see it progress

[Doug Beaumier]

This is very exciting, Alan! Thank you for posting the pictures. Have you selected a pickup yet?

[Philip Bender]

Aloha Alan,
This thing looks very good, and should be reasonably priced should you want to go that way. How stable is the box in torsion, or does it twist very easily?
Did you get a look at the profile sketch I sent you on the forum, it was for a double neck?
Looking great, btw, do you use a press brake for the bending.
Phil

[C. Brattain]

Good Luck. This was done back in the 1950s and turned out very well except for the tuning change hot and cold. A very little temp change would change the tuning a lot on steel, you could strum the guitar in one room and walk into another room and hear the strings go out of tune.

[Bill Creller]

I would think that stainless steel wouldn't be quite as temp sensitive as aluminum, or even bakelite. Looks like a great idea Alan.

[Alan Brookes]

...Have you selected a pickup yet?

The first pickup hole was cut to the size of an 8-string pickup I pulled from my spares box. I believe it originally came out of a Fender. But we can cut holes the size of whatever we like. I usually use GeorgeL pickups on lap steels that I build, but I've been known to use all sorts, including Hofner and Gibson.

...How stable is the box in torsion, or does it twist very easily?
Did you get a look at the profile sketch I sent you on the forum, it was for a double neck?
Looking great, btw, do you use a press brake for the bending.

The box is extremely stable. You couldn't bend it if you tried. You could put forty strings on it and, because of the L shape, it would take the tension without bending.
Sorry, I don't remember which profile sketch you sent me. I guess I must be getting old.
Yes, we used a press brake for bending, and, at the moment it's spot TIG welded. A production model would be seam welded.

...This was done back in the 1950s and turned out very well except for the tuning change hot and cold. A very little temp change would change the tuning a lot on steel, you could strum the guitar in one room and walk into another room and hear the strings go out of tune.

I would think that stainless steel wouldn't be quite as temp sensitive as aluminum, or even bakelite. Looks like a great idea Alan.

My thought is that expansion and contraction won't be very much, unless you go from a refrigerator to an oven. The metal is quite thick and robust. We use it in large tanks, filled with sulphur hexafluoride gas, or mineral oil, and have encountered very little change in volume, even in high voltage units installed in Alaska and Argentina.

I'm used to building much flimsier instruments, such as lutes, where, with 16 to 20 gut strings you have to slacken off the tension at night or the contraction during the night could pull the bridge off.

[Lynn Oliver]

The coefficient of linear thermal expansion for carbon steel is 10.8. For stainless steel it is 17.3, so stainless steel expands 60% more than carbon steel for the same change in temperature.

I don't think the thickness has anything to do with thermal expansion in other dimensions.

[Tom Pettingill]

I don't think the thickness has anything to do with thermal expansion in other dimensions.

I think in this situation, the thickness / mass mainly just keeps the changes from being abrupt, a little more stable I guess.