Weekend guitar build

[Leroy Beal]

I've just joined the forum, but have been browsing for awhile. There are some excellent luthiers and players here. Thought I'd jump in with a recent 6 string lap guitar I built over a weekend.

I've built a number of ukuleles and guitars (acoustics, resophonic, and hollow neck lap) in the last two years, but this is my first electric lap. My goal was to build a finished guitar in 8 hours of labor and under $100.00 cost. To do this I would have to keep everything simple and straight forward. It came in at 9 hours labor and about $85.00 for materials. I am quite pleased with the resulting instrument. Here are some photos.













Specs:

body - Clear Douglas Fir
scale - 23 inch
tuners - Economy blk Rotomatic type
pickup - Economy dog ear P-90
nut, bridge, and tail piece - Aluminum right angle
fretboard - Acrylic mirror etched with an Epilog Laser then painted flat black
strings - Scotty's C6
finish - Rustolium rattle can Stone textured paint over white primer

[Jim Cohen]

That's pretty cool, Leroy. How does she sound to you?

[Dennis Brooker]

Nice job - Where did you get your pickup? Dennis Brooker

[Leroy Beal]

Thanks guys. I'm just at the beginning of the long journey of learning how to play lap steel, but it sound great to me. My cheap Rogue sounds a little anemic in a side by side comparison. The P-90 has a lot of power and punch with excellent tone. Of course it all depends what you do with the signal after it leaves the instrument.

I bought the P-90 from Guitar Parts Resource.

http://www.guitarpartsresource.com/pickups_other.htm

Also, I love this type of paint. It looks good, hides a myriad of flaws, and does a very good job of keeping the guitar planted on my lap.

[Dom Franco]

I tried painting a guitar with that stuff and it flaked off very easily, how well is your finish holding up to handling?

Dom

[Leroy Beal]

I tried painting a guitar with that stuff and it flaked off very easily, how well is your finish holding up to handling?

Dom

The secret is the primer prep coat. This stuff is on for the duration.

[chris ivey]

at first glance i thought, 'cool, a concrete guitar'.

but really, it is nice...especially at that price.

[Kekoa Blanchet]

fretboard - Acrylic mirror etched with an Epilog Laser then painted flat black

Could you give a little more explanation of how you made the fretboard?

[Jim Cohen]

it is nice...especially at that price.

He only told us what it costs him to make it, not the price!

[chris ivey]

scuuussse meee...especially at that 'cost'.

[Chris Drew]

Looks cool!
I'm liking the back-angled tuners.

I'm wondering about that finish... what is that exactly?

Regarding your fretboard, really nice job!
You could make a sweet head-badge with your logo using the same method.
What Epilog do you have?
I have the pleasure of working with these machines, they are a real joy to use!

[John Billings]

"at first glance i thought, 'cool, a concrete guitar'. "

Alan! Where are you? Sounds like another project that's right up your alley!

[Laurent Kappler]

Très belle
Love the jack place,
Newbie from France

[Leroy Beal]

Looks cool!
I'm liking the back-angled tuners.

I'm wondering about that finish... what is that exactly?

Regarding your fretboard, really nice job!
You could make a sweet head-badge with your logo using the same method.
What Epilog do you have?
I have the pleasure of working with these machines, they are a real joy to use!

A few pictures will save hours of typing.

These are the three cans of paint that I've used recently.



Here are the three guitars. My original lap, my refurbished Rogue, and a hybred Telecaster/biscuit and cone resophonic.



A better picture of the headstock. When I went to install the tuners, I found that I'd jammed up the middle two and the only way they would fit was at an angle. After declaring myself an idiot, I turned all the tuners to match the same angle and found that I liked this much better. So in the catalogue it will be know as a design element. I have thought about adding a mirrored logo, but have been busy with other things.

[Leroy Beal]

Could you give a little more explanation of how you made the fretboard?

I'll try. I belong to a woodworking club called the SawDust Shop. There I met a fellow forum member Mark Bracewell. Over the last 9 months we have watched each other build our collections of stringed instruments. Mark wrote a Corel Draw program for etching the fretboard layout for his lap steels. He patterened it after his Supro lap fretboard.

One day I ask him if he wanted to try using it on some clear acrylic to do something like on George Boards. Our's were promising, but nothing excited either of us. Mark thought that it might be cool to use mirrored acrylic and I said I had some at home. A few days later I brought a sheet in and we started playing with it. At first we etched off the frets and markers. It looked good when painted, but there was too much shiny surface. He then hit on the idea of reversing the image and leaving the frets and markers as mirror and painting the rest black. It turns out that a flat paint covers best, so that is what I used. We tried fluorescent orange. It was wild!

Here are a couple of pictures of an extra FB I made for some later project.



You can see where the laser burnt away the mirroring.



I used the heavy duty 3M dark gray mounting tape to mount it to my guitar.

Mark can probably give a better explanation.

[Gary Stevenson]

First thats a nice finish on the guitar,2nd being resourceful on the tuners, and I see you get a good finish on the aluminum L-angle.I say its a great job.I will bet the P-90 sounds pretty damn nice. I have used a couple for my first builds.If you can get your hands on brass either round or L-angle you will find some increase in tone.Stainless steel works pretty good also.

[Mark Bracewell]

Mark can probably give a better explanation.

Nah Leroy, you nailed it.

I can tell you we are close to figuring out how many luthiers it takes to kill a laser diode

[Chris Drew]

Just wondering, on the fretboard, did you raster along the length of the board or parallel with the frets?

[Mark Bracewell]

parallel with the frets, much faster, less pixellation

[Leroy Beal]

First thats a nice finish on the guitar,2nd being resourceful on the tuners, and I see you get a good finish on the aluminum L-angle.I say its a great job.I will bet the P-90 sounds pretty damn nice. I have used a couple for my first builds.If you can get your hands on brass either round or L-angle you will find some increase in tone.Stainless steel works pretty good also.

Thanks,

you are probably right about the harder metals, although I think the difference would be slight at best. I had the aluminum on hand and it fit my build goals. For $16.95 this P-90 is a steal.

[Alan Brookes]

I've often thought of using that material, but never tried it. I use it for scenery on my model railway. It seems to have worked out well on your lap steels. Well done.

...you've set me to brainstorming, now. I wonder how it would stick to Formica. It might be an answer to how to get rid of that awful black Formica that I dislike so much.