Keyless Lap Steel

[Paul Strojan]

I have been toying with the idea of building a twelve string travel guitar that would also function as a practice board. I want a couple of unique features: a piezo pickup and a keyless tuner to keep the total length of the guitar relatively compact. What options are there for keyless tuners?

[J D Sauser]

I have been toying with the idea of building a twelve string travel guitar that would also function as a practice board. I want a couple of unique features: a piezo pickup and a keyless tuner to keep the total length of the guitar relatively compact. What options are there for keyless tuners?

I've long wanted a 25" scale 12 sting practice "board", I could pack into a regular suitcase.

some keyless tuners do pop up every now and then on this Forum section or the Buy-Sell section.
I've opted to "wrap" a keyhead under the guitar, via a double roller nut.

... J-D.

[Tim Toberer]

viewtopic.php?t=379009.

Why not build it yourself? Here are some ideas in this thread. There was a practice board project on here a while ago with a keyless tuner that was a bit crude. It looked straightforward to build with hardware store parts, seemed functional and could be easily improved upon, can't find it right now. I like the Piezo pickup idea. It would make a unique sound for sure.

[Bill Hatcher]

Here is a simple one I made out of aluminum and hardware store screws. Started out as a. 14 string, but I added a few wooden pieces and three gears. You would really need a drill press to accurately drill a bunch of holes.

[Tim Toberer]

Here is the other build I was talking about. viewtopic.php?t=397920&highlight=practi ... tice+board
I don't really like the way the strings are attached to the coupling nuts. Depending on the string spacing, tapping and shaping some aluminum seems better and not much more work. I found 1/8 thick 1" channel at Home Depot I think would work for the housing.

This one looks is a bit more complicated to build, but a better design. viewtopic.php?t=323701&sid=4344fec4d4ac ... 301ade8c8f

Another using this principle like a mini pull release changer viewtopic.php?t=317350&sid=764b6fcc44ff ... 160092b3ac

[Mike Preuss]

I was very impressed by Ian Rae's design, so I copied it. It works great.

[Sonny Jenkins]

Back when I was building my little keyless lap steels I had a very simple ( and very much like the Kline) tuning finger. A forum search should produce many examples. I may still have some left around somewhere.