Regular guitar as lap steel?

[Brad Kopp]

I’m new to this…I have a Dobro (hound dog) with the nut step to raise the strings. If I wanted another for up at the lake I thought just get an old acoustic and put the raised nut on it and I’d have a dobro? Is there advantage to an actual Dobro over a regular guitar for lap playing? (Not counting the resonator sound of my existing Dobro.)
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[Samuel Phillippe]

Not in my opinion,Brad.
I also have a round neck resonator I have put a nut riser on and play like a lap steel. Have put a nut riser on solid body electric guitar and played like lap steel. they all play the same except for tone.
Tuning might be the only issue because of different string gauges... I use standard accoustic strings but have not tried tuning to lap or pedal steel tunings.
Oh yes and I don't use my good acoustic, I have a couple of cheapos that sound ok with the nut riser.

Have fun


Sam

[D Schubert]

I've got an old Oahu square neck guitar with an original nut that is not very tall. I added one of those Grover extension nuts so that the string height is more friendly for lap style playing. It plays fine, sounds like the flattop guitar that it is, not like a Dobro. You already know that the the string spacing is narrower than you'd find on most square-neck resonators and lap steels.

[Rich Ertelt]

I don't have a dobro. I needed a dobro kind of sound for a song I was recording, so nut raise thingy. Worked fine. Didn't really sound like a dobro exactly, but it was that flavor, and it wasn't critical so worked fine.

I've also recorded electric guitar on my lap with a bar. I have a guitar set up for slide. Did a recording session and wasn't 100% with the slide parts. So put it on my lap, got out the 3/4" round bar. Worked really well, did his record release party like that. I have lapsteels, but that worked really well for what he was doing.

[Dave Mudgett]

Not exactly sure what you're asking. If the issue is roundneck vs. squareneck - for strictly lap-style playing,

1. A squareneck can generally handle heavier strings without messing up the neck. I think this has tonal implications - especially on a spider resonator, which I generally like pretty heavy strings on. There are not a lot of roundneck acoustics that I would tune 16-56 gauge strings up to high-G GBDGBD, which is totally routine for a good squareneck.

2. As already mentioned, squareneck string spacing is generally wider. At least for a 6-string guitar.

The only advantage I can see for a roundneck is that it can be convertible for either lap or standard-guitar slide playing.

For example, I have a Beard Odyssey roundneck 6-string which is a pretty nice convertible instrument. I usually use it for slide guitar playing. But it sounds good for lap playing too, with an extension nut. Not as loud as a comparable squareneck, but still good. For example, my Gold Tone Beard Signature handles heavier strings, is louder, and I think is a better guitar for lap playing. But if I just want to have one guitar in a situation where I do both, the Odyssey works just fine.

If the issue is non-resonator vs. resonator - the resonator will generally be a lot louder, as well as have the characteristic resonator sound. Over the years, I've had a number of std vs resonator guitars designed for slide and/or lap playing. I personally find most standard non-resonator acoustic guitars to be kind of anemic-sounding for lap playing. An exception is a Weissenborn style guitar - although they are generally not as loud, they have a very nice and unique voice.