Tutorial about steelguitar strings

Lap steels, resonators, multi-neck consoles and acoustic steel guitars

Moderator: Brad Bechtel

Sebastian Müller
Posts: 460
Joined: 12 May 2012 7:46 am
Location: Berlin / Germany
State/Province: -
Country: United States

Tutorial about steelguitar strings

Post by Sebastian Müller »

It’s finally here! I just released a tutorial sharing everything I know about steel guitar strings.
The video is done in my studio in our new house, so check it out
if you are curious 😀.
Hope you find it useful 😀🌴🤙 !
Aloha
Sebastian
Wie man die richtigen Lap Steel Saiten auswählt.png
please click here to watch the video: ---> https://youtu.be/gB73lMtqOhE
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
Tucker Jackson
Posts: 1939
Joined: 8 Apr 2004 12:01 am
Location: Portland, Oregon, USA
State/Province: Oregon
Country: United States

Re: Tutorial about steelguitar strings

Post by Tucker Jackson »

Thank you, Sebastian!
User avatar
Scott Houston
Posts: 14
Joined: 9 May 2025 4:33 am
State/Province: Pennsylvania
Country: United States

Re: Tutorial about steelguitar strings

Post by Scott Houston »

That's a thoughtful video. Interesting idea to base a string set for steel around an existing six string guitar set. I'm kicking myself for never thinking of that!
User avatar
Tony Oresteen
Posts: 849
Joined: 8 May 2017 7:54 pm
Location: Georgia, USA
State/Province: Georgia
Country: United States

Re: Tutorial about steelguitar strings

Post by Tony Oresteen »

I take a different approach. I use a string tension calculator to derive my custom sets. You MUST know the scale length of your guitar. You must know in which octave the note you want resides. Then you must know what tension you like. You must first decide how much tension you personally like for lap steel. Then as you change tunings you can easily figure out what the set should be. Here's my 22.5" C6 set and my A6 string set for 22.5" scale:

Image

Note that the A6 set is 1 1/2 steps below the C6 set. Thus the strings need to be thicker. The second column has an "O" which stands for "Octave". This the octive when the note resides.

See:

https://www.musicandtheory.com/an-easy- ... -notation/

I like about 29 lbs of pull on my strings. You might like less or more. By plugging in different string gauges I try to find the string size that gives me about 29 pounds of pull, plus of minus 2 pounds.

I use the online String Joy calculator & the D'Addario one:

https://tension.stringjoy.com/

https://www.daddario.com/pages/string-t ... calculator

Once I have my set calculated I order individual strings. I usually make up 5 sets at a time.
Tony
Newnan, GA

Too many guitars, not enough time to play
'72 Sho-Bud 6139, '71 Marlen 210
'78 Fender Stringmaster Quad black
PedalMaster D8