Aluminum I-beam for a lap steel?

David Mason · Post by **David Mason** » 9 Sep 2005 11:58 pm

It seems like most construction questions end up in "electronics", so here goes: can you just slap a bridge, some tuners, a pickup, and a nut on a section of I-beam and make it work? Chas Smith doesn't have an email listed, and I know there are a few other people who fool with this kind of thing. It looks like it would be pretty easy, obviously appearance and portability are not my concerns here.

jim milewski · Post by **jim milewski** » 10 Sep 2005 1:55 am

I would use a channel rather than I beam

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 10 Sep 2005 4:04 am

Blake Hawkins · Post by **Blake Hawkins** » 10 Sep 2005 5:30 am

When you open up a Gibson CG 520, you see that the actual neck is a steel box beam
that has the nut and bridge firmly screwed to it.
Everything else is wood trim.

Blake

David Mason · Post by **David Mason** » 10 Sep 2005 7:04 am

But with an I-beam, you can just drill the top flat piece for some 3L + 3R tuners? With a channel, I guess you'd mount them to the sides and cut slots for the strings to angle down into? That seems awkward.

Tom Gorr · Post by **Tom Gorr** » 10 Sep 2005 8:27 am

A so-called "H" section (wide flange I-beam, also could be made by 2 channel sections back to back) would have the better structural characteristics in my estimation. A channel doesn't have a very effective "section modulus" for resisting string tension above the fretboard. A boxbeam would have good rigidity both above and across the fretboard. [This message was edited by Tom Gorr on 10 September 2005 at 09:29 AM.]

John Lockney · Post by **John Lockney** » 15 Sep 2005 5:50 pm

There was one in Star Trek.

http://musicthing.blogspot.com/2004/12/star-trek-female-orgasms-and.html

[This message was edited by John Lockney on 15 September 2005 at 08:12 PM.]

Jon Moen · Post by **Jon Moen** » 15 Sep 2005 8:12 pm

These have been mentioned quite a few times:

From Fouke Industrial Guitars

<img height=400 width=700 src="http://www.industrialguitar.com/indyauc ... 2_0003.jpg">

Jon[This message was edited by Jon Moen on 15 September 2005 at 09:27 PM.]

Per Berner · Post by **Per Berner** » 16 Sep 2005 2:51 am

That Fouke is so cool, I'm getting frost bites!

Ray Minich · Post by **Ray Minich** » 16 Sep 2005 12:43 pm

My very first steel, in 1963, was a 6 string my dad made from an oak board. One cold December Saturday morninig I rode with him into Buffalo (NY) where he used the torch and the grinder at General Chemical to cut out a profile of the oak board, in 1/4 inch thick plate steel. He then bolted the steel to the plate. I still have this "lap" steel in my attic. You don't wanna drop it, and when you pick it up you gotta grab good hold of it.

If you buy a 3 foot long section of 30 inch I beam (like bridge spans are made from), then yer steel don't need legs or a lap. Riggers to move it are optional though.[This message was edited by Ray Minich on 16 September 2005 at 01:47 PM.]

David Doggett · Post by **David Doggett** » 16 Sep 2005 12:55 pm

I would imagine any metal body guitar would be very temperature sensitive. But I'd be interested in how they sound.

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 19 Sep 2005 12:33 pm

Sure, it would "work". How well it would work might depend on luck, though. With any all-metal guitar, the temperature problem would probably raise a few concerns, but barring that, I think it might sound quite ordinary, if a little bright. Most all materials have been tried at one time or another, and with varying degrees of success. I've even heard of a concrete bodied lap steel! That material proved to have the same problem as the old Bakelite Rick it was modeled after.

It broke.

Rick Aiello · Post by **Rick Aiello** » 19 Sep 2005 2:44 pm

I think it might sound quite ordinary,

Come on over to the HSGA Joliet 2005 convention October 13-15, 2005... to hear these metal guitars ...

Solid Bronze:

Solid A356 Cast Aluminum:

Absolutely nothing ordinary about their sound ...

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Aiello's House of Gauss


My wife and I don't think alike. She donates money to the homeless and I donate money to the topless! ... R. Dangerfield

David Doggett · Post by **David Doggett** » 19 Sep 2005 7:41 pm

Okay, if they don't sound ordinary, how do they sound? I would imagine they would sound extremely bright, with lots of sustain, and very rich overtones. Anyone have any clips?

Rick Aiello · Post by **Rick Aiello** » 20 Sep 2005 2:30 am

Just a Practice song

A Roland Microcube ... no reverb or effects ... a 3 oz Hawaiian flat bar.

------------------

Aiello's House of Gauss


My wife and I don't think alike. She donates money to the homeless and I donate money to the topless! ... R. Dangerfield

Rick Aiello · Post by **Rick Aiello** » 20 Sep 2005 3:31 am

Here's some reviews from last years HSGA Convention ...
http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum2/HTML/005895.html
http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum2/HTML/005885.html

If y'all can't make it to Joliet this year ... try and catch The Hula Monsters in the Baltimore / DC area.

Dave Giegerich plays one ... just picked it up a few weeks ago.