Lap steel guitar
Encyclopedia
The lap steel guitar is a type of steel guitar
, an instrument derived from and similar to the guitar
. The player changes pitch by pressing a metal or glass bar against the strings instead of by pressing strings against the fingerboard
.
There are three main types of lap steel guitar:
Lap slide and resonator guitars may also be fitted with pickups, but do not depend on electrical amplification to produce sound.
s set up for steel playing fall into this category.
Instruments designed exclusively as lap steel guitars typically have modified necks that make fretted playing impossible. The hollow neck acoustic lap steel, developed by Chris Knutsen
and popularized by Weissenborn
, extends the body cavity behind the neck all the way to the head. The square-necked resonator guitar has a strengthened square profile neck, allowing heavier string gauges and/or higher tunings that would normally be considered impossible (or certainly ill-advised) on a conventional guitar. The electric lap steel guitar typically incorporates the entire neck into the solid body of the guitar, again providing extra strength to allow a greater variety of string gauges and tunings.
Console steel guitars, typically with more than six strings and/or multiple necks, are rarely played in lap steel fashion (without their legs), but are often referred to as lap steel guitars by many makers and authorities. See table steel guitar
.
when sounding a note; rather, the player holds a metal slide called steel (or tone bar) in the left hand, which is moved along the strings to change the instrument's pitch while the right hand plucks or picks the strings. This method of playing greatly restricts the number of chords
available, so lap steel music often features melodies, a restricted set of harmonies (such as in blues
), or another single part
.
The steel guitar, when played in Hawaiian, Country, Bluegrass, or Western Swing styles, is almost always plucked using a plastic thumbpick affixed to the right hand's thumb, and metal or plastic "fingerpicks" fitted to the first 2, 3, or even all 4 fingers of the right hand. This allows the player greater control when picking sets of notes on non-adjacent strings. Some Blues players, especially those who use a round-neck resonator guitar played upright, conventional-guitar-style, with a bottleneck or hollow metal slide on one left-hand finger, forgo the fingerpicks and thumbpicks, and use their bare fingers and thumb instead. On the other hand, a minority of Blues players, and many Rock players, use a conventional flatpick. Tut Taylor is one of the few Dobro players that use a flatpick.
in 1885. It is said, at the age of 7, Kekuku was walking along a railroad track and picked up a metal bolt, slid the metal along the strings of his guitar and was intrigued by the sound. He taught himself to play using this method with the back of a knife blade. Various other people have also been credited with the innovation. http://www.well.com/user/wellvis/steel.html. The instrument became a major fad
in the United States
during the 1920s and 1930s.
It was electrified in the early 1930s. In 1932, the first production electric guitar was introduced, the aluminum Ro-Pat-In (later Rickenbacker
) A22 "Frying Pan"
lap steel. This made the so-called "Hawaiian" guitar the first electric stringed instrument (just a few years before Les Paul and Charlie Christian modified their instruments and after the theremin
was patented in 1928). The first electric instrument on a commercial recording was made and played in 1935 by Bob Dunn
, a musician in Houston, Texas who played in the Western swing
band Milton Brown and His Musical Brownies
. Dunn owned a music store that bore his name in the Houston area.
The lap steel, dobro
and pedal steel guitar
are associated most closely with Hawaiian music, country music
and bluegrass
, though some players have used them in rock music
, jazz
, blues
, and other musical genres. The round neck, metal-bodied resonator guitar is used almost exclusively by blues, rock, or blues-rock musicians.
Today lap steel guitars are growing in popularity, this is due to the likes of Ben Harper, John Butler, Mason Rack, Sean Kirkwood and many others.
[all tunings are shown low-to-high; that is, thickest string to thinnest, or 6th string to 1st string].
Blues and Rock players tend to favor one of two tuning families: open G/open A, or open D/open E.
Open G is tuned D-G-D-G-B-D; open A raises each of those notes a whole-step (2 frets) to E-A-E-A-C#-E. During the 1920s and 1930s, much of the sheet music written for lap steel utilized open A tuning as the de facto standard tuning for the instrument.
Open D is tuned D-A-D-F#-A-D, and open E is a whole-step higher: E-B-E-G#-B-E. Joe Perry of Aerosmith uses Open E on his electric lap steel. David Lindley is another player who uses transposed variations of these tunings.
Bluegrass and Country Dobro players using a square-neck instrument tend to favor an altered G tuning, often called "High-G", where the 6th string is tuned up to "G" instead of down to "D", and the 5th string is also tuned up, to B: G-B-D-G-B-D. They also sometimes raise it up to "High-A": A-C#-E-A-C#-E. These are examples of tunings possible on a lap steel that would cause serious damage if attempted on a round-neck resonator or standard guitar.
Henry Kaleialoha Allen in his book uses a modified C6 tuning, with a Bb in the bass: Bb-E-G-A-C-E.
Dobro players also generally use a set of strings with different gauges than those used on standard electric or acoustic guitars to help them to project more sound and to achieve their higher tunings.
Many Western Swing steel players, and some Old-Time Country steel players, use a C6 tuning. There is no "standard" C6 tuning; one popular one is C-E-G-A-C-E. This tuning is a good one for copping Don Helms' steel licks off old Hank Williams records, although Helms used a steel with legs (a "console steel"), with two necks having 8 strings each; Helms actually used an E13 tuning, which adds the 7th (D) and the 13th (C#) to the E tuning, making it B-D-E-G#-B-C#-E-G#, low to high. An extended C6/FMaj7 is used by Western Swing pedal steel guitarists on their 10-string pedal steels. This tuning, "C-F-A-C-E-G-A-C-E-G", is difficult to achieve on the 6-string steel but a subset thereof is achieved as previously mentioned. A6 is a commonly used alternate for C6.
The E7 tuning is used by many players, especially those who begin learning with the Mel Bay Steel Guitar Method instructional books. The E7 tuning in those books is spelled either B-D-E-G#-B-E or with the 6th string lowered to the tonic E: E-D-E-G#-B-E. Note the similarity of this second tuning to the open E tuning above: the only difference is the 5th string, which is lowered from the tonic E to the 7th note in the key of E, which is D.
There are many other tunings used by players. Pedal Steel guitarists switching over to lap steel often bring over a modified version of the 10-string E9 tuning that is the standard for Country pedal steel; pedal steels, and a few non-pedal "console steels" actually have multiple necks, each in a different tuning, and very often on a pedal steel the 2 main necks will be in E9 and C6 tunings. As noted under the C6 tuning, an A6 tuning is also used.
See the Links below for a list of additional tunings.
Steel guitar
Steel guitar is a type of guitar or the method of playing the instrument. Developed in Hawaii in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a steel guitar is usually positioned horizontally; strings are plucked with one hand, while the other hand changes the pitch of one or more strings with the use...
, an instrument derived from and similar to the guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
. The player changes pitch by pressing a metal or glass bar against the strings instead of by pressing strings against the fingerboard
Fingerboard
The fingerboard is a part of most stringed instruments. It is a thin, long strip of material, usually wood, that is laminated to the front of the neck of an instrument and above which the strings run...
.
There are three main types of lap steel guitar:
- Lap slide guitarLap slide guitarA lap slide guitar is a general term often used to describe any guitar played on the lap with a slide or steel.Lap slide guitars are generally one of three types:* Acoustic resonator guitars* Electric lap steels...
s, the first developed, which use a similar sound box to a Spanish guitar. These were originally called Hawaiian guitars and included versions that had a factory raised nut, but also include Spanish guitars with a nut extender (a device that fits over the nut to raise the strings). - Resonator guitarResonator guitarA resonator guitar or resophonic guitar is an acoustic guitar whose sound is produced by one or more spun metal cones instead of the wooden sound board . Resonator guitars were originally designed to be louder than conventional acoustic guitars which were overwhelmed by horns and percussion...
s, particularly those with square necks, but also round neck versions with a raised nut. - Electric lap steel guitars, which include the first commercially successful solid bodySolid bodyA solid-body instrument is a string instrument such as a guitar, bass or violin built without its normal sound box and relying on an electric pickup system to directly receive the vibrations of the strings....
instruments. These were originally marketed as electric Hawaiian guitars. In addition to the lap=played model, a closely related version called a console steel guitar is supported on legs (but does not include the pedals or knee levers of the pedal steel guitarPedal steel guitarThe pedal steel guitar is a type of electric guitar that uses a metal bar to "fret" or shorten the length of the strings, rather than fingers on strings as with a conventional guitar. Unlike other types of steel guitar, it also uses pedals and knee levers to affect the pitch, hence the name "pedal"...
. Electric lap steels typically have six to ten strings.
Lap slide and resonator guitars may also be fitted with pickups, but do not depend on electrical amplification to produce sound.
Description
A lap steel guitar's strings are raised at both the nut and bridge ends of the fingerboard, typically to about half an inch. The strings are too high to contact the surface of the neck, so frets, if present, are only for reference and are often replaced by markers. Some lap steel guitars can be converted between lap and fretted playing, or are modified versions of conventional guitars—the only difference is usually string height. Round-necked resonator guitarResonator guitar
A resonator guitar or resophonic guitar is an acoustic guitar whose sound is produced by one or more spun metal cones instead of the wooden sound board . Resonator guitars were originally designed to be louder than conventional acoustic guitars which were overwhelmed by horns and percussion...
s set up for steel playing fall into this category.
Instruments designed exclusively as lap steel guitars typically have modified necks that make fretted playing impossible. The hollow neck acoustic lap steel, developed by Chris Knutsen
Chris Knutsen
Chris Knutsen was an American luthier of the early 20th Century, primarily known for his Hawaiian guitars and harp guitars.-Biography:...
and popularized by Weissenborn
Weissenborn
Weissenborn or H. Weissenborn is a brand of lap slide guitar manufactured by Hermann Weissenborn in Los Angeles in the 1920s and 1930s....
, extends the body cavity behind the neck all the way to the head. The square-necked resonator guitar has a strengthened square profile neck, allowing heavier string gauges and/or higher tunings that would normally be considered impossible (or certainly ill-advised) on a conventional guitar. The electric lap steel guitar typically incorporates the entire neck into the solid body of the guitar, again providing extra strength to allow a greater variety of string gauges and tunings.
Console steel guitars, typically with more than six strings and/or multiple necks, are rarely played in lap steel fashion (without their legs), but are often referred to as lap steel guitars by many makers and authorities. See table steel guitar
Table steel guitar
The console steel guitar is a type of electric steel guitar intermediate between the lap steel guitar and the pedal steel guitar. Console steel guitars typically have multiple necks and/or more than six strings per neck, and are too large to be easily played in lap steel fashion.They are...
.
Playing
The lap steel guitar is typically placed on the player's lap, or on a stool in front of the seated player. Unlike a conventional guitar, the strings are not pressed to a fretFret
A fret is a raised portion on the neck of a stringed instrument, that extends generally across the full width of the neck. On most modern western instruments, frets are metal strips inserted into the fingerboard...
when sounding a note; rather, the player holds a metal slide called steel (or tone bar) in the left hand, which is moved along the strings to change the instrument's pitch while the right hand plucks or picks the strings. This method of playing greatly restricts the number of chords
Chord (music)
A chord in music is any harmonic set of two–three or more notes that is heard as if sounding simultaneously. These need not actually be played together: arpeggios and broken chords may for many practical and theoretical purposes be understood as chords...
available, so lap steel music often features melodies, a restricted set of harmonies (such as in blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
), or another single part
Part (music)
1) A part is a strand or melody of music played by an individual instrument or voice within a larger work. Parts may be referred to as an outer part or an inner part . Part-writing is the composition of parts in consideration of harmony and counterpoint...
.
The steel guitar, when played in Hawaiian, Country, Bluegrass, or Western Swing styles, is almost always plucked using a plastic thumbpick affixed to the right hand's thumb, and metal or plastic "fingerpicks" fitted to the first 2, 3, or even all 4 fingers of the right hand. This allows the player greater control when picking sets of notes on non-adjacent strings. Some Blues players, especially those who use a round-neck resonator guitar played upright, conventional-guitar-style, with a bottleneck or hollow metal slide on one left-hand finger, forgo the fingerpicks and thumbpicks, and use their bare fingers and thumb instead. On the other hand, a minority of Blues players, and many Rock players, use a conventional flatpick. Tut Taylor is one of the few Dobro players that use a flatpick.
History
It is widely reported that the lap steel guitar was invented by a man named Joseph KekukuJoseph Kekuku
-Biography:Kekuku was born in Lāie, a village on the island of Oʻahu, Hawaii. As a boy, he would experiment with guitar technique, sliding ordinary household objects across the strings to see what sounds could be produced. By the time he was an adult, he had developed a unique style of playing...
in 1885. It is said, at the age of 7, Kekuku was walking along a railroad track and picked up a metal bolt, slid the metal along the strings of his guitar and was intrigued by the sound. He taught himself to play using this method with the back of a knife blade. Various other people have also been credited with the innovation. http://www.well.com/user/wellvis/steel.html. The instrument became a major fad
FAD
In biochemistry, flavin adenine dinucleotide is a redox cofactor involved in several important reactions in metabolism. FAD can exist in two different redox states, which it converts between by accepting or donating electrons. The molecule consists of a riboflavin moiety bound to the phosphate...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
during the 1920s and 1930s.
It was electrified in the early 1930s. In 1932, the first production electric guitar was introduced, the aluminum Ro-Pat-In (later Rickenbacker
Rickenbacker
Rickenbacker International Corporation, also known as Rickenbacker, is an electric and bass guitar manufacturer based in Santa Ana, California...
) A22 "Frying Pan"
Frying pan (guitar)
The "frying pan" was the first electric lap steel guitar ever produced. George Beauchamp created the instrument in 1931, and it was subsequently manufactured by Rickenbacker Electro...
lap steel. This made the so-called "Hawaiian" guitar the first electric stringed instrument (just a few years before Les Paul and Charlie Christian modified their instruments and after the theremin
Theremin
The theremin , originally known as the aetherphone/etherophone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox is an early electronic musical instrument controlled without discernible physical contact from the player. It is named after its Russian inventor, Professor Léon Theremin, who patented the device...
was patented in 1928). The first electric instrument on a commercial recording was made and played in 1935 by Bob Dunn
Bob Dunn (musician)
Robert Lee "Bob" Dunn was a jazz trombonist and a pioneer Western swing steel guitarist.He is noted as the first musician to record an electrically amplified instrument—January, 1935, with Milton Brown and His Musical Brownies.Dunn also played steel guitar in numerous other Western Swing...
, a musician in Houston, Texas who played in the Western swing
Western swing
Western swing music is a subgenre of American country music that originated in the late 1920s in the West and South among the region's Western string bands...
band Milton Brown and His Musical Brownies
Milton Brown
Milton Brown was an American band leader and vocalist who co-founded the genre of Western swing. His band was the first to fuse hillbilly hokum, jazz, and pop together into a unique, distinctly American hybrid, thus giving him the nickname, "Father of Western Swing"...
. Dunn owned a music store that bore his name in the Houston area.
The lap steel, dobro
Dobro
Dobro is a registered trademark, now owned by Gibson Guitar Corporation and used for a particular design of resonator guitar.The name has a long and involved history, interwoven with that of the resonator guitar...
and pedal steel guitar
Pedal steel guitar
The pedal steel guitar is a type of electric guitar that uses a metal bar to "fret" or shorten the length of the strings, rather than fingers on strings as with a conventional guitar. Unlike other types of steel guitar, it also uses pedals and knee levers to affect the pitch, hence the name "pedal"...
are associated most closely with Hawaiian music, country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
and bluegrass
Bluegrass music
Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and a sub-genre of country music. It has mixed roots in Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish traditional music...
, though some players have used them in rock music
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
, jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
, and other musical genres. The round neck, metal-bodied resonator guitar is used almost exclusively by blues, rock, or blues-rock musicians.
Today lap steel guitars are growing in popularity, this is due to the likes of Ben Harper, John Butler, Mason Rack, Sean Kirkwood and many others.
Notable players
- Al PerkinsAl PerkinsAl Perkins is a Texas-born American guitarist. The Gibson guitar company called Perkins "the world's most influential Dobro player", and even began producing an "Al Perkins Signature" Dobro in 2001 - designed and autographed by Perkins....
- Alain JohannesAlain JohannesAlain Johannes Moschulski is a guitarist and, along with his late partner Natasha Shneider and drummer Jack Irons, a founding member of the band Eleven...
- Ángel ParraÁngel ParraÁngel Cereceda Parra is a Chilean singer and songwriter, son of Violeta Parra, notable Chilean folklorist and brother of Isabel Parra. He travels abroad helping to maintain the Nueva Canción tradition in Chilean expatriate communities in Europe, North America, and Australia. His son -also named...
- Ben HarperBen HarperBenjamin Chase "Ben" Harper is an American singer-songwriter and musician. Harper plays an eclectic mix of blues, folk, soul, reggae and rock music and is known for his guitar-playing skills, vocals, live performances and activism. Harper's fan base spans several continents...
- Ben KeithBen KeithBennett Keith Schaeufele , better known by his stage name Ben Keith, was an American musician and record producer...
- Bob BrozmanBob BrozmanBob Brozman is an American guitarist and ethnomusicologist.He has performed in a number of styles such as Gypsy jazz, calypso, Blues, ragtime, Hawaiian and Caribbean music. Brozman has also collaborated with musicians from diverse cultural backgrounds such as India, Africa, Japan, Papua New Guinea...
- BJ Cole
- Brian JonesBrian JonesLewis Brian Hopkins Jones , known as Brian Jones, was an English musician and a founding member of the Rolling Stones....
- Brij Bhushan KabraBrij Bhushan KabraBrij Bhushan Kabra is an Indian musician who popularized the guitar as an instrument in Indian classical music.Kabra was born 1937 to Goverdhanlal Kabra in Jodhpur where he spent his youth. He was interested in sports and listened to Indian classical music, but did not intend to become a musician...
- Chuck BerryChuck BerryCharles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter, and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. With songs such as "Maybellene" , "Roll Over Beethoven" , "Rock and Roll Music" and "Johnny B...
- Cindy CashdollarCindy CashdollarCindy Cashdollar is a steel guitar and Dobro artist. She grew up in Woodstock, New York where she perfected her skills by playing with bluegrass musician John Herald, blues musician Paul Butterfield, and Levon Helm and Rick Danko of The Band.Cashdollar received five Grammy awards while playing...
- Daniel HoDaniel HoDaniel Ho has won five Grammy awards, playing the guitar, 'ukulele and piano, and is a songwriter and producer specializing in Hawaiian music.-Early life:...
- Daniel LanoisDaniel LanoisDaniel Lanois born September 19, 1951 in Hull, Quebec) is a Canadian record producer, guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter. He has released a number of albums of his own work and has produced albums for a wide variety of artists, including Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Peter Gabriel, Emmylou Harris, Willie...
- Dennis Smillie
- David LindleyDavid Lindley (musician)David Perry Lindley is an American musician who is notable for his work with Jackson Browne, Warren Zevon, and other rock musicians. He has worked extensively in other genres as well, performing with artists as varied as Curtis Mayfield and Dolly Parton...
- David GilmourDavid GilmourDavid Jon Gilmour, CBE, D.M. is an English rock musician and multi-instrumentalist who is best known as the guitarist, one of the lead singers and main songwriters in the progressive rock band Pink Floyd. In addition to his work with Pink Floyd, Gilmour has worked as a producer for a variety of...
- Eddie Alkire
- Gerald RossGerald RossGerald Ross is a musician specializing in American Roots Music - Swing, Early Jazz, Western Swing, Hawaiian, Ragtime and Blues. Playing the guitar, lap steel guitar and ukulele he has performed throughout the USA and Europe and has recorded five solo CDs...
- Glenn Ross CampbellGlenn Ross CampbellGlenn Ross Campbell born in 1946, is a child prodigy steel guitarist, most noted for being lead guitarist of cult band, The Misunderstood. The Misunderstood were a psychedelic rock band originating from Riverside, California in the mid-1960s...
- Harry ManxHarry ManxHarry Manx is a musician who blends blues, folk music, and Hindustani classical music. He was born in the Isle of Man where he spent his childhood and now lives on Saltspring Island, British Columbia, Canada....
- James ShafferJames ShafferJames Christian 'Munky' Shaffer is the guitarist for the nu metal band Korn . According to Korn's video "Who Then Now?", The nickname 'Munky' is a reference to his feet which resemble monkey's hands when spread...
- Jeff BuckleyJeff BuckleyJeffrey Scott "Jeff" Buckley , raised as Scotty Moorhead, was an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He was the son of Tim Buckley, also a musician...
- Jeff LangJeff LangJeff Lang is an Australian songwriter, singer and slide guitarist. A leading performer in the Australian roots music scene and purveyer of his self-described "disturbed folk" style, which incorporates primarily folk, blues and rock...
- Jerry ByrdJerry ByrdGerald Lester "Jerry" Byrd was an American musician who played Lap steel guitar in country and Hawaiian music.-Career:...
- Jerry DouglasJerry Douglas (musician)Jerry Douglas is an American record producer and resonator guitar player. Called "Dobro's matchless contemporary master," by The New York Times, and lauded as "my favorite musician" by John Fogerty, Douglas is one of the world’s most renowned Dobro players.-Career:In addition to his twelve solo...
- Jerry GarciaJerry GarciaJerome John "Jerry" Garcia was an American musician best known for his lead guitar work, singing and songwriting with the band the Grateful Dead...
- Joe PerryJoe Perry (musician)Anthony Joseph "Joe" Perry is the lead guitarist, backing and occasional lead vocalist, and contributing songwriter for the rock band Aerosmith. He is influenced by many rock artists especially The Rolling Stones and The Beatles...
- John ButlerJohn Butler (musician)John Charles Wiltshire-Butler or John Charles Butler is an Australian musician, songwriter, record label owner and producer...
- John FaheyJohn Fahey (musician)John Fahey was an American fingerstyle guitarist and composer who pioneered the steel-string acoustic guitar as a solo instrument. His style has been greatly influential and has been described as the foundation of American Primitivism, a term borrowed from painting and referring mainly to the...
- John Paul JonesJohn Paul Jones (musician)John Paul Jones is an English multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, composer, arranger and record producer. Best known as the bassist, mandolinist, and keyboardist for English rock band Led Zeppelin, Jones has since developed a solo career and has gained even more respect as both a musician and a...
- John LennonJohn LennonJohn Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
- Jordan RudessJordan RudessJordan Rudess is an American keyboardist best known as a member of the progressive metal band Dream Theater and the progressive rock supergroup Liquid Tension Experiment.-Biography:...
- Junior BrownJunior BrownJamieson "Junior" Brown is an American country guitarist and singer. He has released nine studio albums in his career, and has charted twice on the Billboard country singles charts. Brown's signature instrument is the "guit-steel" double neck guitar, a hybrid of electric guitar and lap steel...
- Kaki KingKaki KingKaki King is an American guitarist and composer. King is known for her percussive and jazz-tinged melodies, energetic live shows, use of multiple tunings on acoustic and lap steel guitar, and her diverse range in different genres.In February 2006, Rolling Stone released a list of "The New Guitar...
- Kelly Joe PhelpsKelly Joe PhelpsKelly Joe Phelps is an American musician and songwriter. His music has been characterized as a mixture of delta blues and jazz.-Career:...
- King Ben NawahiKing Ben Nawahi"King" Bennie Nawahi was an American steel guitar master from Hawaii, well-known throughout the country in the 1920s and 30s...
- Martin HarleyMartin harleyMartin Harley is a British singer-songwriter and slide guitarist. Specialising in folk and blues, he and his band have released four albums between 2003 and 2010.-Career:...
- Matthew Followill
- Nels ClineNels ClineNels Cline is an American guitarist and composer, currently the lead guitarist of alternative rock band Wilco. David Carr of the New York Times describes Cline as "one of the best guitarists in any genre."-Career:...
- Orville JohnsonOrville JohnsonOrville Johnson is an American resonator guitar player and musician, born in 1953 in Edwardsville, Illinois. He came up in the St. Louis, Missouri music scene and now lives in Seattle, Washington. A frequent session musician, he also has released a number of solo and group albums...
- Paul FranklinPaul Franklin (musician)Paul Franklin is an American multi-instrumentalist, known mainly for his work as a steel guitarist. He began his career in the 1970s as a member of Barbara Mandrell's road band; in addition he toured with Mel Tillis and Jerry Reed. He has since become a prolific session musician in Nashville,...
- Richard BrentRichard BrentRichard Brent may refer to:*Richard Brent , U.S. Congressman and Senator from Virginia*Richard Brent , Australian mathematician and computer science professor*Richard Brent Tully, astronomer based in Hawaii...
- Robert Randolph
- Ron WoodRon WoodRonald David "Ronnie" Wood is an English rock guitarist and bassist best known as a former member of The Jeff Beck Group, Faces, and current member of The Rolling Stones. He also plays lap and pedal steel guitar....
- Rusty Young
- Sneaky Pete KleinowSneaky Pete KleinowPeter E. "Sneaky Pete" Kleinow was an American country-rock musician, songwriter, and a motion picture special effects artist...
- Sol HoopiiSol HoopiiSol Hoʻopiʻi was born Solomon Hoʻopiʻi Kaʻaiʻai in Honolulu, Hawaii. He was a Native Hawaiian guitarist, claimed by many as the all-time best lap steel guitar virtuoso, and he is one the most famous original Hawaiian steel guitarists, along with Joseph Kekuku, Frank Ferera, Sam Ku West and "King"...
- Sonny RhodesSonny RhodesSonny Rhodes is an American blues singer and lap steel guitar player. He has recorded over two hundred songs. "I'm what you call a self-proclaimed Disciple of the Blues!" said Rhodes about his years playing and singing for fans of blues around the world...
- Steve HoweSteve Howe (guitarist)Stephen James "Steve" Howe is an English guitarist, known for his work with the progressive rock group Yes...
- Steve KimockSteve Kimock-External links:** at the Internet Archive's live music archive* at the Internet Archive's live music archive* at Internet Archive's live music archive*, San Francisco, April 3, 1999*, Unofficial Fan Forum...
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- Oscar "Buddy" WoodsOscar "Buddy" WoodsOscar "Buddy" Woods was an American Texas blues guitarist, singer and songwriter.Woods, who was an early blues pioneer in lap steel, slide guitar playing, recorded thirty-five tracks between 1930 and 1940. He recorded solo and as part of the duo, the Shreveport Home Wreckers, and with a six/seven...
Tunings
The Lap steel guitar is not tuned in standard guitar tuning (E-A-D-G-B-E, low to high). Rather, it is usually tuned to an open chord, often an extended chord like a 6th, 7th, or 9th.[all tunings are shown low-to-high; that is, thickest string to thinnest, or 6th string to 1st string].
Blues and Rock players tend to favor one of two tuning families: open G/open A, or open D/open E.
Open G is tuned D-G-D-G-B-D; open A raises each of those notes a whole-step (2 frets) to E-A-E-A-C#-E. During the 1920s and 1930s, much of the sheet music written for lap steel utilized open A tuning as the de facto standard tuning for the instrument.
Open D is tuned D-A-D-F#-A-D, and open E is a whole-step higher: E-B-E-G#-B-E. Joe Perry of Aerosmith uses Open E on his electric lap steel. David Lindley is another player who uses transposed variations of these tunings.
Bluegrass and Country Dobro players using a square-neck instrument tend to favor an altered G tuning, often called "High-G", where the 6th string is tuned up to "G" instead of down to "D", and the 5th string is also tuned up, to B: G-B-D-G-B-D. They also sometimes raise it up to "High-A": A-C#-E-A-C#-E. These are examples of tunings possible on a lap steel that would cause serious damage if attempted on a round-neck resonator or standard guitar.
Henry Kaleialoha Allen in his book uses a modified C6 tuning, with a Bb in the bass: Bb-E-G-A-C-E.
Dobro players also generally use a set of strings with different gauges than those used on standard electric or acoustic guitars to help them to project more sound and to achieve their higher tunings.
Many Western Swing steel players, and some Old-Time Country steel players, use a C6 tuning. There is no "standard" C6 tuning; one popular one is C-E-G-A-C-E. This tuning is a good one for copping Don Helms' steel licks off old Hank Williams records, although Helms used a steel with legs (a "console steel"), with two necks having 8 strings each; Helms actually used an E13 tuning, which adds the 7th (D) and the 13th (C#) to the E tuning, making it B-D-E-G#-B-C#-E-G#, low to high. An extended C6/FMaj7 is used by Western Swing pedal steel guitarists on their 10-string pedal steels. This tuning, "C-F-A-C-E-G-A-C-E-G", is difficult to achieve on the 6-string steel but a subset thereof is achieved as previously mentioned. A6 is a commonly used alternate for C6.
The E7 tuning is used by many players, especially those who begin learning with the Mel Bay Steel Guitar Method instructional books. The E7 tuning in those books is spelled either B-D-E-G#-B-E or with the 6th string lowered to the tonic E: E-D-E-G#-B-E. Note the similarity of this second tuning to the open E tuning above: the only difference is the 5th string, which is lowered from the tonic E to the 7th note in the key of E, which is D.
There are many other tunings used by players. Pedal Steel guitarists switching over to lap steel often bring over a modified version of the 10-string E9 tuning that is the standard for Country pedal steel; pedal steels, and a few non-pedal "console steels" actually have multiple necks, each in a different tuning, and very often on a pedal steel the 2 main necks will be in E9 and C6 tunings. As noted under the C6 tuning, an A6 tuning is also used.
See the Links below for a list of additional tunings.
See also
- Chitra veena
- Vichitra veenaVichitra veenaThe vichitra veena is a plucked string instrument used in Hindustani music. It is similar to the Carnatic gottuvadhyam . It has no frets and is played with a slide.-The structure:...
- Steel guitarSteel guitarSteel guitar is a type of guitar or the method of playing the instrument. Developed in Hawaii in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a steel guitar is usually positioned horizontally; strings are plucked with one hand, while the other hand changes the pitch of one or more strings with the use...
- Lap slide guitarLap slide guitarA lap slide guitar is a general term often used to describe any guitar played on the lap with a slide or steel.Lap slide guitars are generally one of three types:* Acoustic resonator guitars* Electric lap steels...
- Lap steel ukuleleLap steel ukuleleThe lap steel ukulele is a type of and method of playing the ukuleleThere are three main types of lap steel ukulele:* Lap slide ukuleles, simply a ukulele with high action played with a slide* Resonator ukuleles, particularly those with square necks....
- Table steel guitarTable steel guitarThe console steel guitar is a type of electric steel guitar intermediate between the lap steel guitar and the pedal steel guitar. Console steel guitars typically have multiple necks and/or more than six strings per neck, and are too large to be easily played in lap steel fashion.They are...
- Pedal steel guitarPedal steel guitarThe pedal steel guitar is a type of electric guitar that uses a metal bar to "fret" or shorten the length of the strings, rather than fingers on strings as with a conventional guitar. Unlike other types of steel guitar, it also uses pedals and knee levers to affect the pitch, hence the name "pedal"...
External links
- Brad's Page of Steel – Discusses lap steel guitars in more detail
- Scotty's tunings – Scotty's has a list of non-pedal steel guitar tunings, for 6, 7, and 8-string steels.
- Bediaz - Many Lap Steel models and genuine Weissenborn slideguitars with history and pictures.
- Steel Guitar Forum – A discussion board for steel guitarists.
- Hawaiian Steel Guitar Association – An organisation which promotes the development of lap steel guitar with worldwide membership.
- SteelGuitarCamp – A web site featuring links to instructional videos on lap steel guitar.
- Weissenborn.es features lots of lap steel models as well as history and pictures.
- Slide Guitar for Beginners - Lots of free tips and links.