First night out on lapsteel

horse

I've been playing accordion / keyboards for this band for around a year, and bought the lapsteel a few months ago to use on recordings. As we're currently drummerless I took the lapsteel out for this stripped back set to try and add a bit more atmosphere to the sound - first time I've been nervous before a gig in years as I'm only just getting to grips with playing it, but glad to have got his first one under my belt and hope I'll grow in confidence and improve fairly quickly now - definitely a lot of fun to play, although far less forgiving than keys.

 

nick79

I really enjoyed that, nice one. 

horse

nick79;1061037" said:

I really enjoyed that, nice one. 

Thanks mate - much appreciated

nick79

No worries, credit where credits due and all that. I have to confess i know nothing about lap steels, but i do like the sounds that can be coaxed out of them. How do they work? Where's best to start? 

Cheers.

vasselmeyer

I've always been a sucker for slide guitar whether conventional or lap. Tell us a bit more about how you used it...tuning, slide, amp, effects etc.

horse

I don't really know mate, I'm just starting out myself. I think you can do a lot with a cheap lapsteel, volume pedal and a large dose of reverb. I went OTT and got the duesenberg because I wanted to be able to simulate the kind of bends that a pedal steel can do, so my technique is a long way short of the instrument's quality. I could never get the hang of 'normal' slide, but found that putting a strat flat on my lap and jacking up the action helped, so I gave the lapsteel a go. There is something very satisfying about doing the swells

horse

vasselmeyer said:

I've always been a sucker for slide guitar whether conventional or lap. Tell us a bit more about how you used it...tuning, slide, amp, effects etc.

Fairly basic setup really - tuned in open D (which is new to me), volume pedal, into @gassage's old princeton 68RI - should probably have given it even more reverb on the amp but was a bit too tense to think clearly at soundcheck! I'm using a shubb tone bar, which is a bit tall for my fingers, so might try to get one which is less tall as I think that will help me move it to slants easier -haven't managed to get to grips with slants at all yet, but early days

english_bob

Good stuff. I really like the Jayhawks vibe to your band's stuff.

I've been on a similar journey with the lap steel over the last 18 months or so too. I have managed to work a few slants in, but they're very tricky to get right consistently. If I had the Duesenberg's flappy paddles I'd probably steer clear.

I've found it really challenging to write parts for the lap steel- you can only really play two or three notes at a time (only really two if you play slants) and none of the stuff you've learned for "proper" guitar will work. You really have to think.

We're out on our first (and possibly last) gig with the lap steel at the Soundhouse tomorrow night...

horse

english_bob;1063592" said:

Good stuff. I really like the Jayhawks vibe to your band's stuff.

I've been on a similar journey with the lap steel over the last 18 months or so too. I have managed to work a few slants in, but they're very tricky to get right consistently. If I had the Duesenberg's flappy paddles I'd probably steer clear.

I've found it really challenging to write parts for the lap steel- you can only really play two or three notes at a time (only really two if you play slants) and none of the stuff you've learned for "proper" guitar will work. You really have to think.



We're out on our first (and possibly last) gig with the lap steel at the Soundhouse tomorrow night...

Cheers buddy - unfortunately the levers still don't really help with minor chords, but I've been bluffing minors by playing say a C and E over an Am etc. I don't find a problem hearing what I want to play in my head, but am still at the point where I may or may not find the right frets, so tried to play it safe... I think tuning accuracy will be an ongoing development!

Good luck for tomorrow night.

We've found a great new drummer btw :-)

koneguitarist

Enjoyed that whole song, quite happy to play that on my country show!

koneguitarist

In fact I have just put your song 405 in my show for Tuesday. Can you send me some details on band please.

horse

koneguitarist;1065230" said:

In fact I have just put your song 405 in my show for Tuesday. Can you send me some details on band please.

Thanks mate - I'll pm you some details.

english_bob

horse said:

english_bob;1063592" said:

Good stuff. I really like the Jayhawks vibe to your band's stuff.

I've been on a similar journey with the lap steel over the last 18 months or so too. I have managed to work a few slants in, but they're very tricky to get right consistently. If I had the Duesenberg's flappy paddles I'd probably steer clear.

I've found it really challenging to write parts for the lap steel- you can only really play two or three notes at a time (only really two if you play slants) and none of the stuff you've learned for "proper" guitar will work. You really have to think.



We're out on our first (and possibly last) gig with the lap steel at the Soundhouse tomorrow night...

Cheers buddy - unfortunately the levers still don't really help with minor chords, but I've been bluffing minors by playing say a C and E over an Am etc. I don't find a problem hearing what I want to play in my head, but am still at the point where I may or may not find the right frets, so tried to play it safe... I think tuning accuracy will be an ongoing development!

Good luck for tomorrow night.

We've found a great new drummer btw :-)

Good news.

I think once the band is done I'm going to experiment with putting lighter strings on my lap steel and using C6 tuning, which is supposed to be more versatile and easier to play a range of chords on. 

ToneControl

english_bob said:

Good news.

I think once the band is done I'm going to experiment with putting lighter strings on my lap steel and using C6 tuning, which is supposed to be more versatile and easier to play a range of chords on. 

sounds like a good idea, but....

C6 is a different beast, a different mindset. You'd be leaving behind quite a lot of stuff as well as opening up new options

I wouldn't do either/or, get a second lap steel for C6 (which is what I have done)

(and one for open G or open A too). You can get cheapo for under £100

Also- get a dedicated C6 set, you won't be able to just tune any normal guitar set to the intervals, you need very light bass strings

e.g. typical set is:

C6 Lap Steel: .015p .017p .022p .026w .030w .036w   

horse

I think once the band is done I'm going to experiment with putting lighter strings on my lap steel and using C6 tuning, which is supposed to be more versatile and easier to play a range of chords on. 

I don't think my brain could cope with any more confusion!

english_bob

horse said:

I think once the band is done I'm going to experiment with putting lighter strings on my lap steel and using C6 tuning, which is supposed to be more versatile and easier to play a range of chords on. 

I don't think my brain could cope with any more confusion!

That's one of several reasons I didn't want to do it while the band was still going. Having to re-learn parts in a different tuning would hurt my brain too much, but if I'm never going to have to play any of the songs I already know again I can pretty much start over.

ToneControl

english_bob said:

horse said:

I think once the band is done I'm going to experiment with putting lighter strings on my lap steel and using C6 tuning, which is supposed to be more versatile and easier to play a range of chords on. 

I don't think my brain could cope with any more confusion!

That's one of several reasons I didn't want to do it while the band was still going. Having to re-learn parts in a different tuning would hurt my brain too much, but if I'm never going to have to play any of the songs I already know again I can pretty much start over.

one of the strengths/weaknesses of lap steel is that specific tunings can strongly facilitate specific pieces

there is no guarantee that pieces one can play in tuning A is possible in tuning B

my semi pro mate often has to change tuning during a gig for this reason

so don't assume you can re-learn stuff in c6, it's such a different tuning that, for some tracks, using another tuning would be limiting