Lap steel

stimpsonslostson

After watching FAR too many Kelly Joe Phelps videos at work this morning I find myself wanting to try Lap Steel. 



Not having a spare guitar to convert I'm thinking about getting a cheap(ish) lap steel guitar- probably an electric one...

Anyone here play lap steel much?
 Any advice on what to look for?
neck profile isn't going to be an issue & the electronics i can upgrade myself... So I'm looking for a plank with (heavy?) strings & a pickup i guess!

What strings should i go for (open d is the most likely tuning- I'll be doing blues rather than Hawaiian/country). 
Tone bars- there seem to be a variety...

Winny_Pooh

Electric lap steel is quite a different thing to Kelly's sound which I assume is what you are really after? If you dig what he does then get an acoustic with 13s and a dobro nut (slips over the regular one) and have a go in D or open G.

Bars are specific to the person, some prefer the old style round bars but the shubb bars with the angled tips are kinda standard.

Also check out Jerry Douglas, king of the dobro. Different tone and approach.

simonk

There are plenty of cheap lap steels on eBay, and Thomann used to have a pretty decent low cost offering that would be fine to get you started. The Gretsch is good too if you want to spend a bit more. There are also some nice vintage laps knocking around for not a lot of money - I picked up a '58 Supro a few years back. Mostly though I use a Bennett which I had made for me, although I'm not sure he's making them any more.

Tone bars get quite specific according to the stuff you want to play, although the Shubb SP2 or Dunlop Lap Dawg (my personal favourite) are good places to start.

Check out some David Lindley and tune to open D/E would be my advice.