David Frassetto's Starry Night Baritone Lap Steel [Pictures] - created 11-07-2010
frassetto, david - 11/07/2010.14:52:34
lapsteel fanatic
Since the workshop was still a mess from the challenge I decided to finish the baritone lap steel I started before the first electric challengr last year.
It is a Danelectro style construction (what else
To give you an idea of it's size, here it is next to a Harmony steel that I used as my inspiration. The scale is 28".
The pickups are Kent Armstrong Lipsticks. The bridge was a guitar show purchase and is the same as the Harmony's. The three knobs are Daka-ware bakelite from Ace Hardware. The controls are volume, pickup blend, and tone.
The fingerboard is 1/8" acrylic plastic. The fret lines are 1/16" wide chrome pinstripe tape applied to the back of the board. The position markers are holographic star stickeres to keep with the starry theme.
Headstock. The nut is a piece of aluminum L stock screwed to the top. There is a cross piece inside the body to anchor them. I'm sorry I forgot to take pictures durring the construction of the body.
Back of the head. The tuners are some generic 6 on a plate from my parts stash.
The control cover is held on by three neodimium magnets that fit into holes that have a screw in the bottom. The screw is adjusted to be just below the magnet when the cover is on to keep it tight. The magnets are CAed to the coverplate.
Tail end. The jack plate is a piece of aluminum sheet covered with the same fabric as the body.
The fabric finish is attached with Duro spray adhesive. It is then covered with two coats of Minwax water based Polyurethane. Then the edges age trimmed with a razor blade. Then another coat of poly to seal the edge to the frame.
The white binding is from a window shade (the same one I used in the acoustic challenge).I sliced it in strips slightly wider than the gap left by the top and back fabric. It is glued on with Loctite Stick and Seal No Mess Adhesive then trimmed. This is the best glue I've found for attaching the vinyl shade material to the body. A lot easier to use than contact cement and it cleans up with water.
Hope you like it! As for the sound, right now it's tuned to open A and is absolutly hugh! It is strung 15 to 70.
Beautiful!
Wow, that's fun! I've never seen that model Harmony lap steel. Very cool design, especially the headstock. Nice work!
Love that fabric! What a unique instrument.
Thanks alot guys!
Jason, Even though it doesn't say Harmony on the headstock I've seen others with different pickups that do. Maybe it is na off brand for some other dealer.
Jim, I love the fabric coverings. They let me make cool stuff that I would otherwise never be able to do. I wanted to make a bari steel for some time just to see how it would sound. It's a blast to play and sounds amazingly massive. I'm going to drop the tuning to a low C6 tonight and try some country licks.
Oh man is that cool or what!
Thanks Mike.
Ingenius using the fabric! Very arts fartsy in a good way :)