Bear Meadow Custom Fret Template. Blank-off clips for use with Diatonic Scales. These ride in relieved pockets (so their surfaces are flush with the sides and edge of the template). For makers of diatonic instruments (especially mountain dulcimers), these reside at all the 'extra fret' positions, to keep the guess-work out of using adding extra frets to diatonic scale pattern. Showing how to use a 2 piece one page fret board. Download this fret board for free!https://drive.goo. 7 - Double check all locations and measurements on the template. 8 - On the template, bore or cut out the marked locations of the pickup and the volume/tone control cavity 9 - Trace the body shape from the template to the blank wood stock. The guitar blank must be at least 1-1/2 inches thick (40 mm). 10 - Cut out the body with a band saw. Printable Steel Guitar Fretboards, Walkerton, Indiana. 638 likes 1 talking about this. On this page I offer a resource for downloading printable fret boards for lap steel and pedal steel guitars.
Lap Steel Guitar Kits
Purchase kits to build your own Lap Steel Guitar.
email: information@georgeboards.com For more informationemail: information@georgeboards.com For more informationemail: information@georgeboards.com For more information
Several Import Lap Steel Guitars Sell on eBay under the Brand Names including Rogue Rosetti Artisan.
These lap steel guitars are 21 scale with low quality normal Guitar bridge Saddles and Formed Plastic nuts with normal guitar spacings.
GeorgeBoards has created a DIY KIT to convert your import lap steel guitar into a playable 22.5' scale with string spacing and height found on Professionally Made Modern Slide Steel Guitars.
The C6 - A6 Kit includes a 3D Printed Tough PLA - 1/2' Tall Nut Bridge - 11/32 Nut - 3/8 Bridge spacings VGrooves for string gauges .038 - .014 and a Black peel n stick 22.5' scale Fretboard pre cut to fit the above mentioned Brands.
The Open E - D Kit includes a 3D Printed Tough PLA - 1/2' Tall Nut Bridge - 3/8 Nut - .390 Bridge spacings VGrooves for string gauges .056 - .013 and a Black peel n stick 22.5' scale Fretboard pre cut to fit the above mentioned Brands.
It takes only an hour or so - hand tools a battery drill - tape measure to quickly convert your new steel guitar into a professional paying and sounding instrument with our RetroFit Kit
1 To make the RetroFit you remove the strings - plastic nut - guitar saddles - plastic fretboard.
2 Remove the Screws and save them from the metal piece under the saddles.
3 Move the metal piece back to the edge of the end of the guitar. Blue Tape it to the edge to hold it in place.
4 Use your tape measure to place the New Nut and Bridge temporarily - use the new fretboard to help place the nut.
5 Make sure the Bridge is in front of the 3 screws at the back of the guitar not on top of them.
6 Blue tape everything for temporary alignment. Tweak all of this until it lays out nicely.
7 Mark where the Bridge hold down holes are going to go through the metal plate and into the wood below.
8 Remove the metal plate and drill holes through it on a separate area so not to drill into the guitar.
9 Return the metal plate and attach it to the guitar with the 3 little screws and 2 or the larger screws in their original holes except in their new positions.
10 Use 2 of the original larger screws to fill the holes in front of the metal plate.
11 Use your tape measure to place the nut and bridge at 22.5' - Blue tape both.
12 Use #4 X 3/4' Sheet Metal Screws to hold down the Nut and Bridge at 22.5' Make sure the fretboard fits in front of the metal pickguard plate. Measure multiple times before drilling.
13 Make sure the little ground wire is under the metal plate you moved back. The plate is your string receiver.
14 Fill the holes from the plastic fretboard with chalk - putty - spackle - whatever.
15 Clean off any debris or oils with rubbing alcohol and peel n stick down the new fretboard.
16 Replace the original strings with new gauged strings for your choice of tuning the VGrooves will fit lighter and heavier gauges.
17 Remember this:
- for the C6 - A6 tuning Spacings 11/32 nut - 3/8 Bridge VGrooves for .038 - .014 gauges or similar.
- for the Open E - D tuning Spacings 3/8 nut - .390 Bridge VGrooves for .056 - .013 gauges or similar.
18 Bring it up to pitch and adjust the pickup height to taste.
Parts made to order.
Allow 3 to 4 weeks for delivery.
Not sure how to complete your order?
email for help - info@georgeboards.com
TO AVOID DELAYS OR PURCHASING THE WRONG ITEM:
Please check drop down menus carefully.
Select appropriate shipping, tuning, and materials.
22.5' Retrofit Conversion Kit Black with White Rectangles Fretboard with 6 string nut and bridge.
Tough PLA
22.5' Retrofit Conversion Kit White with Black Rectangles Fretboard with 6 string nut and bridge.
Tough PLA
22.5' Retrofit Conversion Kit Black with Islander Markers Fretboard with 6 string nut and bridge.
Tough PLA
22.5' Retrofit Conversion Kit White with Islander Markers Fretboard with 6 string nut and bridge.
Tough PLA
Click images for closeups.
21' scale
22.5' scale
3D Printed Pre-Notched Nut and Bridge Sets
6 string versions will fit many imports.
Right and Left hand versions.
Notched for string spacing and gauge depths
100% infill.
Click images for closeups.
Only in Tough PLA
$24.99 USD per set, includes shipping worldwide.
Free Lap Steel Guitar Plans
Specify filament choice when ordering.
Parts made to order.
Allow 3 to 4 weeks for delivery.
Not sure how to complete your order?
email for help - info@georgeboards.com
Nut and Bridge dimensions, string spacings, and gauges:
6 string nut Open E - .375 (3/8) spaced, approximate gauges - .055 to .013 (fat to thin).
and
6 string bridge Open E - .390 (standard guitar pickup spacing) approximate gauges - .055 to .013 (fat to thin).
$24.99 USD per set, includes shipping worldwide.
6 string nut C6 tuning - .340 (11/32) spaced, approximate gauges - .038 to .014 (fat to thin).
24 Scale Lap Steel Fretboard
and
6 string bridge C6 tuning - .375 (3/8) spaced, approximate gauges - .038 to .014 (fat to thin).
$24.99 USD per set, includes shipping worldwide.
1: Intro
I've wanted to build one of these for a while. Lap steels can be as simple as a 2x4 with some strings and a pickup. This one got a little more complicated than that.
2: Design
This is the shape I came up with. Almost any shape will do for a lap steel as long as it sits on your lap comfortably. You only really ever contact the strings. Here is a PDF if you want to use mine as a template.
As drawn it has a 23' scale. I am leaning towards doing a 24' scale instead. There is plenty of room in the tail end to do a longer scale.
I originally planned to use a SG junior-style bridge (where the strings terminate on the bridge itself) but instead I'm going to use a standard tune-o-matic bridge and some ferrules to do a string-thru termination. I have a hunch that will have better sustain.
The pickup may sit on top of the guitar or be routed in from below. Haven't finalized that yet. I'm intending to use a tele neck pickup that I have lying around unless it sounds bad.
3: Laminating the body
I originally planed to cut the body out of a solid block of maple. But my uncle scored some wood at a local cabinet shop that was closing and gave me a bunch of machiche planks. Machiche looks like a cross between mahogany and rosewood. Here are some pictures of some machiche samples. I really like the look of the end-grain so I laminated them with the maple:
The planks were jointed with a hand plane and glued together with Titebond II wood glue. There was a lot of clamping involved. One of the machiche strips shifted a little bit from the clamping force so there was a lot of flattening done afterwards. Thank God for hand planes.
The above picture shows where I hogged out about 1' x 15' of the center machiche plank and a little bit of one of the big maple planks to create an internal chamber. My hope was this will do something interesting for the sound. Rapping on the center of this chamber makes a slightly different sound than the rest of the body so maybe it will actually do something. The chamber could have been larger but I was having a hard time routing these out by hand and wussed out. Now I have a router table so it would be easier - maybe for the next build.
4: Cutting the body profile
Next I band sawed the basic profile and belt sanded it to shape:
There are a few goofs where the neck meets the body but it will still work fine.
Sanding maple is really a pain, I had a lot of trouble with it burning. I'm not quite sure how but I think a better result would be achiever with a template and a router than a band saw.
5: Headstock details
Lap Steel Guitar Template
I did this with a little Bosch Colt palm router and the template shown in the picture. It worked ok. You have to cut the slot in shallow passes since maple is very opposed to going anywhere fast.
I don't have a template bushing for my router so I just made use of the geometry of the sub-base and make a rectangular template out of some thin MDF and some pieces of flooring samples.
Next I cut the back of the headstock off with the bandsaw and drilled the 3/8' holes for the tuners.
The tuners are a tad bigger than the 3/8' holes so there will be a lot of fighting with opening those holes up a bit. You can't just press tuners into tight holes in maple, you'll never get them out.
There it is with the tuners installed and all strung up. I ran into an issue at this point. The tuners were set up to mount on a headstock no thinner than .55' and I ended up with .45'. The solution was to dremel the hex nuts on the tuners shorter by about .20'.