Here's a couple pictures of a lap steel bass that I built early this year. It's a simple design and I used materials that I had laying around so it was very low cost. I thought you might like to see it since lap steel basses are not common.
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4-string lap steel bass
- Thread starter Markmann
- Start date
I like the looks of that and would love to hear some clips.
As a bass player AND steel player (lap, pedal, resonator), I’m intrigued.
As a bass player AND steel player (lap, pedal, resonator), I’m intrigued.
That’s pretty cool. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a lap steel bass, do you have any sound samples?
I second the sound sample request. I’ve played some lap steel and I’d be interested in hearing it especially interacting in a band mix.
I recorded a video while I was building it and did a quick demo but I was playing through monitors and recorded with my cell phone so the sound isn't very good. Also, this is the first time I tested it so excuse my poor playing.
Great, now I have to build lap steel bass. 
Nice job, looks and sounds great!
Nice job, looks and sounds great!
Yea, that looks like a lot of fun.
there is a lap bass on my to-build list now too.
there is a lap bass on my to-build list now too.
Uncommon?? That's the first time I even heard of such a thing, let alone seen one. And I'm 70 years old. LOL.
Really nice job. Looks great. And online examples of how this sounds? Thanks for posting.
Very cool--nicely done! Sounds great to me! I think JPJ has some sort of bass lap steel, but other than that I don't think I've ever seen one before. Would be killer for overdubs, doubling guitar parts on heavy dirty bluesy stuff, etc. Probably sounds killer with distortion.
Very nice, Markmann! (Your choice to use a "MM" style pickup fits well with your Talkbass handle, too.)
For anyone interested, I have lap steel information as well as a couple of pdf downloadable plans HERE in the Internet Archive of my old website.
The plans can be used to make a bass lap by simply multiplying any of the reference dimensions by 1.5 to provide you with an approximate 34" scale length lap steel.
Somewhere on Youtube there must be a video of Ry Cooder playing his "floor steel" that he played with a mayonnaise jar for a slide. The Dead also had "the bridge / log" that they played in live shows, too.
For anyone interested, I have lap steel information as well as a couple of pdf downloadable plans HERE in the Internet Archive of my old website.
The plans can be used to make a bass lap by simply multiplying any of the reference dimensions by 1.5 to provide you with an approximate 34" scale length lap steel.
Somewhere on Youtube there must be a video of Ry Cooder playing his "floor steel" that he played with a mayonnaise jar for a slide. The Dead also had "the bridge / log" that they played in live shows, too.
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