Comments

• brainstrm (28 Feb 2006 19:52)

  This is an old Fender lap steel , a really fun piece ! The painted fretboard is purely for position reference - the strings are 1 / 2 an inch high and meant to be tuned to an open chord and played with a metal slide . To provide proper stiffness of action , it requires very heavy strings - I use the SIT .012 electric set , and play with a solid stainless steel Stevens dobro slide . I usually tune it open E , E-B-E-G#-B-E from low to high .
  It has a first-year Seymour Duncan Hot Rail pickup (note it is shaped like a strat pickup - not the current bobbin style !) Of course I kept the original but I need the humbucker for maximum grind - I use it for things like Slow Ride , Martian Boogie , Train Train , Bad Motor Scooter , all stuff with crunchy riffs and screaming leads . This thing sounds nothing like it looks - it is fierce !

• dsstrlght (28 Feb 2006 20:01)

  way cool sound!

• brainstrm (28 Feb 2006 22:19)

  Yes for real ! It looks like a little plank (really that's all it is) but it sounds like a killer electric guitar and gets high notes that will rip your ears ! All that cool slide lead on Jackson Browne's "Runnin' on Empty" is David Lindley playing lap steel . Another really good example of how far one can take this instrument is David Gilmour's incredible lap steel playing on Pink Floyd's "One of These Days"

• emossuck (01 Mar 2006 16:08)

  how very potentaliy country D:
  xDDD
  ccccccccccccccooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooollllllllllllllllllllloeoeoeooeoeo lolololol x)

• dsstrlght (01 Mar 2006 23:50)

  cool songs. I enjoyed seeing Jackson Browne at the LA County fair -- was that a year or two ago now?

• charlie8j (02 Mar 2006 8:25)

  this one can sound country or rock n roll... Isn't it really old ????

• brainstrm (02 Mar 2006 10:38)

  In the wrong hands the lapsteel can sound country , which of course must be avoided at all cost !
  I tend to play it with exactly the same high - gain amps and effects as I do with the conventional guitars , but with the added bonus of several extra octaves of playable range on the high end . It is always fun to watch people in the crowd covering their ears as I send one of those squealy notes up into the dog-whistle range - it lets me know I'm doing it right !

• brainstrm (02 Mar 2006 10:53)

  (From "Brad's Page of Steel") [ link ] " The very first Fender guitars were lap steel guitars. Fender steel guitars were first made in the early 40's, usually sold together with a tweed amplifier. " - " The serial numbers I've seen seem to follow no recognizable pattern. The easiest way to verify the date the instrument was constructed is to look under the tuning mechanism. A date of manufacture will usually be penciled in under the tuning peg plate. "
  
  I have no idea how old this one is , probably 1950's judging from the "spaghetti logo" style ( note how the finish under the logo decal has retained more of its true yellow color ! Funky ! ) The older 40's models had the logo on a metal plate . My yellow 1968 Bigsby Telecaster is rubber stamped and pencil dated inside , but I would never dismantle the tuner housing on the lap steel just to check the date for curiosity .
  
  (Bonus Trivia Note ! ) David Gilmour [ link ] owns Fender Stratocaster #0001 which is not the first one made but is a very early model and does bear the first serial - number neckplate .

• dsstrlght (02 Mar 2006 14:23)

  hahhahhaha that'll teach them to think county!

• dsstrlght (02 Mar 2006 14:24)

  arrgh there's nothing I hate worse than not being able to fix typos. I wish the comments were editable. I meant country.

• brainstrm (03 Mar 2006 10:31)

  it's funny anyway 8 ) 8 ) 8 )

• emossuck (04 Mar 2006 12:05)

  ahhahah coooooooooooool

• charlie8j (20 Apr 2006 5:19)

  Train, Train...take me on out of this town !!!!!!!!

• charlie8j (22 Apr 2006 8:53)

  i had just heard this on the radio...killer Blackfoot song !!!

• brainstrm (22 Apr 2006 14:22)

  I was hoping Skynyrd would have Rickey Medlocke do "Train Train" at the show - it would have gone over big !
  Cmon ! Van Halen does "I Can't Drive 55" "One Way to Rock" , etc with Sammy Hagar ! Damn Yankees did Ted Nugent , Night Ranger , and Styx songs ! Hook a brother up !
  \m/. .\m/

• dsstrlght (24 Apr 2006 7:11)

  yes, i'm hearing that the upcoming Sammy Hagar show out here on June 3rd will have him doing his stuff in the first half and then joining with Michael Anthony as "The other half" [ link ] and there should be a lot of old Van Halen music in that half of the show, so it would have been nice if Skynyrd had done that.

• dsstrlght (24 Apr 2006 7:12)

  That and a whole lotta Sammy's tequila and babes.

• brainstrm (22 May 2006 10:33)

  hehehe yes 8 )
  The Michael Anthony page is cool 8 ) 8 ) 8 )
  There is also a funny MP3 interview from the Sammy Hagar site of Sammy and Mike on the Mark & Brian radio show [ link ] ( 20 minute MP3 - may take a while with a dialup connection ! )
  
  \m/. .\m/

• dsstrlght (26 Jul 2006 16:53)

  priorities. Dial up is so last century.

• dsstrlght (06 Aug 2006 10:27)

  so is Windows 98. A dinosaur.

• dsstrlght (11 Nov 2006 23:17)

  Such cool sounds.

• brainstrm (13 Nov 2006 12:58)

  8 )

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