Whats a lap steel guitar?
A lap steel is also sometimes known as a Hawaiian guitar. As the name indicates, it is played on the lap as opposed to being held by a shoulder strap like a Spanish or electric guitar. Instead of fretting the guitar with one’s fingers a bar (usually steel) is used. These "steels" can be made of any hard, smooth surface wide enough to span the neck of the lap steel. Materials such as Bakelite, brass and plastic-coated have been used as well.
Lap steels are usually electrified an must be played through a guitar amplifier. They are usually tuned to a key such as open "E", "A" or "G" but can be tuned to any combination of notes a player desires. The tuning can vary to the taste and style of the player and a "standard tuning of E, B, G, D, A, E (high to low) can be used. Tuning to a chord is much more frequent as there are combinations of double-stop harmony notes and octaves available which do not present themselves in standard tuning,
Since a steel bar is used, it must be laid directly over the fret (note: most frets on a lap steel are either painted on, inlaid or overlaid with a decal or stencil.) Whereas on a standard Spanish or electric guitar, an "A" note on the 5th fret would be played by pressing a finger between the actual 4th and 5th fret, a slide bar would need to be directly above the 5th fret to play the same note. Any movement of the bar, even slightly to one side or the other will result in the note being out of pitch.
Many experienced lap steel players angle their bar to play certain triads or double-stops not readily available in their chosen tuning. This allows for playing certain passages while only moving the bar a couple frets either way instead of having to quickly slide up and down the guitars neck.
Dobro or National steel-type guitars are acoustic, although they can be played electrically if connected to an acoustic pickup. Players of Bluegrass music prefer playing them on the lap and many have a square or rectangular shaped neck, just as most lap steels do. The bodies of these "resonator" guitars are made of either wood or steel and have a cone or combination of cones under the guitars bridge. This was originally designed to make the guitars louder before the advent and popularization of the electric guitar. Blues musicians of the 1920s and ’30s were often photographed using this type guitar (usually in the standing or sitting position) and a shoulder strap. They sometimes used the neck of glass bottles as a slide and tuned to a chord to play. This was where the advent of slide electric and acoustic guitar.
For examples of lap steel, listen to Western Swing artists such as Bob Wills, who featured a form of lap steel on legs so the player could stand on stage, leading to the invention of the pedal steel guitar. A more modern day performer is David Lindley, who played lap steel on recordings by Jackson Browne and many others.
