Lap Steel anyone?

[SwingSwangSwung]

I played lap steel in a country band back in the early 1980's while I was a jazz guitar student and North Texas. It was an old 6 string Gibson BR9 that I tuned to open E. I knew about 10 licks on it, and that was all I needed to play on country tunes. I sold that lap steel in the late 80's and never looked back.

But a few years ago I picked up a cheap one and started messing around on lap steel again. But this time I focused on Bill Leavitt's tuning. Yes, the same Bill Leavitt that built the jazz guitar program at Berklee was a somewhat serious lap steel player. He came up with "Leavitt Tuning" for the lap steel: C# E G Bb C D low to high. This tuning is NOT intuitive and takes some head scratching to figure out. But I dived in and have been seriously untangling this tuning for a few years. I've arranged about 200 tunes with it. I moved on to an 8 string lap steel and expanded Bill's tuning.

Here is a sample, George Harrison's SOMETHING. I hope to record/video many more tunes soon.

[AllanAllen]

I have an old Ohana steel. I was bringing it to jams to play with some country guys, but I eventually stopped to focus on just jazz guitar.

You play beautifully.

[Flat]

Very nice playing! Please post more when you feel like it!

This is my old Rickenbacher B6. It used to have the black-and-white "tuxedo" look, but was modified by some previous owner who replaced the pickguard-like covers.

I like the way Greg Leisz plays with Bill Frisell, and the late David Lindley's work with Jackson Browne, and some David Gilmour/Pink Floyd stuff. I don't play well at all, but I like messing around with it once in a while.

[AllanAllen]

Forgot to say, mine is in A6 tuning. The steel player from Asleep At The Wheel has some tutorials on YouTube and that’s what he used.

[Skip Ellis]

Only pedals for me - been doing it for close to 50 years. But I have some friends who are monster Hawaiian players and listening to guys like Jerry Byrd and Herb Remington makes you think you don't even need pedals, My only complaint was guys showing up at our steel guitar club meetings and try to play loud blues - they'd pretty much clear the room.

[mr. beaumont]

Love it. Such a beautiful sounding, infuriating instrument