Thursday 3 July 2014

DLP Lap Steel Guitar - 7 - Electrics and Stringing Up

I rounded the back of the body with my router and a round over bit, taking my time and been careful to avoid any splitting.  The cherry machines beautifully as it is quite hard and there wont be that much sanding to do at the end of the day.



The lap steel will have two simple controls, volume and tone.  Space is limited in the control cavity and it would be impossible to solder everything in in place with the pots installed so I positioned the two potentiometers in my vice spaced as they will be when installed and began soldering the appropriate connections.


I used 500k pots (A for tone and B for volume) and a 0.047 capacitor.  I left enough wire to the jack socket to allow the connections to be soldered outside of the body but not too much to fill the cavity.  I was able to connect the pickup wires outside the body as well and then the two pots slid onto place perfectly.


The ferules will need glueing into place after finishing but other than that the back of the Lap Steel is all but finished now.


 Next I started filing the nut and bridge to accommodate the strings. I tried to keep the spacing even but taking into account the different thickness's of  each string whilst maintaining an even gap between them.


It took quite a bit of fine filing trying to ensure that the strings sit at the same height relative to each other so the bar presses each string evenly if it is laid across all six strings.


I've just got to make a final decision on what finish to apply, I want to emphasise the difference between the light and dark and bring the grain patten out as well.  But I don't really want a high gloss shine.  I'm undecided between Tru-Oil or something like Danish Oil.



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