As a punk/hard core/metal electric guitar player my whole life, at 52 I'm looking to upgrade my skill set to lap steel, loving your tutorial here man. It makes me happy to see you share your craft, I'm into this. Thank you.
Thank you so much, Dan! As a beginner, this is an excellent pace and level of difficulty to start with. You're an excellent teacher and have a great personality!
I had never played a Steel before last Friday. Many years on Guitar using Bigsbys. I always felt there was a lap Steel player inside of me trying to get out. I found you on RUclips and it all clicked in my head! Thank You!! You're a great teacher.
Thank you so much for your instructions. I can honestly say you have made it more clear than any other instructional video I have watched so far by anyone else! I've had a very difficult time trying to learn this instrument and still am. Trying to find anything that sounds like music and not just a bunch of noise has been an extreme challenge for me so far. Again, thank you for your help. Please keep it up, Blessings
I just bought my first lap steel and this tutorial is a great introduction. One thing though that I missed at first was the positioning of the slide. I was putting it across all the strings which of course put the 4th and 5th string out of key. Finally realised after your close-up 🙂
Dan - your calm, simple, systematic instructional style is the best I've found. I located an old Fender Champion lap steel in my garage (something I inherited about 45 years ago) along with a pristine Champ Amp, original tubes, not played since the early 70s, and only lightly played before then - the caps still hold voltage and they don't show signs of leaking or blistering. Both were made in 1954. I figured with a couple of treasures like that, I'd better respect the person who left them to me, and your instructional videos are perfect for a total beginner like me - BTW, I'm the same age as the guitar and the amp!
I'm glad you find these tutorials helpful:) Man, I'd love to see that steel and amp. Those things are beautiful tone machines and they're certainly becoming scarce. You have a pretty cool pair there, my friend:)
Thanks for the lesson 🙂 You were easy to listen to and easy to follow. I've been playing guitar for 50+ years and can easily hold my own, but this is very new to me and frankly I am terrified 😨. I had a friend who played the steel. I would love to play half as good as he. Can you tell me how to get more comfortable with the change over from guitar to steel?
I would love to hear a little mean distortion & a 1-4-5 blues lesson for those of us that like the Blues over country music, even though a lot of country songs use a 1-4-5 progression. Listen to some Pink Floyd for that Rock & Roll / Blues pedal steel. Or a Jamey Johnson Swampy blues tone.
Thanks 🙏 Gregory:) my absolute goal is to get the beginner/entry level player interested without overwhelming them and turning them away. I just felt there was a spot here as some of the other lessons can be a little overwhelming even for some of more seasoned players. I’m hoping to bridge that gap for prospective players to move forward to the more in depth skill levels:)
I just got a Rogue, which I figured would be a good starting machine since I don't play guitar. But you really make the steps understandable, and your affable personality makes for a good lesson. I think I could learn fairly quickly. I will, however, continue to make experimetnal music with it, along with my Q-Chord and keyboard.
I have one too. The Rogue is a good instrument, despite its shortcomings. The cool thing about it is that it's based on the Guyatone lap steel from the '70s. Practically the same instrument.
This is great, really helpful. I wonder if there was a part II, or if there's a book you can recommend for G tuning lap steel, in tablature. I am doing really well, and want to continue learning. Thank you!!
Hi Eliot:) There are 4 parts to this series in the Lap Steel Playlist:) I don't know of any books off hand, but If you go to the Lap Steel groups on Facebook, someone will know:)
@@slideguitar Thank you Dan, I found them, but not in any playlist for some reason, just searched and found individual videos. Thanks again buddy and keep on rockin' :-)
Awesome. Weird though. I have em set up in playlists categorically. At least from my end. Maybe sometime is awry on the RUclips end. In any case, glad you found em:)
Thanks for this clear and helpful video, I'm new to lap steel to and I'm wondering what kind of bottleneck (if it's a bottleneck) you're using. Thanks again from a new subscriber
the slide youre using, is it a shorter one? i got one of those heavy bars and i find it kind hard to let the lower string ring while i play the higher ones. maybe thatll just get easier with time
I can’t recall for sure un this video but I mostly use a Dunlop Ben Harper tone bar however I do use a Shubb (the one with the wood top) occasionally as well
well, there is a guy near me in Cambridge ON that sells them. Its where I got mine. However I just sold that one last week as I'm thinning the herd. My understanding is, they are getting harder to find as apparently there was a fire at the factory in Australia and I'm not sure if they're back in production yet. At least thats the word that the Cole Clark rep gave me last year. That may have changed since.
My memory is a bit hazy, and I've since sold this steel, but they were definitely round wound. I "think" the gauge was 16-56 as thats how I like to typically string my steels (other than my 8). I won't go 100% on this for sure as I don't have the steel anymore, but I'm betting thats the gauge I used.
I’m sure you could. I’ve never tried it but it seems interesting. And it’s certainly an easy try if you have a raised but you could throw over top of the existing nut. I might be careful about the string guages though. It kinda depends on what yer Tele can handle:)
I do with my electric guitar. I just remove the nut and replace with a bigger bolt as the nut. You can use the bolt threads to evenly spread to the correct distance between strings. Works great but you will want a heavier gauge string set.
@@janseendiguiseppiThomasMC Actually the string gage is limited by the overall string tension with full scale length round neck guitars . GBDGBD puts too much load on your neck . For that set up look at DGDGBD (the Other Open G ) o r DADF#AD ( Open D) .
that makes sense, thanks for the response. Since I commented I ended up building a steel lap guitar. It was a fun project. It turned out really good. Any recommendations on an inexpensive volume pedal? Do you use one?
As a punk/hard core/metal electric guitar player my whole life, at 52 I'm looking to upgrade my skill set to lap steel, loving your tutorial here man. It makes me happy to see you share your craft, I'm into this. Thank you.
Thank you so much, Dan! As a beginner, this is an excellent pace and level of difficulty to start with. You're an excellent teacher and have a great personality!
I had never played a Steel before last Friday. Many years on Guitar using Bigsbys. I always felt there was a lap Steel player inside of me trying to get out.
I found you on RUclips and it all clicked in my head! Thank You!! You're a great teacher.
I’m glad you’re finding these lessons helpful:)
Thank you so much for your instructions. I can honestly say you have made it more clear than any other instructional video I have watched so far by anyone else! I've had a very difficult time trying to learn this instrument and still am. Trying to find anything that sounds like music and not just a bunch of noise has been an extreme challenge for me so far.
Again, thank you for your help.
Please keep it up,
Blessings
I’m glad you’re finding this useful:)
I just bought my first lap steel and this tutorial is a great introduction. One thing though that I missed at first was the positioning of the slide. I was putting it across all the strings which of course put the 4th and 5th string out of key. Finally realised after your close-up 🙂
Dan - your calm, simple, systematic instructional style is the best I've found.
I located an old Fender Champion lap steel in my garage (something I inherited about 45 years ago) along with a pristine Champ Amp, original tubes, not played since the early 70s, and only lightly played before then - the caps still hold voltage and they don't show signs of leaking or blistering. Both were made in 1954.
I figured with a couple of treasures like that, I'd better respect the person who left them to me, and your instructional videos are perfect for a total beginner like me - BTW, I'm the same age as the guitar and the amp!
I'm glad you find these tutorials helpful:) Man, I'd love to see that steel and amp. Those things are beautiful tone machines and they're certainly becoming scarce. You have a pretty cool pair there, my friend:)
@@slideguitar Thanks Dan. Look in your email in-basket for pics. :)
Man, you found a real treasure there. That's like winning a jackpot! Or like finding 10 clean Beatles vinyls in a Salvation Army store (I did!)
Thanks for the lesson 🙂
You were easy to listen to and easy to follow.
I've been playing guitar for 50+ years and can easily hold my own, but this is very new to me and frankly I am terrified 😨. I had a friend who played the steel. I would love to play half as good as he.
Can you tell me how to get more comfortable with the change over from guitar to steel?
Thanks Dan, first time playing lap steel and this video has helped massively, you're really clear and easy to follow, onto part 2! Best wishes from UK
Thank you for the easy to learn instructions sir. You are my idea of a gentleman.
Hey Man I'm going going to watch you. I'm a Bassist but I got a hold of a tonemaster .
Thank you teacher.
I would love to hear a little mean distortion & a 1-4-5 blues lesson for those of us that like the Blues over country music, even though a lot of country songs use a 1-4-5 progression. Listen to some Pink Floyd for that Rock & Roll / Blues pedal steel. Or a Jamey Johnson Swampy blues tone.
duly noted:) Stay tuned.......
Love the lesson and the way you negotiate the subjective aspects
Thanks 🙏 Gregory:) my absolute goal is to get the beginner/entry level player interested without overwhelming them and turning them away. I just felt there was a spot here as some of the other lessons can be a little overwhelming even for some of more seasoned players. I’m hoping to bridge that gap for prospective players to move forward to the more in depth skill levels:)
Thank you for the lesson! I’m brand new to lap steel and appreciate the help! Moving on to part two! Thanks again!
Glad you’re enjoying these. Part 4 will be posted tomorrow:)
Love the old Supro amp!
GBDGBD is also called Dobro tuning, yes?
Yes. As well, some tune a dobro by dropping the low G to D which also makes it open D:)
I just got a Rogue, which I figured would be a good starting machine since I don't play guitar. But you really make the steps understandable, and your affable personality makes for a good lesson. I think I could learn fairly quickly. I will, however, continue to make experimetnal music with it, along with my Q-Chord and keyboard.
Welcome aboard:)
I have one too. The Rogue is a good instrument, despite its shortcomings. The cool thing about it is that it's based on the Guyatone lap steel from the '70s. Practically the same instrument.
Nice voicing of these chords. 😊
This is great, really helpful. I wonder if there was a part II, or if there's a book you can recommend for G tuning lap steel, in tablature. I am doing really well, and want to continue learning. Thank you!!
Hi Eliot:) There are 4 parts to this series in the Lap Steel Playlist:) I don't know of any books off hand, but If you go to the Lap Steel groups on Facebook, someone will know:)
@@slideguitar Thank you Dan, I found them, but not in any playlist for some reason, just searched and found individual videos. Thanks again buddy and keep on rockin' :-)
Awesome. Weird though. I have em set up in playlists categorically. At least from my end. Maybe sometime is awry on the RUclips end. In any case, glad you found em:)
@@slideguitar Yep. RUclips does get funky sometimes (but not like James Brown LOL)
Thanks so much , excellent tuition . 👍
Thanks Stewart:) I’m glad you’re enjoying these:)
Thank you !! Awsome !!
Thanks for this clear and helpful video, I'm new to lap steel to and I'm wondering what kind of bottleneck (if it's a bottleneck) you're using.
Thanks again from a new subscriber
On my steels, I use a Dunlop Ben Harper signature bar. But Dunlop also makes a lap dawg. Pretty close to the same dimensions:)
Hummm ok thanks !!
Awesome lesson man, Thank you!
Glad you liked it:)
Can you give me a little help with the introduction of The guitar man (The Bread) Thanks.
great lesson man!
Thanks:) I’m glad you found it helpful:)
What brand of guitar are you playing?Thanks for the lessons
That particular steel is a Cole Clark Lap Dawg 2. It’s loaded with a horseshoe pickup kinda like the ones in the old Rickenbachers :)
Cool
thanks from sweden 🇸🇪🇸🇪🇸🇪
I’m glad you find this useful:)
Where do you get Open G tuning electric lap steel strings, I am having a hard time finding G sets . I am doing GBDGBD
the slide youre using, is it a shorter one? i got one of those heavy bars and i find it kind hard to let the lower string ring while i play the higher ones. maybe thatll just get easier with time
replying to my own comment lol but im realizing its all about angling it and not always resting it on all of the strings...
I can’t recall for sure un this video but I mostly use a Dunlop Ben Harper tone bar however I do use a Shubb (the one with the wood top) occasionally as well
I asked the question before listening to you telling the guitar.Where can i get one?Price?
well, there is a guy near me in Cambridge ON that sells them. Its where I got mine. However I just sold that one last week as I'm thinning the herd. My understanding is, they are getting harder to find as apparently there was a fire at the factory in Australia and I'm not sure if they're back in production yet. At least thats the word that the Cole Clark rep gave me last year. That may have changed since.
👍👏👏👏 greetings from ox spok land brazil
Good to meet you:)
Dan, are those flatwound strings? What gauges you are using?
My memory is a bit hazy, and I've since sold this steel, but they were definitely round wound. I "think" the gauge was 16-56 as thats how I like to typically string my steels (other than my 8). I won't go 100% on this for sure as I don't have the steel anymore, but I'm betting thats the gauge I used.
@@slideguitar Thank you!
Can I use a telecaster with a raised nut?
I’m sure you could. I’ve never tried it but it seems interesting. And it’s certainly an easy try if you have a raised but you could throw over top of the existing nut. I might be careful about the string guages though. It kinda depends on what yer Tele can handle:)
I do with my electric guitar. I just remove the nut and replace with a bigger bolt as the nut. You can use the bolt threads to evenly spread to the correct distance between strings. Works great but you will want a heavier gauge string set.
@@janseendiguiseppiThomasMC Actually the string gage is limited by the overall string tension with full scale length round neck guitars . GBDGBD puts too much load on your neck .
For that set up look at DGDGBD (the Other Open G ) o r DADF#AD ( Open D) .
that makes sense, thanks for the response. Since I commented I ended up building a steel lap guitar. It was a fun project. It turned out really good. Any recommendations on an inexpensive volume pedal? Do you use one?
Any chance you can show us a picture? I love unique steel builds:)
Great lesson
P.S you kinda look like Seth Rogan lost a bunch of weight grew out his beard and dyed it :)