I have a problem. Ever since seeing
The Last Town Chorus (support for the Guillemots) last year I have desired a lap steel. Finally my ebay trawling as turned up something somewhat suitable and affordable.
In many ways a lap steel from an unknown manufacturer is much less of a risk than a conventional guitar. There are no real playability issues such as badly made necks that are not fixable. If the electrics are terrible they can be replaced, the whole thing could turn out to be a donor body. So the fact that the top and the body are maple is my only real concern - I'm no expert, but everything I know about maple as a tonewood leads me to 'glassy'.
I'd like to get somewhere near the tone that Bill Asher gets on
this video when he switches over to the front pick up at 1 minute in. It's quite a lot like what Kelly Joe Phelps and others get from magnetic soundhole pickups in acoustic lap slide guitars. But also get Last Town Chorus type sounds too. The standard guitar-esque neck and bridge pickups gives me some hope for this sort of versatility.
Anyway...
I'm thinking about pairing it with one of those 5 watt tube amplifiers that a few manufacturers (Fender, Epiphone) are producing.
