Lap Steel and Dobro

I play several different lap steels in a variety of tunings.

Lap steel guitar is just that – a guitar played on your lap with a steel (a metal bar). Sometimes they are on legs and can have multiple necks – as in the picture above of my Fender Dual Professional. They are then called “console guitars”.

Below is a picture of a couple of lap steels – one a six string and one an 8 string:-

Here is an example of me playing a small 8 string lap steel tuned in A6:-

Here is another example of me playing in a similar “Western Swing” style:-

One of the advantages of the A6 tuning is that A6 has the same notes as its relative minor chords – F#min7. So you can easily play in minor keys as well. Here is an example of me playing the same lap steel in a minor key.

Dobro

Dobro is a similar instrument – played flat on your lap with a steel but it is acoustic and the sound is projected by a metal resonator. This gives it a unique sound which is quite different from an electric lap steel guitar.
Here is an example of me playing Dobro on a track I recorded for Claire Hamill:-

Links

Here are some links to websites that I have found useful to refer to when learning lap steel:-

Forums/Groups –   British Steelies  –   Steel Guitar Forum  –  Lapsteel Lunatics (Facebook Group) – Brads Page of Steel  

Guitars/Builders – Clinesmith – Fouke Industrial Guitars –  David Porthouse  – Georgeboards

Lessons – Lessons with Troy  – Dobro Joe   – OnLineLessons – Andy Volk’s Site  –   Doug Beaumier’s Site –  Mike Neer’s Site   

Tools – John Ely’s Chords Locator   – John Ely’s Scale Locator