Bradley LS-1 Lap Steel
This is my lap steel's body, laminated from four pieces of 1.5" square poplar stock. Right now it looks like a big crickett bat! I've got an oak pickup mounting ring made for it too. I'm installing a Carvin C22T pickup (a mild humbucker) with a coil split switch for single coil or humbucker tones, and a 1 megaohm volume control for better treble response. I hope this will prove to be a great setup! The bridge and nut are going to be solid aluminum angle stock, and right now the plan is to mount the controls on the side of the body, but that might change. The goal for next weekend is to get the bridge and nut mounted on the body and to locate and rout the cavity for the pickup.
UPDATE:
I've recently gotten a lot done to the lap steel. The bridge, nut, and tail-piece are all mounted and so is the pickup and controls. Here's a picture of the bridge and pickup:
Here's another picture showing the bridge, pickup, and controls:
Here's a picture showing the whole thing as of this morning. I'm writing this at 6:00 p.m., and I've got a bit more done. I've rounded the edges of the pickup mounting ring, installed the tuners, and rounded the corners of the bridge, nut, and tail-piece.
I'm almost finished now. I just need to add a plexiglass "fretboard" and get the string slots in the nut and bridge perfected. I've got it strung with Ernie Ball Power Slinky's right now, .048 - .011 and tuned in open E. Here's a picture of the finished product:
And here's another one with the lap steel on top of my Del Rey's case to show how big the lap steel is:
