Just received my SX lap steel. Let me start off by saying I have quite a collection of guitars including some high end non-pedal steels and laps. My expectations were not very high for the price I paid, but I bought this from many recommendations on the “Steel Guitar Forum”. The case alone is worth the price of admission. The guitar- is an above average instrument! What a little gem!! I initially bought this as a “beater”, but I will be playing gigs with it! Thanks again Steve Secord
I have one of your SX lap steels and an Agile 3000, grat stuff! Below is a link to a song I did. Also, if anyone needs any instruction, I created a whole page of 6 string lap tabs with sound files so you can hear what they should sound like: Tab Instruction Feel free to point any of your customers to my site for free instruction or just to see what a lap steel can do. I’ve get a lot of hits from the telecaster and Stratocaster forums for regular guitar pickers looking to get started on lap steel. Greg Cutshaw
I received my sx lap steel from you yesterday. I just want to let you know how pleased I am with this. It arrived in perfect condition. I was pleased with the quality of the carrying bag, the heavy adjustable legs and the overall quality of the instrument was much much more than I expected at this price. I am 70 years old, have never played a lap steel before and it has been many years since I have played any instrument. It was already feeling comfortable to me by the time I got it tuned. I must thank you for making this instrument available at this price. Mary Kay Fustos @siouxlan.net
Q: How do you tune it?
A: The lap steel comes from the factory tuned to Open G (D-G-D-G-B-D). However, unlikely most any other lap steel available, this model comes with an ADJUSTABLE BRIDGE, which means a variety of tunings are possible. Blues and Rock players tend to favor Open G and Open A. Open A raises each of the notes a whole-step (2 frets) to E-A-E-A-C#-E.
Open D and Open E are also commonly used.
Open D is tuned D-A-D-F#-A-D, and open E is a whole-step higher: E-B-E-G#-B-E. Joe Perry of Aerosmith uses Open E on his electric lap steel. David Lindley is another player who uses transposed variations of these tunings.
Bluegrass and Country Dobro players tend to favor an altered G tuning, often called "High-G", where the 6th string is tuned up to "G" instead of down to "D", and the 5th string is also tuned up, to B: G-B-D-G-B-D. They also sometimes raise it up to "High-A": A-C#-E-A-C#-E.
