I have been playing with the lap steel on and off now for a couple days and I have discovered that the tuning heads were installed crooked at the factory.
Some newbie didn’t know how to get the drill jig seated correctly, and the machine heads (tuners) on one side run uphill a little bit, and the tuners on the other side run downhill a little bit, each as a set.
It was really annoying until I adjusted them around and played with the tuners.
At first, It didn’t really want to stay in tune or tune at all. Well this was a used instrument, but nobody had ever played with it enough to break in the strings.
However I did get it to tune very nicely with a little bit of work and I found out why Hawaiian guitars grew pedals and two necks. I got bored playing in the key of D real quick. I wanted to change keys but it’s not easy.
This guitar appears to be made from a solid mahogany board. If I could get a mahogany dowel or a plug cutter and make some, I could plug all the crooked holes in the head stock, re-drill them straight, sand and refinish things, and also repair the small chips their novice drill man left in the finish by not using proper backup blocks.
Or I could cut the head off of this cheap guitar and introduce much more metal into the equation. I already have a set of nicer tuning heads that would make this guitar much better, because it does have the cheapest variety of tuning heads available as far as I could see.
But I’m thinking it should have a big stainless steel turning head shaped like a pineapple.
I couldn’t think of any other stereotypical symbol of Hawaii to put on there, except a can of spam and that wouldn’t look good.
I considered taking all the guts off of this guitar and mounting it on different wood.
I’m not sure I have the patience for that much woodworking right now. I still have to get some sanding and grinding done on my car and shoot some paint so I can get the same back on its wheels.
Also I have the parts to fix the Gibson, which is currently all apart and I still have the bobcat guitar all apart trying to get the contamination off.
I was unfortunately mistaken about the score guitar as I thought it was solid maple. As it turns out it is solid mahogany with a maple top and bottom.
That’s how they made the model with the fully blackened edges to conceal the mahogany.
Some newbie didn’t know how to get the drill jig seated correctly, and the machine heads (tuners) on one side run uphill a little bit, and the tuners on the other side run downhill a little bit, each as a set.
It was really annoying until I adjusted them around and played with the tuners.
At first, It didn’t really want to stay in tune or tune at all. Well this was a used instrument, but nobody had ever played with it enough to break in the strings.
However I did get it to tune very nicely with a little bit of work and I found out why Hawaiian guitars grew pedals and two necks. I got bored playing in the key of D real quick. I wanted to change keys but it’s not easy.
This guitar appears to be made from a solid mahogany board. If I could get a mahogany dowel or a plug cutter and make some, I could plug all the crooked holes in the head stock, re-drill them straight, sand and refinish things, and also repair the small chips their novice drill man left in the finish by not using proper backup blocks.
Or I could cut the head off of this cheap guitar and introduce much more metal into the equation. I already have a set of nicer tuning heads that would make this guitar much better, because it does have the cheapest variety of tuning heads available as far as I could see.
But I’m thinking it should have a big stainless steel turning head shaped like a pineapple.
I couldn’t think of any other stereotypical symbol of Hawaii to put on there, except a can of spam and that wouldn’t look good.
I considered taking all the guts off of this guitar and mounting it on different wood.
I’m not sure I have the patience for that much woodworking right now. I still have to get some sanding and grinding done on my car and shoot some paint so I can get the same back on its wheels.
Also I have the parts to fix the Gibson, which is currently all apart and I still have the bobcat guitar all apart trying to get the contamination off.
I was unfortunately mistaken about the score guitar as I thought it was solid maple. As it turns out it is solid mahogany with a maple top and bottom.
That’s how they made the model with the fully blackened edges to conceal the mahogany.
