Do you wish to get started playing with a steel? ... and have you found
the price of a decent sounding squareneck resonator guitar a
bit too stiff? What about modifying an ordinary steel string guitar so
it plays like one, or like a lap-steel? This is a low-cost method for
doing just that. Neither special tools nor the abilities of a luthier
are needed.
What you need is:
an extension nut
a slab of bone, tusq or
similar material
abrasive paper, coarse and
fine
(a caliper is useful, but no
requirement, so is a clamp)
and, of course, a (spare)
steel string guitar
I bought a secondhand Seagull
S6 Cutaway with a spruce top (no mic to reduce cost) which was built
sometime in the 1980s. It looked like this when I received it.
From the online store of Folk
of the Wood
in New Mexico I purchased a metal extension nut. This is
placed on top of the ordinary nut, and raises the action to about 7 mm
above the fretboard at the 1st fret.
The extension nut aligns all the strings in the same plane, much like
on a classical guitar (... but the gray metal is uglybugly ...). This
is essential in order to be able to touch all the strings
simultaneously with the steel or bottleneck.
From the online store of GraphTech
in Vancouver I ordered a slab of composite Tusq, which I sanded down to
a saddle of the desired size and shape. The saddle is
rectangular in shape, that is, its edge is straight and not
arched, thus contributing to keeping the strings on the same
plane.
All things considered, I decided on an action of 8 mm at the 12th fret.
Although I was using a caliper I ended up sanding the saddle a little
trifle too thin, so I inserted two strips of sandwhich paper along with
the saddle, in order to get a very tight fit in the bridge slot. If the
saddle stands with a slant you risk breaking
the bridge.
For more details and instructions about making a new saddle, consult
the article
on that topic at Frank Ford's excellent site at http://www.frets.com/.
I had a luthier adjust the truss rod and shape an ordinary saddle for
fretted playing, so it's a matter of minutes to reconvert the guitar
for that purpose whenever I decide to sell it. (It goes without saying
that fretted playing is impossible with the modifications described
here.) I was concerned that the increased action would put the
headstock or/and the heel at risk, but the luthier was quite certain
that the neck bolts were strong enough and that the extra tension on
the headstock was only incremental (... which was also the conclusions
of my own speculation ...).
After several months there are no signs of warping or anything like
that. Since I don't flatpick the abalone pickguard was removed, and
after about eight months the top is becoming more uniformly darkened
than what is the case on these pictures.
The guitar is really up to expectations. It sounds very well for the
country bluesy and bluegrassy styles that I’m exploring (I'm
an amateur playing at home only ...). For blues I mostly hold the
guitar in the normal playing position, picking with my bare fingers and
with a glass bottleneck on the little finger. The cutaway gives access
to the higher 'frets'. For bluegrassy stuff I place the guitar top
facing up in my lap like a squareneck, I put on a thumb pick and play
with a stevens steel. Both ways it sounds GREAT!. I use .11 strings and
EBEG#BE open E tuning. Do not use heavy gauge strings meant for
squarenecks ... a roundneck guitar might warp or break under that
tension.
Any comments, questions or suggestions? Please contact me at
