Electric Lapsteel Guitar

This was one of my "bucket list" projects. Always wanted to build a guitar, but by the time I felt confident enough to give it a try, arthritis in my fingers made playing a regular guitar very difficult. Then I started experimenting by converting a cheap acoustic guitar to play "lap style" and found that I could play fairly well that way, so I decided to try making a lapsteel guitar. I found a book online published by a man in Germany that had all the important technical details, but the design is my own. I made it from bubinga because that was the most suitable wood in my shop. The fretboard, pickup bezel, and base of the bridge are made from ebony. I am proud of the way the headstock turned out-I wanted to come up with an innovative design for that, and it was very satisfying to figure out how to make it happen in the wood. Carefully placed holes of the right size, drilled out with Forstner bits provided all the radii, then it was just a matter of routing out the waste. The other really critical operation was locating the bridge-it had to be spot on or the guitar would never have the right intonation. It was a very fulfilling but rather nerve wracking project-I put it down and walked away several times before it was finally finished. Unfortunately, now the arthritis has become so bad I can no longer play it. Oh well, it's one more thing crossed off the list!