Building a vintage-look lap steel

[smojo]

Been looking at vintage lap steel guitars on Ebay - I love the 1940s 1950's styles like the Rickenbackers, Gibsons, Magnatones etc - you know the ones that look like a small conventional guitar shape rather than a plank of wood with a fretboard - a bit art deco looking. I'm thinking it should be fairly easy to build one. Done a search of the internet for plans and not found anything inspiring. I could probably draw out the shape from photos but have no idea about dimensions. How thick does the body need to be etc. Does anyone have any plans or links to websites where I can get some info please? Has anyone here made one - what are the issues in building it? Thanks

[Ted Crocker]

Basic plans:

http://www.bluestemstrings.com/page3.html

http://www.buildyourguitar.com/resources/lapsteel/

[smojo]

Thanks, some good stuff to digest. I guess I don't need to think about fitting a truss rod?

[Buttermilk Music aka Norm]

Nice little book on amazon called It's Easy to Build Your Own Lap Steel. Has two versions, the straight plank look and the classic mini guitar shape. http://www.amazon.com/easy-Build-Your-Steel-Guitar/dp/3901314091/re...

[smojo]

Looks good, thanks

Buttermilk Music aka Norm said:

Nice little book on amazon called It's Easy to Build Your Own Lap Steel. Has two versions, the straight plank look and the classic mini guitar shape. http://www.amazon.com/easy-Build-Your-Steel-Guitar/dp/3901314091/re...

[Smoke Box Blues]

my second build was a lap steel...

http://www.buildyourguitar.com/resources/lapsteel/

[Smoke Box Blues]

...and voilá...

http://www.handmademusicclubhouse.com/photo/lap-steel-1?context=user