DLP Lap Steel Guitar - 1 - Design Ideas

I was recently  inspired by a fellow luthier to start a Lap Steel Guitar.  I had never considered making one before but he made it look so easy!  For starters, unlike a regular guitar, the body and neck can be made out of one piece of wood.  It wont need frets, or a contoured neck.  It wont need a radius on the finger board or a truss rod in the neck.  So I started to research different styles and set about designing a DLP Lap Steel Guitar. 

The simplest Lap Steel design is a plank of wood with strings suspended above a pickup and while I like the idea of a minimalist design I still want to put a little of my personality into the finished DLP design.   With that in mind I thought about the headstock design I have already used on previous builds and decided to mirror it in the body shape.  I decided on using a 22 1/2 scale which lets me have a proportionally smaller body than I would normally use on a larger scale guitar.

Once I was happy with the design I drew up a full scale plan and then cut it out in hardboard.  I can either route round the edge of just use it to draw an outline for the band saw knowing I can re-use the template over and over again.  I plan to install a P90 pickup, I also plan to use regular machine heads mounted as though they were on a regular guitar.  I will install one volume and tone control and try and keep the nut and bridge as simple as possible and I am considering through body strings at the bridge end much like a fender Telecaster.

With the template cut out and the sides smooth and straight I put it to one side and paid a visit to the local sawmill to look at wood for the body.  I need something at least 3' tall and about 10" wide and 2" thick.  I finally settled on a nice piece of cherry.

I marked the centre of the plank and cut it in half.  laying the two boards next to each other gives me some idea of how the template would lay out next to the figuring of the wood.  At this point I looked at the amount of waste I would produce if I laid the template in the middle of the board and while ascetically the body would look the best, in practical terms I realised I can make two bodies out of this blank.  There are some splits in the ends of the board so I was careful to avoid them.

Before I joined the two boards I ensured both glue surfaces were flat and square by sanding them on a flat piece of glass with sandpaper stuck to it with double sided tape.

I used wood glue and carefully joined the two edges wiping away excess glue with a damp cloth.

I will leave this all clamped overnight and remove the clamps in the morning leaving everything to set for 24 hours before doing any more work on the blank.

Meanwhile I took a piece of mahogany and cut a blank for the fret board.  I plan to slot the board and glue in plastic strips to mark what would normally be the fret positions on a regular guitar.  I should end up with 24 or 25 frets on the 17 inch blank.  The blank it's self started off about 1/2" thick and I want it to be about 1/4" thick so I planed away the excess material and then sanded the face flat on my 'sandpaper on glass' setup!

So I have the potential to make 2 DLP Lap Steel guitars out of this blank but the more I look at the 2 boards glued together the more I think of the lovely book matched guitar tops I have see and start imagining one or maybe two guitar bodies in the making...