billiards and lap steels

This is a project I did about 6 months ago. I saw a little tutorial online at Instructables, and I knew I had to do it. In fact, between my pedal parts stock and old stripped down guitars, I had everything I needed except the actual case.

So here it is... a lap steel guitar made from a pool cue case.

closes up nicely, just like the original case did. The only difference on the outside now is addition of the tuners and a few screws.

Between the two bridges (nut/saddle) is a piece of MDF board that I painted black and then painted on measured fret markers to make it easier to find accurate pitch.

tuning machines. I only used (3) strings because I feared that anymore would create too much pull tension and would cause intonation problems at best and potentially cause the whole thing to eventually fold in on itself.

I used a bridge pickup that I no longer use from an old Fender Tele'. the nut and saddles are pieces of dowel rod with a fret that I dug out from an old cheap guitar.

I ended up using mandolin strings because they were perfect for it. The length was a better fit than guitar strings and the loop at the end made it easy to mount them to the bridge with a couple screws.