Chrome Telecaster-style Bridge Plate with Single-Coil Pickup Pre-installed

I had the guitar body and thought it would be cool to make a table out of it. I had the idea of mounting it on a rock....hence "Rock and Roll". The top is a plexiglass guitar pick.

Ohio, USA

Other

1/4-inch Tuner Bushings/Ferrules - Choose Color & Pack Size

Partscaster build… XGP double bound body and flammed maple 9.5” neck. Bridge is Wilkinson’ compensated brass. Pickups are Wilkinson Vintage 50s Tele set.

Auburn, MA 01501, USA

Instrument Build

1/4-inch Tuner Bushings/Ferrules - Choose Color & Pack Size

Partscaster build… XGP double bound body and flammed maple 9.5” neck. Bridge is Wilkinson’ compensated brass. Pickups are Wilkinson Vintage 50s Tele set.

Auburn, MA 01501, USA

Instrument Build

1/4-inch Tuner Bushings/Ferrules - Choose Color & Pack Size

Partscaster build… XGP double bound body and flammed maple 9.5” neck. Bridge is Wilkinson’ compensated brass. Pickups are Wilkinson Vintage 50s Tele set.

Auburn, MA 01501, USA

Instrument Build

1/4-inch Tuner Bushings/Ferrules - Choose Color & Pack Size

Partscaster build… XGP double bound body and flammed maple 9.5” neck. Bridge is Wilkinson’ compensated brass. Pickups are Wilkinson Vintage 50s Tele set.

Auburn, MA 01501, USA

Instrument Build

Clear Acrylic Fretboards - Choose Lap Steel or Cigar Box Guitar Size, Chrome Telecaster-style Bridge Plate with Single-Coil Pickup Pre-installed, 2-pack Black Flat-Top Press-Fit Knobs, EconoHarness Pre-wired Cigar Box Guitar Wiring Circuits - Choose Harness Type, 6pc. Enclosed-Gear Guitar Tuners - 3 Left/3 Right - Choose Chrome or Gold, 3-pack Chrome Ovoid Flat-Profile Jack Plates, Red Swirl Lap Steel (2.75") Acrylic Fretboard Underlay , 12pc. Narrow String Ferrules - Choose Color

Built a lap steel guitar based on plans I found on instructables.com using scrap wood I had on hand. Looks and sounds great.

Auburn, MA, USA

Instrument Build

56-gauge (.056") Nickel Wound Electric Guitar Strings (12-pack)

I've been building cigar box guitars for years. This winter I depleted all boxes and neck hardwoods, but had a supply of 2buy4. So here you have my work. All using recycled materials with the exception of tuners and pickups

Instrument Build

56-gauge (.056") Nickel Wound Electric Guitar Strings (12-pack)

I've been building cigar box guitars for years. This winter I depleted all boxes and neck hardwoods, but had a supply of 2buy4. So here you have my work. All using recycled materials with the exception of tuners and pickups

Instrument Build

56-gauge (.056") Nickel Wound Electric Guitar Strings (12-pack)

I've been building cigar box guitars for years. This winter I depleted all boxes and neck hardwoods, but had a supply of 2buy4. So here you have my work. All using recycled materials with the exception of tuners and pickups

Instrument Build

56-gauge (.056") Nickel Wound Electric Guitar Strings (12-pack)

I've been building cigar box guitars for years. This winter I depleted all boxes and neck hardwoods, but had a supply of 2buy4. So here you have my work. All using recycled materials with the exception of tuners and pickups

Instrument Build

Mono Guitar Jacks Pre-mounted in Jack Plates - Choose Finish & Pack Size, Chrome Telecaster-style Bridge Plate with Single-Coil Pickup Pre-installed, 1/4-inch Tuner Bushings/Ferrules - Choose Color & Pack Size, Clear Acrylic Fretboards - Choose Lap Steel or Cigar Box Guitar Size, EconoHarness Pre-wired Cigar Box Guitar Wiring Circuits - Choose Harness Type

I used a 11/2" slab of curly maple for the solid body. The parts worked perfectly and it sounds great.

Instrument Build

Mono Guitar Jacks Pre-mounted in Jack Plates - Choose Finish & Pack Size, Chrome Telecaster-style Bridge Plate with Single-Coil Pickup Pre-installed, 1/4-inch Tuner Bushings/Ferrules - Choose Color & Pack Size, Clear Acrylic Fretboards - Choose Lap Steel or Cigar Box Guitar Size, EconoHarness Pre-wired Cigar Box Guitar Wiring Circuits - Choose Harness Type

I used a 11/2" slab of curly maple for the solid body. The parts worked perfectly and it sounds great.

Instrument Build

Black Skull Sealed-Gear Guitar Tuners/Machine Heads - 6pc. 3 left/3 right, Laser-Cut Knob Inserts - Make Your Own Custom Guitar Knobs!, Re-LapZ B-Bender Kit (Original) - get pedal steel guitar sounds!, Chrome Telecaster-style Bridge Plate with Single-Coil Pickup Pre-installed, Shiny Stainless Steel Guitar Slide Bars - 3" Length - Great for Lap Steel Guitars!, Clear Acrylic Fretboards - Choose Lap Steel or Cigar Box Guitar Size, Recessed Jack Plates for Electric Guitar - Choose Finish Color & Pack Size

What do you do with a piece of wood from a house built 150 years ago in Detroit! Make a really awesome lap steel - one that tells a tale of love and death in old Mexico of course. Probably my most ambitious instrument attempt yet. It's called "Una canción de dolor y venganza" (A song of grief and vengeance.) and it's not just a musical instrument, but also an assemblage art piece, and a murder ballad in sculpture form. I was given a couple pieces of wood from one of the houses from the West Canfield Historic District near the University where I work in Detroit. They were from a house build in the 1881's by a prominent Detroit lumber baron and over the decades had a colorful history until it was restored by a professor at the university. Initially when my friend gave me the wood she suggested I just cut solid body electric guitars out of them, but I really loved the unique shape and all of the weathering on them, so I decided to keep this one whole and attempt to build my first Lap Steel out of it. At the time of deciding to make it I discovered the work of Assemblage Artist Michael DeMeng- whose book "Dusty Diablos" was recommended by Shane Speal. DeMeng uses found objects to create 3 dimensional collages of various themes, and this book was about creating artwork based on Mexican mythology and the Day of The Dead holiday. While reading the book I became interested in the story of "Santa Muerte" or Saint Death, who, although not recognized by the Catholic Church has been accepted by many, including drug lords, biker gangs (you can see a statue of her in the TV show Mayans, at the entrance to the gang's clubhouse adorned with flowers and 50 caliber machine gun belts) and other criminals, as well as those who are seeking vengeance against those they feel have wronged them. So I started to concoct a story in my head about the instrument. Since the base wood was so old and cracked I decided that it would be an instrument that would have been recently discovered in some dusty corner of an attic in Detroit's Mexican Town neighborhood, that was some distant family member's touring instrument from decades past. The instrument is called "Una canción de dolor y venganza" (A song of grief and vengeance.) It visually tells the story of the a period of the musician's life where he traveled around Mexico and the southern United States playing music, and searching for the gangster that murdered his older sister the beautiful 18 year old budding Latina movie starlet Maria Carmen- Who at the start of her career in Mexican cinema caught the eye of a Gangster named Franciso Alverez Valle who ultimately would be the cause of her death. It also told the story of the musician's grief driven spiral downward into alcoholism and despair until his anger burned so hotly that he turned to the Saint of Death to help guide him in his quest for revenge against the pendejo Franciso Valle. I built the lap steel in a similar fashion to 2x4 lap steels, only I used a 1x4 glued and screwed above the base. All the parts were CB Gity- I used the closed gear black skull tuners, the 6 string hard tail bridge with single coil pickup, and the B Bender for the instruments, as well as laser cut wood knob inserts for the volume and tone control, an inverted jack cover, the acrylic fret board cover, as well as the tone bar. I painted and aged the wood to match the base using various crafting techniques include covering the wood with glue and painting acrylic paint over it, which as everything dries, the glue shrinks and pulls apart the surface paint. The story is first told in general in the form of the Mexican "Lotteria" Cards under the acryllic fretboard- It tells the story of a "A tragic tale in Mexico of the tangled web of a beautiful woman, and a man-devil who caused the death of the woman, and left her brother with a broken heart, who found comfort in a bottle, until music and the thought of vengeance thawed his frozen heart." The specific story is that one evening while at a nightclub (owned by Vale) Maria is spotted by him, and he courts her. One night she witnesses Vale murdering a policeman and she is so startled that he hears her, and is forced to kill her. Her musician brother is so hear broken that he turns to the bottle, and eventually swears vengence of Vale who ran off after the killings. Then I went about building up the details for the "story-" I went online a looked around for various Mexican (or Mexican looking" images to use. I searched for an old looking funeral card with a beautiful dark haired woman on it, along with pictures of a similar looking woman standing with a younger boy to represent Maria and her brother (I photoshopped the name and date of birth on the card.) I also found pictures of a vaguely hispanic looking guy playing lap steel in what appeared to be "cowboy bands" as well as things that would have looked like clippings announcing gigs. I found both a picture of the Virgin Mary, and Santa Muerte. I also found a website mugshots of Mexican criminals where I found the gangster Valle. I did research and wrote a prayer to Santa Muerte which I printed out in handwriting script. I also wrote a couple of other things such as the title of the instrument n vintage typewriter font. Everything was printed out on plain paper and stained with ground instant coffee stuffed into a paper towel and dampened. I found various little skulls and styrofoam roses from the dollar store. In his book Michael DeMeng demonstrated how to make bottle cap milagros (milagros are little prayer "tokens" that are given out at churches when a petitioner is seeking prayers for certain health conditions or for financial health) I beat up modern bottle caps and rusted them with a vinegar/hydrogen peroxide solution, painted them and glued them around the lap steel "altar." For the volume and tone control since there were no lips or ears I found a large doll's head and eviscerated it, glued and painted those on top of bottle caps, then using plaster of Paris and the knob insert affixed them to the volume and tone controls. After everything was laid out I gave everything a dirty, dusty aged looks, with applications of coffee and tea and brown and black washes. To give it the look of something that was dragged around to bars I spilled beer over parts of it, and even blew cigar smoke onto it. It actually smelled pretty "authentic" initially, with faint traces of tobacco smoke, coffee and beer, until I sealed everything up with a few coats of clear matte finish to protect. This was a challenge to build- trying to create a playable instrument as well as something that looked as authentically old as possible that also told a story AND was a work of art. When I posted it on facebook I tagged Michael DeMeng and he was blown away by the whole thing and how his book/work was the inspiration for it. I'm proud of it, now if only I could play it. Thanks as always to CB Gitty for the parts and the inspiration.

Hamtramck, MI, USA

Instrument Build, Demo Video, How-To

Black Skull Sealed-Gear Guitar Tuners/Machine Heads - 6pc. 3 left/3 right, Laser-Cut Knob Inserts - Make Your Own Custom Guitar Knobs!, Re-LapZ B-Bender Kit (Original) - get pedal steel guitar sounds!, Chrome Telecaster-style Bridge Plate with Single-Coil Pickup Pre-installed, Shiny Stainless Steel Guitar Slide Bars - 3" Length - Great for Lap Steel Guitars!, Clear Acrylic Fretboards - Choose Lap Steel or Cigar Box Guitar Size, Recessed Jack Plates for Electric Guitar - Choose Finish Color & Pack Size

What do you do with a piece of wood from a house built 150 years ago in Detroit! Make a really awesome lap steel - one that tells a tale of love and death in old Mexico of course. Probably my most ambitious instrument attempt yet. It's called "Una canción de dolor y venganza" (A song of grief and vengeance.) and it's not just a musical instrument, but also an assemblage art piece, and a murder ballad in sculpture form. I was given a couple pieces of wood from one of the houses from the West Canfield Historic District near the University where I work in Detroit. They were from a house build in the 1881's by a prominent Detroit lumber baron and over the decades had a colorful history until it was restored by a professor at the university. Initially when my friend gave me the wood she suggested I just cut solid body electric guitars out of them, but I really loved the unique shape and all of the weathering on them, so I decided to keep this one whole and attempt to build my first Lap Steel out of it. At the time of deciding to make it I discovered the work of Assemblage Artist Michael DeMeng- whose book "Dusty Diablos" was recommended by Shane Speal. DeMeng uses found objects to create 3 dimensional collages of various themes, and this book was about creating artwork based on Mexican mythology and the Day of The Dead holiday. While reading the book I became interested in the story of "Santa Muerte" or Saint Death, who, although not recognized by the Catholic Church has been accepted by many, including drug lords, biker gangs (you can see a statue of her in the TV show Mayans, at the entrance to the gang's clubhouse adorned with flowers and 50 caliber machine gun belts) and other criminals, as well as those who are seeking vengeance against those they feel have wronged them. So I started to concoct a story in my head about the instrument. Since the base wood was so old and cracked I decided that it would be an instrument that would have been recently discovered in some dusty corner of an attic in Detroit's Mexican Town neighborhood, that was some distant family member's touring instrument from decades past. The instrument is called "Una canción de dolor y venganza" (A song of grief and vengeance.) It visually tells the story of the a period of the musician's life where he traveled around Mexico and the southern United States playing music, and searching for the gangster that murdered his older sister the beautiful 18 year old budding Latina movie starlet Maria Carmen- Who at the start of her career in Mexican cinema caught the eye of a Gangster named Franciso Alverez Valle who ultimately would be the cause of her death. It also told the story of the musician's grief driven spiral downward into alcoholism and despair until his anger burned so hotly that he turned to the Saint of Death to help guide him in his quest for revenge against the pendejo Franciso Valle. I built the lap steel in a similar fashion to 2x4 lap steels, only I used a 1x4 glued and screwed above the base. All the parts were CB Gity- I used the closed gear black skull tuners, the 6 string hard tail bridge with single coil pickup, and the B Bender for the instruments, as well as laser cut wood knob inserts for the volume and tone control, an inverted jack cover, the acrylic fret board cover, as well as the tone bar. I painted and aged the wood to match the base using various crafting techniques include covering the wood with glue and painting acrylic paint over it, which as everything dries, the glue shrinks and pulls apart the surface paint. The story is first told in general in the form of the Mexican "Lotteria" Cards under the acryllic fretboard- It tells the story of a "A tragic tale in Mexico of the tangled web of a beautiful woman, and a man-devil who caused the death of the woman, and left her brother with a broken heart, who found comfort in a bottle, until music and the thought of vengeance thawed his frozen heart." The specific story is that one evening while at a nightclub (owned by Vale) Maria is spotted by him, and he courts her. One night she witnesses Vale murdering a policeman and she is so startled that he hears her, and is forced to kill her. Her musician brother is so hear broken that he turns to the bottle, and eventually swears vengence of Vale who ran off after the killings. Then I went about building up the details for the "story-" I went online a looked around for various Mexican (or Mexican looking" images to use. I searched for an old looking funeral card with a beautiful dark haired woman on it, along with pictures of a similar looking woman standing with a younger boy to represent Maria and her brother (I photoshopped the name and date of birth on the card.) I also found pictures of a vaguely hispanic looking guy playing lap steel in what appeared to be "cowboy bands" as well as things that would have looked like clippings announcing gigs. I found both a picture of the Virgin Mary, and Santa Muerte. I also found a website mugshots of Mexican criminals where I found the gangster Valle. I did research and wrote a prayer to Santa Muerte which I printed out in handwriting script. I also wrote a couple of other things such as the title of the instrument n vintage typewriter font. Everything was printed out on plain paper and stained with ground instant coffee stuffed into a paper towel and dampened. I found various little skulls and styrofoam roses from the dollar store. In his book Michael DeMeng demonstrated how to make bottle cap milagros (milagros are little prayer "tokens" that are given out at churches when a petitioner is seeking prayers for certain health conditions or for financial health) I beat up modern bottle caps and rusted them with a vinegar/hydrogen peroxide solution, painted them and glued them around the lap steel "altar." For the volume and tone control since there were no lips or ears I found a large doll's head and eviscerated it, glued and painted those on top of bottle caps, then using plaster of Paris and the knob insert affixed them to the volume and tone controls. After everything was laid out I gave everything a dirty, dusty aged looks, with applications of coffee and tea and brown and black washes. To give it the look of something that was dragged around to bars I spilled beer over parts of it, and even blew cigar smoke onto it. It actually smelled pretty "authentic" initially, with faint traces of tobacco smoke, coffee and beer, until I sealed everything up with a few coats of clear matte finish to protect. This was a challenge to build- trying to create a playable instrument as well as something that looked as authentically old as possible that also told a story AND was a work of art. When I posted it on facebook I tagged Michael DeMeng and he was blown away by the whole thing and how his book/work was the inspiration for it. I'm proud of it, now if only I could play it. Thanks as always to CB Gitty for the parts and the inspiration.

Hamtramck, MI, USA

Instrument Build, Demo Video, How-To

Black Skull Sealed-Gear Guitar Tuners/Machine Heads - 6pc. 3 left/3 right, Laser-Cut Knob Inserts - Make Your Own Custom Guitar Knobs!, Re-LapZ B-Bender Kit (Original) - get pedal steel guitar sounds!, Chrome Telecaster-style Bridge Plate with Single-Coil Pickup Pre-installed, Shiny Stainless Steel Guitar Slide Bars - 3" Length - Great for Lap Steel Guitars!, Clear Acrylic Fretboards - Choose Lap Steel or Cigar Box Guitar Size, Recessed Jack Plates for Electric Guitar - Choose Finish Color & Pack Size

What do you do with a piece of wood from a house built 150 years ago in Detroit! Make a really awesome lap steel - one that tells a tale of love and death in old Mexico of course. Probably my most ambitious instrument attempt yet. It's called "Una canción de dolor y venganza" (A song of grief and vengeance.) and it's not just a musical instrument, but also an assemblage art piece, and a murder ballad in sculpture form. I was given a couple pieces of wood from one of the houses from the West Canfield Historic District near the University where I work in Detroit. They were from a house build in the 1881's by a prominent Detroit lumber baron and over the decades had a colorful history until it was restored by a professor at the university. Initially when my friend gave me the wood she suggested I just cut solid body electric guitars out of them, but I really loved the unique shape and all of the weathering on them, so I decided to keep this one whole and attempt to build my first Lap Steel out of it. At the time of deciding to make it I discovered the work of Assemblage Artist Michael DeMeng- whose book "Dusty Diablos" was recommended by Shane Speal. DeMeng uses found objects to create 3 dimensional collages of various themes, and this book was about creating artwork based on Mexican mythology and the Day of The Dead holiday. While reading the book I became interested in the story of "Santa Muerte" or Saint Death, who, although not recognized by the Catholic Church has been accepted by many, including drug lords, biker gangs (you can see a statue of her in the TV show Mayans, at the entrance to the gang's clubhouse adorned with flowers and 50 caliber machine gun belts) and other criminals, as well as those who are seeking vengeance against those they feel have wronged them. So I started to concoct a story in my head about the instrument. Since the base wood was so old and cracked I decided that it would be an instrument that would have been recently discovered in some dusty corner of an attic in Detroit's Mexican Town neighborhood, that was some distant family member's touring instrument from decades past. The instrument is called "Una canción de dolor y venganza" (A song of grief and vengeance.) It visually tells the story of the a period of the musician's life where he traveled around Mexico and the southern United States playing music, and searching for the gangster that murdered his older sister the beautiful 18 year old budding Latina movie starlet Maria Carmen- Who at the start of her career in Mexican cinema caught the eye of a Gangster named Franciso Alverez Valle who ultimately would be the cause of her death. It also told the story of the musician's grief driven spiral downward into alcoholism and despair until his anger burned so hotly that he turned to the Saint of Death to help guide him in his quest for revenge against the pendejo Franciso Valle. I built the lap steel in a similar fashion to 2x4 lap steels, only I used a 1x4 glued and screwed above the base. All the parts were CB Gity- I used the closed gear black skull tuners, the 6 string hard tail bridge with single coil pickup, and the B Bender for the instruments, as well as laser cut wood knob inserts for the volume and tone control, an inverted jack cover, the acrylic fret board cover, as well as the tone bar. I painted and aged the wood to match the base using various crafting techniques include covering the wood with glue and painting acrylic paint over it, which as everything dries, the glue shrinks and pulls apart the surface paint. The story is first told in general in the form of the Mexican "Lotteria" Cards under the acryllic fretboard- It tells the story of a "A tragic tale in Mexico of the tangled web of a beautiful woman, and a man-devil who caused the death of the woman, and left her brother with a broken heart, who found comfort in a bottle, until music and the thought of vengeance thawed his frozen heart." The specific story is that one evening while at a nightclub (owned by Vale) Maria is spotted by him, and he courts her. One night she witnesses Vale murdering a policeman and she is so startled that he hears her, and is forced to kill her. Her musician brother is so hear broken that he turns to the bottle, and eventually swears vengence of Vale who ran off after the killings. Then I went about building up the details for the "story-" I went online a looked around for various Mexican (or Mexican looking" images to use. I searched for an old looking funeral card with a beautiful dark haired woman on it, along with pictures of a similar looking woman standing with a younger boy to represent Maria and her brother (I photoshopped the name and date of birth on the card.) I also found pictures of a vaguely hispanic looking guy playing lap steel in what appeared to be "cowboy bands" as well as things that would have looked like clippings announcing gigs. I found both a picture of the Virgin Mary, and Santa Muerte. I also found a website mugshots of Mexican criminals where I found the gangster Valle. I did research and wrote a prayer to Santa Muerte which I printed out in handwriting script. I also wrote a couple of other things such as the title of the instrument n vintage typewriter font. Everything was printed out on plain paper and stained with ground instant coffee stuffed into a paper towel and dampened. I found various little skulls and styrofoam roses from the dollar store. In his book Michael DeMeng demonstrated how to make bottle cap milagros (milagros are little prayer "tokens" that are given out at churches when a petitioner is seeking prayers for certain health conditions or for financial health) I beat up modern bottle caps and rusted them with a vinegar/hydrogen peroxide solution, painted them and glued them around the lap steel "altar." For the volume and tone control since there were no lips or ears I found a large doll's head and eviscerated it, glued and painted those on top of bottle caps, then using plaster of Paris and the knob insert affixed them to the volume and tone controls. After everything was laid out I gave everything a dirty, dusty aged looks, with applications of coffee and tea and brown and black washes. To give it the look of something that was dragged around to bars I spilled beer over parts of it, and even blew cigar smoke onto it. It actually smelled pretty "authentic" initially, with faint traces of tobacco smoke, coffee and beer, until I sealed everything up with a few coats of clear matte finish to protect. This was a challenge to build- trying to create a playable instrument as well as something that looked as authentically old as possible that also told a story AND was a work of art. When I posted it on facebook I tagged Michael DeMeng and he was blown away by the whole thing and how his book/work was the inspiration for it. I'm proud of it, now if only I could play it. Thanks as always to CB Gitty for the parts and the inspiration.

Hamtramck, MI, USA

Instrument Build, Demo Video, How-To

Black Skull Sealed-Gear Guitar Tuners/Machine Heads - 6pc. 3 left/3 right, Laser-Cut Knob Inserts - Make Your Own Custom Guitar Knobs!, Re-LapZ B-Bender Kit (Original) - get pedal steel guitar sounds!, Chrome Telecaster-style Bridge Plate with Single-Coil Pickup Pre-installed, Shiny Stainless Steel Guitar Slide Bars - 3" Length - Great for Lap Steel Guitars!, Clear Acrylic Fretboards - Choose Lap Steel or Cigar Box Guitar Size, Recessed Jack Plates for Electric Guitar - Choose Finish Color & Pack Size

What do you do with a piece of wood from a house built 150 years ago in Detroit! Make a really awesome lap steel - one that tells a tale of love and death in old Mexico of course. Probably my most ambitious instrument attempt yet. It's called "Una canción de dolor y venganza" (A song of grief and vengeance.) and it's not just a musical instrument, but also an assemblage art piece, and a murder ballad in sculpture form. I was given a couple pieces of wood from one of the houses from the West Canfield Historic District near the University where I work in Detroit. They were from a house build in the 1881's by a prominent Detroit lumber baron and over the decades had a colorful history until it was restored by a professor at the university. Initially when my friend gave me the wood she suggested I just cut solid body electric guitars out of them, but I really loved the unique shape and all of the weathering on them, so I decided to keep this one whole and attempt to build my first Lap Steel out of it. At the time of deciding to make it I discovered the work of Assemblage Artist Michael DeMeng- whose book "Dusty Diablos" was recommended by Shane Speal. DeMeng uses found objects to create 3 dimensional collages of various themes, and this book was about creating artwork based on Mexican mythology and the Day of The Dead holiday. While reading the book I became interested in the story of "Santa Muerte" or Saint Death, who, although not recognized by the Catholic Church has been accepted by many, including drug lords, biker gangs (you can see a statue of her in the TV show Mayans, at the entrance to the gang's clubhouse adorned with flowers and 50 caliber machine gun belts) and other criminals, as well as those who are seeking vengeance against those they feel have wronged them. So I started to concoct a story in my head about the instrument. Since the base wood was so old and cracked I decided that it would be an instrument that would have been recently discovered in some dusty corner of an attic in Detroit's Mexican Town neighborhood, that was some distant family member's touring instrument from decades past. The instrument is called "Una canción de dolor y venganza" (A song of grief and vengeance.) It visually tells the story of the a period of the musician's life where he traveled around Mexico and the southern United States playing music, and searching for the gangster that murdered his older sister the beautiful 18 year old budding Latina movie starlet Maria Carmen- Who at the start of her career in Mexican cinema caught the eye of a Gangster named Franciso Alverez Valle who ultimately would be the cause of her death. It also told the story of the musician's grief driven spiral downward into alcoholism and despair until his anger burned so hotly that he turned to the Saint of Death to help guide him in his quest for revenge against the pendejo Franciso Valle. I built the lap steel in a similar fashion to 2x4 lap steels, only I used a 1x4 glued and screwed above the base. All the parts were CB Gity- I used the closed gear black skull tuners, the 6 string hard tail bridge with single coil pickup, and the B Bender for the instruments, as well as laser cut wood knob inserts for the volume and tone control, an inverted jack cover, the acrylic fret board cover, as well as the tone bar. I painted and aged the wood to match the base using various crafting techniques include covering the wood with glue and painting acrylic paint over it, which as everything dries, the glue shrinks and pulls apart the surface paint. The story is first told in general in the form of the Mexican "Lotteria" Cards under the acryllic fretboard- It tells the story of a "A tragic tale in Mexico of the tangled web of a beautiful woman, and a man-devil who caused the death of the woman, and left her brother with a broken heart, who found comfort in a bottle, until music and the thought of vengeance thawed his frozen heart." The specific story is that one evening while at a nightclub (owned by Vale) Maria is spotted by him, and he courts her. One night she witnesses Vale murdering a policeman and she is so startled that he hears her, and is forced to kill her. Her musician brother is so hear broken that he turns to the bottle, and eventually swears vengence of Vale who ran off after the killings. Then I went about building up the details for the "story-" I went online a looked around for various Mexican (or Mexican looking" images to use. I searched for an old looking funeral card with a beautiful dark haired woman on it, along with pictures of a similar looking woman standing with a younger boy to represent Maria and her brother (I photoshopped the name and date of birth on the card.) I also found pictures of a vaguely hispanic looking guy playing lap steel in what appeared to be "cowboy bands" as well as things that would have looked like clippings announcing gigs. I found both a picture of the Virgin Mary, and Santa Muerte. I also found a website mugshots of Mexican criminals where I found the gangster Valle. I did research and wrote a prayer to Santa Muerte which I printed out in handwriting script. I also wrote a couple of other things such as the title of the instrument n vintage typewriter font. Everything was printed out on plain paper and stained with ground instant coffee stuffed into a paper towel and dampened. I found various little skulls and styrofoam roses from the dollar store. In his book Michael DeMeng demonstrated how to make bottle cap milagros (milagros are little prayer "tokens" that are given out at churches when a petitioner is seeking prayers for certain health conditions or for financial health) I beat up modern bottle caps and rusted them with a vinegar/hydrogen peroxide solution, painted them and glued them around the lap steel "altar." For the volume and tone control since there were no lips or ears I found a large doll's head and eviscerated it, glued and painted those on top of bottle caps, then using plaster of Paris and the knob insert affixed them to the volume and tone controls. After everything was laid out I gave everything a dirty, dusty aged looks, with applications of coffee and tea and brown and black washes. To give it the look of something that was dragged around to bars I spilled beer over parts of it, and even blew cigar smoke onto it. It actually smelled pretty "authentic" initially, with faint traces of tobacco smoke, coffee and beer, until I sealed everything up with a few coats of clear matte finish to protect. This was a challenge to build- trying to create a playable instrument as well as something that looked as authentically old as possible that also told a story AND was a work of art. When I posted it on facebook I tagged Michael DeMeng and he was blown away by the whole thing and how his book/work was the inspiration for it. I'm proud of it, now if only I could play it. Thanks as always to CB Gitty for the parts and the inspiration.

Hamtramck, MI, USA

Instrument Build, Demo Video, How-To

Black Skull Sealed-Gear Guitar Tuners/Machine Heads - 6pc. 3 left/3 right, Laser-Cut Knob Inserts - Make Your Own Custom Guitar Knobs!, Re-LapZ B-Bender Kit (Original) - get pedal steel guitar sounds!, Chrome Telecaster-style Bridge Plate with Single-Coil Pickup Pre-installed, Shiny Stainless Steel Guitar Slide Bars - 3" Length - Great for Lap Steel Guitars!, Clear Acrylic Fretboards - Choose Lap Steel or Cigar Box Guitar Size, Recessed Jack Plates for Electric Guitar - Choose Finish Color & Pack Size

What do you do with a piece of wood from a house built 150 years ago in Detroit! Make a really awesome lap steel - one that tells a tale of love and death in old Mexico of course. Probably my most ambitious instrument attempt yet. It's called "Una canción de dolor y venganza" (A song of grief and vengeance.) and it's not just a musical instrument, but also an assemblage art piece, and a murder ballad in sculpture form. I was given a couple pieces of wood from one of the houses from the West Canfield Historic District near the University where I work in Detroit. They were from a house build in the 1881's by a prominent Detroit lumber baron and over the decades had a colorful history until it was restored by a professor at the university. Initially when my friend gave me the wood she suggested I just cut solid body electric guitars out of them, but I really loved the unique shape and all of the weathering on them, so I decided to keep this one whole and attempt to build my first Lap Steel out of it. At the time of deciding to make it I discovered the work of Assemblage Artist Michael DeMeng- whose book "Dusty Diablos" was recommended by Shane Speal. DeMeng uses found objects to create 3 dimensional collages of various themes, and this book was about creating artwork based on Mexican mythology and the Day of The Dead holiday. While reading the book I became interested in the story of "Santa Muerte" or Saint Death, who, although not recognized by the Catholic Church has been accepted by many, including drug lords, biker gangs (you can see a statue of her in the TV show Mayans, at the entrance to the gang's clubhouse adorned with flowers and 50 caliber machine gun belts) and other criminals, as well as those who are seeking vengeance against those they feel have wronged them. So I started to concoct a story in my head about the instrument. Since the base wood was so old and cracked I decided that it would be an instrument that would have been recently discovered in some dusty corner of an attic in Detroit's Mexican Town neighborhood, that was some distant family member's touring instrument from decades past. The instrument is called "Una canción de dolor y venganza" (A song of grief and vengeance.) It visually tells the story of the a period of the musician's life where he traveled around Mexico and the southern United States playing music, and searching for the gangster that murdered his older sister the beautiful 18 year old budding Latina movie starlet Maria Carmen- Who at the start of her career in Mexican cinema caught the eye of a Gangster named Franciso Alverez Valle who ultimately would be the cause of her death. It also told the story of the musician's grief driven spiral downward into alcoholism and despair until his anger burned so hotly that he turned to the Saint of Death to help guide him in his quest for revenge against the pendejo Franciso Valle. I built the lap steel in a similar fashion to 2x4 lap steels, only I used a 1x4 glued and screwed above the base. All the parts were CB Gity- I used the closed gear black skull tuners, the 6 string hard tail bridge with single coil pickup, and the B Bender for the instruments, as well as laser cut wood knob inserts for the volume and tone control, an inverted jack cover, the acrylic fret board cover, as well as the tone bar. I painted and aged the wood to match the base using various crafting techniques include covering the wood with glue and painting acrylic paint over it, which as everything dries, the glue shrinks and pulls apart the surface paint. The story is first told in general in the form of the Mexican "Lotteria" Cards under the acryllic fretboard- It tells the story of a "A tragic tale in Mexico of the tangled web of a beautiful woman, and a man-devil who caused the death of the woman, and left her brother with a broken heart, who found comfort in a bottle, until music and the thought of vengeance thawed his frozen heart." The specific story is that one evening while at a nightclub (owned by Vale) Maria is spotted by him, and he courts her. One night she witnesses Vale murdering a policeman and she is so startled that he hears her, and is forced to kill her. Her musician brother is so hear broken that he turns to the bottle, and eventually swears vengence of Vale who ran off after the killings. Then I went about building up the details for the "story-" I went online a looked around for various Mexican (or Mexican looking" images to use. I searched for an old looking funeral card with a beautiful dark haired woman on it, along with pictures of a similar looking woman standing with a younger boy to represent Maria and her brother (I photoshopped the name and date of birth on the card.) I also found pictures of a vaguely hispanic looking guy playing lap steel in what appeared to be "cowboy bands" as well as things that would have looked like clippings announcing gigs. I found both a picture of the Virgin Mary, and Santa Muerte. I also found a website mugshots of Mexican criminals where I found the gangster Valle. I did research and wrote a prayer to Santa Muerte which I printed out in handwriting script. I also wrote a couple of other things such as the title of the instrument n vintage typewriter font. Everything was printed out on plain paper and stained with ground instant coffee stuffed into a paper towel and dampened. I found various little skulls and styrofoam roses from the dollar store. In his book Michael DeMeng demonstrated how to make bottle cap milagros (milagros are little prayer "tokens" that are given out at churches when a petitioner is seeking prayers for certain health conditions or for financial health) I beat up modern bottle caps and rusted them with a vinegar/hydrogen peroxide solution, painted them and glued them around the lap steel "altar." For the volume and tone control since there were no lips or ears I found a large doll's head and eviscerated it, glued and painted those on top of bottle caps, then using plaster of Paris and the knob insert affixed them to the volume and tone controls. After everything was laid out I gave everything a dirty, dusty aged looks, with applications of coffee and tea and brown and black washes. To give it the look of something that was dragged around to bars I spilled beer over parts of it, and even blew cigar smoke onto it. It actually smelled pretty "authentic" initially, with faint traces of tobacco smoke, coffee and beer, until I sealed everything up with a few coats of clear matte finish to protect. This was a challenge to build- trying to create a playable instrument as well as something that looked as authentically old as possible that also told a story AND was a work of art. When I posted it on facebook I tagged Michael DeMeng and he was blown away by the whole thing and how his book/work was the inspiration for it. I'm proud of it, now if only I could play it. Thanks as always to CB Gitty for the parts and the inspiration.

Hamtramck, MI, USA

Instrument Build, Demo Video, How-To

Black Skull Sealed-Gear Guitar Tuners/Machine Heads - 6pc. 3 left/3 right, Laser-Cut Knob Inserts - Make Your Own Custom Guitar Knobs!, Re-LapZ B-Bender Kit (Original) - get pedal steel guitar sounds!, Chrome Telecaster-style Bridge Plate with Single-Coil Pickup Pre-installed, Shiny Stainless Steel Guitar Slide Bars - 3" Length - Great for Lap Steel Guitars!, Clear Acrylic Fretboards - Choose Lap Steel or Cigar Box Guitar Size, Recessed Jack Plates for Electric Guitar - Choose Finish Color & Pack Size

What do you do with a piece of wood from a house built 150 years ago in Detroit! Make a really awesome lap steel - one that tells a tale of love and death in old Mexico of course. Probably my most ambitious instrument attempt yet. It's called "Una canción de dolor y venganza" (A song of grief and vengeance.) and it's not just a musical instrument, but also an assemblage art piece, and a murder ballad in sculpture form. I was given a couple pieces of wood from one of the houses from the West Canfield Historic District near the University where I work in Detroit. They were from a house build in the 1881's by a prominent Detroit lumber baron and over the decades had a colorful history until it was restored by a professor at the university. Initially when my friend gave me the wood she suggested I just cut solid body electric guitars out of them, but I really loved the unique shape and all of the weathering on them, so I decided to keep this one whole and attempt to build my first Lap Steel out of it. At the time of deciding to make it I discovered the work of Assemblage Artist Michael DeMeng- whose book "Dusty Diablos" was recommended by Shane Speal. DeMeng uses found objects to create 3 dimensional collages of various themes, and this book was about creating artwork based on Mexican mythology and the Day of The Dead holiday. While reading the book I became interested in the story of "Santa Muerte" or Saint Death, who, although not recognized by the Catholic Church has been accepted by many, including drug lords, biker gangs (you can see a statue of her in the TV show Mayans, at the entrance to the gang's clubhouse adorned with flowers and 50 caliber machine gun belts) and other criminals, as well as those who are seeking vengeance against those they feel have wronged them. So I started to concoct a story in my head about the instrument. Since the base wood was so old and cracked I decided that it would be an instrument that would have been recently discovered in some dusty corner of an attic in Detroit's Mexican Town neighborhood, that was some distant family member's touring instrument from decades past. The instrument is called "Una canción de dolor y venganza" (A song of grief and vengeance.) It visually tells the story of the a period of the musician's life where he traveled around Mexico and the southern United States playing music, and searching for the gangster that murdered his older sister the beautiful 18 year old budding Latina movie starlet Maria Carmen- Who at the start of her career in Mexican cinema caught the eye of a Gangster named Franciso Alverez Valle who ultimately would be the cause of her death. It also told the story of the musician's grief driven spiral downward into alcoholism and despair until his anger burned so hotly that he turned to the Saint of Death to help guide him in his quest for revenge against the pendejo Franciso Valle. I built the lap steel in a similar fashion to 2x4 lap steels, only I used a 1x4 glued and screwed above the base. All the parts were CB Gity- I used the closed gear black skull tuners, the 6 string hard tail bridge with single coil pickup, and the B Bender for the instruments, as well as laser cut wood knob inserts for the volume and tone control, an inverted jack cover, the acrylic fret board cover, as well as the tone bar. I painted and aged the wood to match the base using various crafting techniques include covering the wood with glue and painting acrylic paint over it, which as everything dries, the glue shrinks and pulls apart the surface paint. The story is first told in general in the form of the Mexican "Lotteria" Cards under the acryllic fretboard- It tells the story of a "A tragic tale in Mexico of the tangled web of a beautiful woman, and a man-devil who caused the death of the woman, and left her brother with a broken heart, who found comfort in a bottle, until music and the thought of vengeance thawed his frozen heart." The specific story is that one evening while at a nightclub (owned by Vale) Maria is spotted by him, and he courts her. One night she witnesses Vale murdering a policeman and she is so startled that he hears her, and is forced to kill her. Her musician brother is so hear broken that he turns to the bottle, and eventually swears vengence of Vale who ran off after the killings. Then I went about building up the details for the "story-" I went online a looked around for various Mexican (or Mexican looking" images to use. I searched for an old looking funeral card with a beautiful dark haired woman on it, along with pictures of a similar looking woman standing with a younger boy to represent Maria and her brother (I photoshopped the name and date of birth on the card.) I also found pictures of a vaguely hispanic looking guy playing lap steel in what appeared to be "cowboy bands" as well as things that would have looked like clippings announcing gigs. I found both a picture of the Virgin Mary, and Santa Muerte. I also found a website mugshots of Mexican criminals where I found the gangster Valle. I did research and wrote a prayer to Santa Muerte which I printed out in handwriting script. I also wrote a couple of other things such as the title of the instrument n vintage typewriter font. Everything was printed out on plain paper and stained with ground instant coffee stuffed into a paper towel and dampened. I found various little skulls and styrofoam roses from the dollar store. In his book Michael DeMeng demonstrated how to make bottle cap milagros (milagros are little prayer "tokens" that are given out at churches when a petitioner is seeking prayers for certain health conditions or for financial health) I beat up modern bottle caps and rusted them with a vinegar/hydrogen peroxide solution, painted them and glued them around the lap steel "altar." For the volume and tone control since there were no lips or ears I found a large doll's head and eviscerated it, glued and painted those on top of bottle caps, then using plaster of Paris and the knob insert affixed them to the volume and tone controls. After everything was laid out I gave everything a dirty, dusty aged looks, with applications of coffee and tea and brown and black washes. To give it the look of something that was dragged around to bars I spilled beer over parts of it, and even blew cigar smoke onto it. It actually smelled pretty "authentic" initially, with faint traces of tobacco smoke, coffee and beer, until I sealed everything up with a few coats of clear matte finish to protect. This was a challenge to build- trying to create a playable instrument as well as something that looked as authentically old as possible that also told a story AND was a work of art. When I posted it on facebook I tagged Michael DeMeng and he was blown away by the whole thing and how his book/work was the inspiration for it. I'm proud of it, now if only I could play it. Thanks as always to CB Gitty for the parts and the inspiration.

Hamtramck, MI, USA

Instrument Build, Demo Video, How-To

Black Skull Sealed-Gear Guitar Tuners/Machine Heads - 6pc. 3 left/3 right, Laser-Cut Knob Inserts - Make Your Own Custom Guitar Knobs!, Re-LapZ B-Bender Kit (Original) - get pedal steel guitar sounds!, Chrome Telecaster-style Bridge Plate with Single-Coil Pickup Pre-installed, Shiny Stainless Steel Guitar Slide Bars - 3" Length - Great for Lap Steel Guitars!, Clear Acrylic Fretboards - Choose Lap Steel or Cigar Box Guitar Size, Recessed Jack Plates for Electric Guitar - Choose Finish Color & Pack Size

What do you do with a piece of wood from a house built 150 years ago in Detroit! Make a really awesome lap steel - one that tells a tale of love and death in old Mexico of course. Probably my most ambitious instrument attempt yet. It's called "Una canción de dolor y venganza" (A song of grief and vengeance.) and it's not just a musical instrument, but also an assemblage art piece, and a murder ballad in sculpture form. I was given a couple pieces of wood from one of the houses from the West Canfield Historic District near the University where I work in Detroit. They were from a house build in the 1881's by a prominent Detroit lumber baron and over the decades had a colorful history until it was restored by a professor at the university. Initially when my friend gave me the wood she suggested I just cut solid body electric guitars out of them, but I really loved the unique shape and all of the weathering on them, so I decided to keep this one whole and attempt to build my first Lap Steel out of it. At the time of deciding to make it I discovered the work of Assemblage Artist Michael DeMeng- whose book "Dusty Diablos" was recommended by Shane Speal. DeMeng uses found objects to create 3 dimensional collages of various themes, and this book was about creating artwork based on Mexican mythology and the Day of The Dead holiday. While reading the book I became interested in the story of "Santa Muerte" or Saint Death, who, although not recognized by the Catholic Church has been accepted by many, including drug lords, biker gangs (you can see a statue of her in the TV show Mayans, at the entrance to the gang's clubhouse adorned with flowers and 50 caliber machine gun belts) and other criminals, as well as those who are seeking vengeance against those they feel have wronged them. So I started to concoct a story in my head about the instrument. Since the base wood was so old and cracked I decided that it would be an instrument that would have been recently discovered in some dusty corner of an attic in Detroit's Mexican Town neighborhood, that was some distant family member's touring instrument from decades past. The instrument is called "Una canción de dolor y venganza" (A song of grief and vengeance.) It visually tells the story of the a period of the musician's life where he traveled around Mexico and the southern United States playing music, and searching for the gangster that murdered his older sister the beautiful 18 year old budding Latina movie starlet Maria Carmen- Who at the start of her career in Mexican cinema caught the eye of a Gangster named Franciso Alverez Valle who ultimately would be the cause of her death. It also told the story of the musician's grief driven spiral downward into alcoholism and despair until his anger burned so hotly that he turned to the Saint of Death to help guide him in his quest for revenge against the pendejo Franciso Valle. I built the lap steel in a similar fashion to 2x4 lap steels, only I used a 1x4 glued and screwed above the base. All the parts were CB Gity- I used the closed gear black skull tuners, the 6 string hard tail bridge with single coil pickup, and the B Bender for the instruments, as well as laser cut wood knob inserts for the volume and tone control, an inverted jack cover, the acrylic fret board cover, as well as the tone bar. I painted and aged the wood to match the base using various crafting techniques include covering the wood with glue and painting acrylic paint over it, which as everything dries, the glue shrinks and pulls apart the surface paint. The story is first told in general in the form of the Mexican "Lotteria" Cards under the acryllic fretboard- It tells the story of a "A tragic tale in Mexico of the tangled web of a beautiful woman, and a man-devil who caused the death of the woman, and left her brother with a broken heart, who found comfort in a bottle, until music and the thought of vengeance thawed his frozen heart." The specific story is that one evening while at a nightclub (owned by Vale) Maria is spotted by him, and he courts her. One night she witnesses Vale murdering a policeman and she is so startled that he hears her, and is forced to kill her. Her musician brother is so hear broken that he turns to the bottle, and eventually swears vengence of Vale who ran off after the killings. Then I went about building up the details for the "story-" I went online a looked around for various Mexican (or Mexican looking" images to use. I searched for an old looking funeral card with a beautiful dark haired woman on it, along with pictures of a similar looking woman standing with a younger boy to represent Maria and her brother (I photoshopped the name and date of birth on the card.) I also found pictures of a vaguely hispanic looking guy playing lap steel in what appeared to be "cowboy bands" as well as things that would have looked like clippings announcing gigs. I found both a picture of the Virgin Mary, and Santa Muerte. I also found a website mugshots of Mexican criminals where I found the gangster Valle. I did research and wrote a prayer to Santa Muerte which I printed out in handwriting script. I also wrote a couple of other things such as the title of the instrument n vintage typewriter font. Everything was printed out on plain paper and stained with ground instant coffee stuffed into a paper towel and dampened. I found various little skulls and styrofoam roses from the dollar store. In his book Michael DeMeng demonstrated how to make bottle cap milagros (milagros are little prayer "tokens" that are given out at churches when a petitioner is seeking prayers for certain health conditions or for financial health) I beat up modern bottle caps and rusted them with a vinegar/hydrogen peroxide solution, painted them and glued them around the lap steel "altar." For the volume and tone control since there were no lips or ears I found a large doll's head and eviscerated it, glued and painted those on top of bottle caps, then using plaster of Paris and the knob insert affixed them to the volume and tone controls. After everything was laid out I gave everything a dirty, dusty aged looks, with applications of coffee and tea and brown and black washes. To give it the look of something that was dragged around to bars I spilled beer over parts of it, and even blew cigar smoke onto it. It actually smelled pretty "authentic" initially, with faint traces of tobacco smoke, coffee and beer, until I sealed everything up with a few coats of clear matte finish to protect. This was a challenge to build- trying to create a playable instrument as well as something that looked as authentically old as possible that also told a story AND was a work of art. When I posted it on facebook I tagged Michael DeMeng and he was blown away by the whole thing and how his book/work was the inspiration for it. I'm proud of it, now if only I could play it. Thanks as always to CB Gitty for the parts and the inspiration.

Hamtramck, MI, USA

Instrument Build, Demo Video, How-To

Black Skull Sealed-Gear Guitar Tuners/Machine Heads - 6pc. 3 left/3 right, Laser-Cut Knob Inserts - Make Your Own Custom Guitar Knobs!, Re-LapZ B-Bender Kit (Original) - get pedal steel guitar sounds!, Chrome Telecaster-style Bridge Plate with Single-Coil Pickup Pre-installed, Shiny Stainless Steel Guitar Slide Bars - 3" Length - Great for Lap Steel Guitars!, Clear Acrylic Fretboards - Choose Lap Steel or Cigar Box Guitar Size, Recessed Jack Plates for Electric Guitar - Choose Finish Color & Pack Size

What do you do with a piece of wood from a house built 150 years ago in Detroit! Make a really awesome lap steel - one that tells a tale of love and death in old Mexico of course. Probably my most ambitious instrument attempt yet. It's called "Una canción de dolor y venganza" (A song of grief and vengeance.) and it's not just a musical instrument, but also an assemblage art piece, and a murder ballad in sculpture form. I was given a couple pieces of wood from one of the houses from the West Canfield Historic District near the University where I work in Detroit. They were from a house build in the 1881's by a prominent Detroit lumber baron and over the decades had a colorful history until it was restored by a professor at the university. Initially when my friend gave me the wood she suggested I just cut solid body electric guitars out of them, but I really loved the unique shape and all of the weathering on them, so I decided to keep this one whole and attempt to build my first Lap Steel out of it. At the time of deciding to make it I discovered the work of Assemblage Artist Michael DeMeng- whose book "Dusty Diablos" was recommended by Shane Speal. DeMeng uses found objects to create 3 dimensional collages of various themes, and this book was about creating artwork based on Mexican mythology and the Day of The Dead holiday. While reading the book I became interested in the story of "Santa Muerte" or Saint Death, who, although not recognized by the Catholic Church has been accepted by many, including drug lords, biker gangs (you can see a statue of her in the TV show Mayans, at the entrance to the gang's clubhouse adorned with flowers and 50 caliber machine gun belts) and other criminals, as well as those who are seeking vengeance against those they feel have wronged them. So I started to concoct a story in my head about the instrument. Since the base wood was so old and cracked I decided that it would be an instrument that would have been recently discovered in some dusty corner of an attic in Detroit's Mexican Town neighborhood, that was some distant family member's touring instrument from decades past. The instrument is called "Una canción de dolor y venganza" (A song of grief and vengeance.) It visually tells the story of the a period of the musician's life where he traveled around Mexico and the southern United States playing music, and searching for the gangster that murdered his older sister the beautiful 18 year old budding Latina movie starlet Maria Carmen- Who at the start of her career in Mexican cinema caught the eye of a Gangster named Franciso Alverez Valle who ultimately would be the cause of her death. It also told the story of the musician's grief driven spiral downward into alcoholism and despair until his anger burned so hotly that he turned to the Saint of Death to help guide him in his quest for revenge against the pendejo Franciso Valle. I built the lap steel in a similar fashion to 2x4 lap steels, only I used a 1x4 glued and screwed above the base. All the parts were CB Gity- I used the closed gear black skull tuners, the 6 string hard tail bridge with single coil pickup, and the B Bender for the instruments, as well as laser cut wood knob inserts for the volume and tone control, an inverted jack cover, the acrylic fret board cover, as well as the tone bar. I painted and aged the wood to match the base using various crafting techniques include covering the wood with glue and painting acrylic paint over it, which as everything dries, the glue shrinks and pulls apart the surface paint. The story is first told in general in the form of the Mexican "Lotteria" Cards under the acryllic fretboard- It tells the story of a "A tragic tale in Mexico of the tangled web of a beautiful woman, and a man-devil who caused the death of the woman, and left her brother with a broken heart, who found comfort in a bottle, until music and the thought of vengeance thawed his frozen heart." The specific story is that one evening while at a nightclub (owned by Vale) Maria is spotted by him, and he courts her. One night she witnesses Vale murdering a policeman and she is so startled that he hears her, and is forced to kill her. Her musician brother is so hear broken that he turns to the bottle, and eventually swears vengence of Vale who ran off after the killings. Then I went about building up the details for the "story-" I went online a looked around for various Mexican (or Mexican looking" images to use. I searched for an old looking funeral card with a beautiful dark haired woman on it, along with pictures of a similar looking woman standing with a younger boy to represent Maria and her brother (I photoshopped the name and date of birth on the card.) I also found pictures of a vaguely hispanic looking guy playing lap steel in what appeared to be "cowboy bands" as well as things that would have looked like clippings announcing gigs. I found both a picture of the Virgin Mary, and Santa Muerte. I also found a website mugshots of Mexican criminals where I found the gangster Valle. I did research and wrote a prayer to Santa Muerte which I printed out in handwriting script. I also wrote a couple of other things such as the title of the instrument n vintage typewriter font. Everything was printed out on plain paper and stained with ground instant coffee stuffed into a paper towel and dampened. I found various little skulls and styrofoam roses from the dollar store. In his book Michael DeMeng demonstrated how to make bottle cap milagros (milagros are little prayer "tokens" that are given out at churches when a petitioner is seeking prayers for certain health conditions or for financial health) I beat up modern bottle caps and rusted them with a vinegar/hydrogen peroxide solution, painted them and glued them around the lap steel "altar." For the volume and tone control since there were no lips or ears I found a large doll's head and eviscerated it, glued and painted those on top of bottle caps, then using plaster of Paris and the knob insert affixed them to the volume and tone controls. After everything was laid out I gave everything a dirty, dusty aged looks, with applications of coffee and tea and brown and black washes. To give it the look of something that was dragged around to bars I spilled beer over parts of it, and even blew cigar smoke onto it. It actually smelled pretty "authentic" initially, with faint traces of tobacco smoke, coffee and beer, until I sealed everything up with a few coats of clear matte finish to protect. This was a challenge to build- trying to create a playable instrument as well as something that looked as authentically old as possible that also told a story AND was a work of art. When I posted it on facebook I tagged Michael DeMeng and he was blown away by the whole thing and how his book/work was the inspiration for it. I'm proud of it, now if only I could play it. Thanks as always to CB Gitty for the parts and the inspiration.

Hamtramck, MI, USA

Instrument Build, Demo Video, How-To

Black Skull Sealed-Gear Guitar Tuners/Machine Heads - 6pc. 3 left/3 right, Laser-Cut Knob Inserts - Make Your Own Custom Guitar Knobs!, Re-LapZ B-Bender Kit (Original) - get pedal steel guitar sounds!, Chrome Telecaster-style Bridge Plate with Single-Coil Pickup Pre-installed, Shiny Stainless Steel Guitar Slide Bars - 3" Length - Great for Lap Steel Guitars!, Clear Acrylic Fretboards - Choose Lap Steel or Cigar Box Guitar Size, Recessed Jack Plates for Electric Guitar - Choose Finish Color & Pack Size

What do you do with a piece of wood from a house built 150 years ago in Detroit! Make a really awesome lap steel - one that tells a tale of love and death in old Mexico of course. Probably my most ambitious instrument attempt yet. It's called "Una canción de dolor y venganza" (A song of grief and vengeance.) and it's not just a musical instrument, but also an assemblage art piece, and a murder ballad in sculpture form. I was given a couple pieces of wood from one of the houses from the West Canfield Historic District near the University where I work in Detroit. They were from a house build in the 1881's by a prominent Detroit lumber baron and over the decades had a colorful history until it was restored by a professor at the university. Initially when my friend gave me the wood she suggested I just cut solid body electric guitars out of them, but I really loved the unique shape and all of the weathering on them, so I decided to keep this one whole and attempt to build my first Lap Steel out of it. At the time of deciding to make it I discovered the work of Assemblage Artist Michael DeMeng- whose book "Dusty Diablos" was recommended by Shane Speal. DeMeng uses found objects to create 3 dimensional collages of various themes, and this book was about creating artwork based on Mexican mythology and the Day of The Dead holiday. While reading the book I became interested in the story of "Santa Muerte" or Saint Death, who, although not recognized by the Catholic Church has been accepted by many, including drug lords, biker gangs (you can see a statue of her in the TV show Mayans, at the entrance to the gang's clubhouse adorned with flowers and 50 caliber machine gun belts) and other criminals, as well as those who are seeking vengeance against those they feel have wronged them. So I started to concoct a story in my head about the instrument. Since the base wood was so old and cracked I decided that it would be an instrument that would have been recently discovered in some dusty corner of an attic in Detroit's Mexican Town neighborhood, that was some distant family member's touring instrument from decades past. The instrument is called "Una canción de dolor y venganza" (A song of grief and vengeance.) It visually tells the story of the a period of the musician's life where he traveled around Mexico and the southern United States playing music, and searching for the gangster that murdered his older sister the beautiful 18 year old budding Latina movie starlet Maria Carmen- Who at the start of her career in Mexican cinema caught the eye of a Gangster named Franciso Alverez Valle who ultimately would be the cause of her death. It also told the story of the musician's grief driven spiral downward into alcoholism and despair until his anger burned so hotly that he turned to the Saint of Death to help guide him in his quest for revenge against the pendejo Franciso Valle. I built the lap steel in a similar fashion to 2x4 lap steels, only I used a 1x4 glued and screwed above the base. All the parts were CB Gity- I used the closed gear black skull tuners, the 6 string hard tail bridge with single coil pickup, and the B Bender for the instruments, as well as laser cut wood knob inserts for the volume and tone control, an inverted jack cover, the acrylic fret board cover, as well as the tone bar. I painted and aged the wood to match the base using various crafting techniques include covering the wood with glue and painting acrylic paint over it, which as everything dries, the glue shrinks and pulls apart the surface paint. The story is first told in general in the form of the Mexican "Lotteria" Cards under the acryllic fretboard- It tells the story of a "A tragic tale in Mexico of the tangled web of a beautiful woman, and a man-devil who caused the death of the woman, and left her brother with a broken heart, who found comfort in a bottle, until music and the thought of vengeance thawed his frozen heart." The specific story is that one evening while at a nightclub (owned by Vale) Maria is spotted by him, and he courts her. One night she witnesses Vale murdering a policeman and she is so startled that he hears her, and is forced to kill her. Her musician brother is so hear broken that he turns to the bottle, and eventually swears vengence of Vale who ran off after the killings. Then I went about building up the details for the "story-" I went online a looked around for various Mexican (or Mexican looking" images to use. I searched for an old looking funeral card with a beautiful dark haired woman on it, along with pictures of a similar looking woman standing with a younger boy to represent Maria and her brother (I photoshopped the name and date of birth on the card.) I also found pictures of a vaguely hispanic looking guy playing lap steel in what appeared to be "cowboy bands" as well as things that would have looked like clippings announcing gigs. I found both a picture of the Virgin Mary, and Santa Muerte. I also found a website mugshots of Mexican criminals where I found the gangster Valle. I did research and wrote a prayer to Santa Muerte which I printed out in handwriting script. I also wrote a couple of other things such as the title of the instrument n vintage typewriter font. Everything was printed out on plain paper and stained with ground instant coffee stuffed into a paper towel and dampened. I found various little skulls and styrofoam roses from the dollar store. In his book Michael DeMeng demonstrated how to make bottle cap milagros (milagros are little prayer "tokens" that are given out at churches when a petitioner is seeking prayers for certain health conditions or for financial health) I beat up modern bottle caps and rusted them with a vinegar/hydrogen peroxide solution, painted them and glued them around the lap steel "altar." For the volume and tone control since there were no lips or ears I found a large doll's head and eviscerated it, glued and painted those on top of bottle caps, then using plaster of Paris and the knob insert affixed them to the volume and tone controls. After everything was laid out I gave everything a dirty, dusty aged looks, with applications of coffee and tea and brown and black washes. To give it the look of something that was dragged around to bars I spilled beer over parts of it, and even blew cigar smoke onto it. It actually smelled pretty "authentic" initially, with faint traces of tobacco smoke, coffee and beer, until I sealed everything up with a few coats of clear matte finish to protect. This was a challenge to build- trying to create a playable instrument as well as something that looked as authentically old as possible that also told a story AND was a work of art. When I posted it on facebook I tagged Michael DeMeng and he was blown away by the whole thing and how his book/work was the inspiration for it. I'm proud of it, now if only I could play it. Thanks as always to CB Gitty for the parts and the inspiration.

Hamtramck, MI, USA

Instrument Build, Demo Video, How-To

Black Skull Sealed-Gear Guitar Tuners/Machine Heads - 6pc. 3 left/3 right, Laser-Cut Knob Inserts - Make Your Own Custom Guitar Knobs!, Re-LapZ B-Bender Kit (Original) - get pedal steel guitar sounds!, Chrome Telecaster-style Bridge Plate with Single-Coil Pickup Pre-installed, Shiny Stainless Steel Guitar Slide Bars - 3" Length - Great for Lap Steel Guitars!, Clear Acrylic Fretboards - Choose Lap Steel or Cigar Box Guitar Size, Recessed Jack Plates for Electric Guitar - Choose Finish Color & Pack Size

What do you do with a piece of wood from a house built 150 years ago in Detroit! Make a really awesome lap steel - one that tells a tale of love and death in old Mexico of course. Probably my most ambitious instrument attempt yet. It's called "Una canción de dolor y venganza" (A song of grief and vengeance.) and it's not just a musical instrument, but also an assemblage art piece, and a murder ballad in sculpture form. I was given a couple pieces of wood from one of the houses from the West Canfield Historic District near the University where I work in Detroit. They were from a house build in the 1881's by a prominent Detroit lumber baron and over the decades had a colorful history until it was restored by a professor at the university. Initially when my friend gave me the wood she suggested I just cut solid body electric guitars out of them, but I really loved the unique shape and all of the weathering on them, so I decided to keep this one whole and attempt to build my first Lap Steel out of it. At the time of deciding to make it I discovered the work of Assemblage Artist Michael DeMeng- whose book "Dusty Diablos" was recommended by Shane Speal. DeMeng uses found objects to create 3 dimensional collages of various themes, and this book was about creating artwork based on Mexican mythology and the Day of The Dead holiday. While reading the book I became interested in the story of "Santa Muerte" or Saint Death, who, although not recognized by the Catholic Church has been accepted by many, including drug lords, biker gangs (you can see a statue of her in the TV show Mayans, at the entrance to the gang's clubhouse adorned with flowers and 50 caliber machine gun belts) and other criminals, as well as those who are seeking vengeance against those they feel have wronged them. So I started to concoct a story in my head about the instrument. Since the base wood was so old and cracked I decided that it would be an instrument that would have been recently discovered in some dusty corner of an attic in Detroit's Mexican Town neighborhood, that was some distant family member's touring instrument from decades past. The instrument is called "Una canción de dolor y venganza" (A song of grief and vengeance.) It visually tells the story of the a period of the musician's life where he traveled around Mexico and the southern United States playing music, and searching for the gangster that murdered his older sister the beautiful 18 year old budding Latina movie starlet Maria Carmen- Who at the start of her career in Mexican cinema caught the eye of a Gangster named Franciso Alverez Valle who ultimately would be the cause of her death. It also told the story of the musician's grief driven spiral downward into alcoholism and despair until his anger burned so hotly that he turned to the Saint of Death to help guide him in his quest for revenge against the pendejo Franciso Valle. I built the lap steel in a similar fashion to 2x4 lap steels, only I used a 1x4 glued and screwed above the base. All the parts were CB Gity- I used the closed gear black skull tuners, the 6 string hard tail bridge with single coil pickup, and the B Bender for the instruments, as well as laser cut wood knob inserts for the volume and tone control, an inverted jack cover, the acrylic fret board cover, as well as the tone bar. I painted and aged the wood to match the base using various crafting techniques include covering the wood with glue and painting acrylic paint over it, which as everything dries, the glue shrinks and pulls apart the surface paint. The story is first told in general in the form of the Mexican "Lotteria" Cards under the acryllic fretboard- It tells the story of a "A tragic tale in Mexico of the tangled web of a beautiful woman, and a man-devil who caused the death of the woman, and left her brother with a broken heart, who found comfort in a bottle, until music and the thought of vengeance thawed his frozen heart." The specific story is that one evening while at a nightclub (owned by Vale) Maria is spotted by him, and he courts her. One night she witnesses Vale murdering a policeman and she is so startled that he hears her, and is forced to kill her. Her musician brother is so hear broken that he turns to the bottle, and eventually swears vengence of Vale who ran off after the killings. Then I went about building up the details for the "story-" I went online a looked around for various Mexican (or Mexican looking" images to use. I searched for an old looking funeral card with a beautiful dark haired woman on it, along with pictures of a similar looking woman standing with a younger boy to represent Maria and her brother (I photoshopped the name and date of birth on the card.) I also found pictures of a vaguely hispanic looking guy playing lap steel in what appeared to be "cowboy bands" as well as things that would have looked like clippings announcing gigs. I found both a picture of the Virgin Mary, and Santa Muerte. I also found a website mugshots of Mexican criminals where I found the gangster Valle. I did research and wrote a prayer to Santa Muerte which I printed out in handwriting script. I also wrote a couple of other things such as the title of the instrument n vintage typewriter font. Everything was printed out on plain paper and stained with ground instant coffee stuffed into a paper towel and dampened. I found various little skulls and styrofoam roses from the dollar store. In his book Michael DeMeng demonstrated how to make bottle cap milagros (milagros are little prayer "tokens" that are given out at churches when a petitioner is seeking prayers for certain health conditions or for financial health) I beat up modern bottle caps and rusted them with a vinegar/hydrogen peroxide solution, painted them and glued them around the lap steel "altar." For the volume and tone control since there were no lips or ears I found a large doll's head and eviscerated it, glued and painted those on top of bottle caps, then using plaster of Paris and the knob insert affixed them to the volume and tone controls. After everything was laid out I gave everything a dirty, dusty aged looks, with applications of coffee and tea and brown and black washes. To give it the look of something that was dragged around to bars I spilled beer over parts of it, and even blew cigar smoke onto it. It actually smelled pretty "authentic" initially, with faint traces of tobacco smoke, coffee and beer, until I sealed everything up with a few coats of clear matte finish to protect. This was a challenge to build- trying to create a playable instrument as well as something that looked as authentically old as possible that also told a story AND was a work of art. When I posted it on facebook I tagged Michael DeMeng and he was blown away by the whole thing and how his book/work was the inspiration for it. I'm proud of it, now if only I could play it. Thanks as always to CB Gitty for the parts and the inspiration.

Hamtramck, MI, USA

Instrument Build, Demo Video, How-To

15pc. NEW GEN2 Fretting Scale Template MEGA PACK - From 13-inch uke to 34-inch bass!, Chrome Telecaster-style Bridge Plate with Single-Coil Pickup Pre-installed

SIX STRING LAP STEEL.

GROVE CITY,OHIO

Instrument Build

Jescar Wide-Medium (47104) Stainless Steel Fret Wire (6 ft), Chrome Telecaster-style Bridge Plate with Single-Coil Pickup Pre-installed

Custom built Thirststrings Telecaster style 6 string Guitar. I have never held, played or have a friend who owns one. I made all my own templates, I did not use or purchase plans or templates. I made the neck from scratch also. Its all made by hand without any CNC or or automated equipment. This is my first ever guitar build. Mark Thirststrings & Thirst snowboards

Instrument Build

Jescar Wide-Medium (47104) Stainless Steel Fret Wire (6 ft), Chrome Telecaster-style Bridge Plate with Single-Coil Pickup Pre-installed

Custom built Thirststrings Telecaster style 6 string Guitar. I have never held, played or have a friend who owns one. I made all my own templates, I did not use or purchase plans or templates. I made the neck from scratch also. Its all made by hand without any CNC or or automated equipment. This is my first ever guitar build. Mark Thirststrings & Thirst snowboards

Instrument Build

Chrome Telecaster-style Bridge Plate with Single-Coil Pickup Pre-installed, Telecaster-style Single-Coil Electric Guitar Pickups - Choose Black or White, Chrome Sealed-Gear Tuners - 6pc. Inline Right-aligned, Pre-wired Pickup Selector with Volume, Tone and 3-way Switch - Choose Chrome or Gold, Mono Guitar Jacks Pre-mounted in Jack Plates - Choose Finish & Pack Size

So, I found a clone Stratocaster neck on eBay awhile back, and was going to make a six string license plate guitar…until I found a good deal on a knotty pine tele body from Tone Bomb Guitars. I reshaped the headstock, and modified the neck to fit the tele pocket, and came up with this. All the hardware and electronics came from CB Gitty…love the sound of those Foundry Tone pickups!

Pikeville, KY, USA

Instrument Build

Chrome Telecaster-style Bridge Plate with Single-Coil Pickup Pre-installed, Telecaster-style Single-Coil Electric Guitar Pickups - Choose Black or White, Chrome Sealed-Gear Tuners - 6pc. Inline Right-aligned, Pre-wired Pickup Selector with Volume, Tone and 3-way Switch - Choose Chrome or Gold, Mono Guitar Jacks Pre-mounted in Jack Plates - Choose Finish & Pack Size

So, I found a clone Stratocaster neck on eBay awhile back, and was going to make a six string license plate guitar…until I found a good deal on a knotty pine tele body from Tone Bomb Guitars. I reshaped the headstock, and modified the neck to fit the tele pocket, and came up with this. All the hardware and electronics came from CB Gitty…love the sound of those Foundry Tone pickups!

Pikeville, KY, USA

Instrument Build

Chrome Telecaster-style Bridge Plate with Single-Coil Pickup Pre-installed, Telecaster-style Single-Coil Electric Guitar Pickups - Choose Black or White, Chrome Sealed-Gear Tuners - 6pc. Inline Right-aligned, Pre-wired Pickup Selector with Volume, Tone and 3-way Switch - Choose Chrome or Gold, Mono Guitar Jacks Pre-mounted in Jack Plates - Choose Finish & Pack Size

So, I found a clone Stratocaster neck on eBay awhile back, and was going to make a six string license plate guitar…until I found a good deal on a knotty pine tele body from Tone Bomb Guitars. I reshaped the headstock, and modified the neck to fit the tele pocket, and came up with this. All the hardware and electronics came from CB Gitty…love the sound of those Foundry Tone pickups!

Pikeville, KY, USA

Instrument Build

Chrome Telecaster-style Bridge Plate with Single-Coil Pickup Pre-installed, Telecaster-style Single-Coil Electric Guitar Pickups - Choose Black or White, Chrome Sealed-Gear Tuners - 6pc. Inline Right-aligned, Pre-wired Pickup Selector with Volume, Tone and 3-way Switch - Choose Chrome or Gold, Mono Guitar Jacks Pre-mounted in Jack Plates - Choose Finish & Pack Size

So, I found a clone Stratocaster neck on eBay awhile back, and was going to make a six string license plate guitar…until I found a good deal on a knotty pine tele body from Tone Bomb Guitars. I reshaped the headstock, and modified the neck to fit the tele pocket, and came up with this. All the hardware and electronics came from CB Gitty…love the sound of those Foundry Tone pickups!

Pikeville, KY, USA

Instrument Build