Hi Alan

i have been making and playing a lap guitar for many years there are many different tunings and the main one is how the Hiwaiians tune theres which is played in the A tuning i have always played mine in the D tuning which is what the banjo is tuned to and the standard slide guitar, top to bottom D,B,G.D,B,G so when you put you bar on the strings it plays a basic chord,i think one of the top players is a guy called Jerry Byrd

What i did before i made my fist one was to get a bit of small copper pipe and made a nut which lifted the strings up high enough and then make or buy a slide i use a bullet type which is round some use a flat slide then you can tune your guitar to what ever you want this is just a quick way to try one of your old guitars without hurting it in any way

if you ever what to make one i have all the information on how to design and to get the frets the right width and make your own pick ups all i ever had to buy was the tuning gears but as i said try it out on a old guitar it sounds as good as anything, the last one i made was a twin necked so you can have two different tunings

if you can, listen to some slack key players,they are the one to hear and listen to some of the top Drobo players as they use the basic tunings

all the ones i have seen are six strings as there is no need for more as the original lap guitars where ordinary guitars with the strings raised it was only when the electric pickups arrived they made the modern style lap guitars


best wishes Dave

I always play the right notes but not always in the right order