
Can you play a lap steel guitar like a normal guitar?īecause the strings are so high up from the fretboard, which doesn’t have physical frets, you cannot play lap steel guitar with your fingers like a normal guitar. How much is a lap steel guitar?ĭepending on brand, quality of construction, age, and more, a lap steel guitar can range in price from under $100 to a few thousand dollars. However, many students can pick up a song in as little as one lesson. Like with any instrument, mastering the lap steel guitar takes practice. Unlike pedal steel guitars, there are no pedals that bend strings on a lap steel guitar.

The other hand typically uses fingers or finger picks to pluck the desired strings.Ī common variation of a lap steel is a console steel, which is effectively a lap steel with legs. Lap steel guitars are stringed instruments that traditionally sit directly on a sitting player’s lap, and are played with a metal or glass slide pressed against the strings rather than by the fingers. Pick up modern or vintage lap steel guitars from popular brands like Gibson, Gretsch, Peavey, and Rickenbacker from Reverb today. Played by modern guitar legends like Jeff Buckley, John Fogerty, Jerry Garcia, David Gilmour, Kaki King, Barbara Mandrell, and more, it has a distinctive twang no matter if you play it acoustic lap steel guitar or electric lap steel guitar and regardless of tuning.

Dating back to the late 1800s in Hawaii, the lap steel guitar has been gracing Hawaiian, bluegrass, country, and dozens of other genres since becoming a major fad in the 1920s and '30s.
