This full size mahogany body lap steel features 36 frets and offers a single coil pickup for clear and bright sound. Unlike a typical guitar, the strings of a lap steel are not pressed to a fret when sounding a note; rather, the player holds a metal slide called a steel (or tone bar) in one hand, which is moved along the strings to change the instrument's pitch while the other hand plucks or picks the strings. It is perfect for Blues, Rock, Hawaiian, Country, Bluegrass, and Western Swing. This lap steel has a fully adjustable bridge that allows you to adjust overall string height and individual string intonation. The strings are spaced widely, with 3/8" between each one. This makes it very easy and enjoyable to play. The single coil pickup has 8K ohm resistance. To hear how it sounds, check out the video!
Greetings Kurt;
I just opened my SX lap steel with pickup and I have to tell you. I could not be any
happier! What a wonderful deal, The sound is just
what I was after and the feel of it is Great.
Not to mention it looks sexy as hell. even my wife
thought so. I know people like to write to companies
and bitch about this and that so I thought that you
would like to get an email from a true Rondo SX fan.
This is the 2nd instrument that I bought from you guys
and with the exception of some minor tuner issues on the
1st one I am totally pleased. I'm on a very tight budget
and it is so nice to find equipment of this quality for
such a great price. You guys rock! I would like to buy
the stand for the steel as soon as it is available. So
keep up the great deals and many thanks, Peace, -Kenn Lynn
Just received my SX lap steel. Let me start off by saying I have quite a collection of guitars including some high end non-pedal steels and laps.
My expectations were not very high for the price I paid, but I bought this from many recommendations on the “Steel Guitar Forum”.
The case alone is worth the price of admission. The guitar- is an above average instrument!
What a little gem!! I initially bought this as a “beater”, but I will be playing gigs with it!
Thanks again
Steve Secord
I have one of your SX lap steels and an Agile 3000, grat stuff!
Below is a link to a song I did.
Also, if anyone needs any instruction, I created a whole page of 6 string lap tabs with sound files so you can hear
what they should sound like:
Tab Instruction
Feel free to point any of your customers to my site for free instruction or just to see what a lap steel can do. I’ve get a lot of hits from the telecaster and Stratocaster forums for regular guitar pickers looking to get started on lap steel.
Greg Cutshaw
I received my sx lap steel from you yesterday. I just want to let you know how pleased I am with this. It arrived in perfect condition. I was pleased with the quality of the carrying bag, the heavy adjustable legs and the overall quality of the instrument was much much more than I expected at this price. I am 70 years old, have never played a lap steel before and it has been many years since I have played any instrument. It was already feeling comfortable to me by the time I got it tuned. I must thank you for making this instrument available at this price.
Mary Kay Fustos @siouxlan.net
Q: Are hard cases available for this instrument?
A: Yes! To see the suggested hard case for any item listed at rondomusic.com, simply put that item into
the shopping cart. The suggested hard case will then appear if one is available.
Q: How do you tune it?
A: The lap steel comes from the factory tuned to Open G (D-G-D-G-B-D). Blues and Rock players tend to favor Open G and Open A. Open A raises each of the notes a whole-step (2 frets) to E-A-E-A-C#-E.
Open D and Open E are also commonly used.
Open D is tuned D-A-D-F#-A-D, and open E is a whole-step higher: E-B-E-G#-B-E. Joe Perry of Aerosmith uses Open E on his electric lap steel. David Lindley is another player who uses transposed variations of these tunings.
Bluegrass and Country Dobro players tend to favor an altered G tuning, often called "High-G", where the 6th string is tuned up to "G" instead of down to "D", and the 5th string is also tuned up, to B: G-B-D-G-B-D. They also sometimes raise it up to "High-A": A-C#-E-A-C#-E.
