I’m sure you have heard it said, “Oh, he could make a 2×4 with strings sound good.”  Well, I decided to build a 2×4 lap steel just for fun.

I took an old, beat up 2×4 that I had in my garage, cut it to the right length, and trimmed one end down for a headstock.  I made a bridge and nut out of some scrap aluminum I had laying around.

I measured off the fret spacing and marked the frets off with a fine point marker, then I sprayed a semi-gloss clear sealer on it.  I installed a cheap set of tuners and a P-90 knockoff pickup that I got on eBay for $12.00.

Altogether, I would guess that I’ve got about $30.00 and a couple of days labor in this little jewel.  It doesn’t sound like a high dollar custom lap steel, but it sounds ok, just to play around with at home.