Gretsch Electromatic Lap Steel - Easy + Cheap Modifications - C6 Tuning

[@faisaldhariwal1510]

Got my first steel guitar today. An electromatic in sparkle black. 6 string. I've got it in C6 and have already learned the intro to walking after midnight, everyone in the house is going nuts now hahaha. I'm so happy with it. Your videos are so good for me to learn from. Thank you so much

[@faisaldhariwal1510]

Also I'm using a crap old Marshall mg10 which is OK for now

[@Texasbluestunes]

Much obliged Troy! I have one of these lap steels with the Certano roller bridge and benders, now I will get a nut riser to even the string height and widen the string width. You provide such great info in these videos. Keep ‘em coming sir!

[@phillipbell860]

I thank you, Troy, for learning me how to play the lap steel a lot better.

[@Hitsujikai53]

Very good tips. I had also removed the bridge cover after having this for a few days. But I put the screws back in the guitar as it looks a little nicer and I won't ever lose them.

[@MrPatdeeee]

Great sound Troy. And a bit of history...The first "nut-risers" came out in the 40's (I was 14 yrs old and bought one; and still got it, lol). And it was designed to fit on regular guitars' nuts; to make it a Steel Guitar. Because regular guitars' strings; are way to low for SG; using a bar. And they have never changed that riser since. So what is happening on your riser; is you are putting it over a higher nut. But on a regular guitar; the nut is very low. And the riser fits tight; so that the forward part is right on the fret board. And the back part fits right on the keyboard. Thus, when you tighten the strings it fits like a glove. And not angled across the nut. For what it's worth, dear friend.

[@margarethouse404]

Nut risers are older than that ! The M27 and lower pre- war Dobro brand Dobros came from the factory with nut risers . And I doubt that John Dopyera invented them . I'm sure they were already a popular item with ( pre Reso ) Hawaiian players . In the modern era . there are two styles of mass produced Nut Risers The cast one Troy is using , and the one that is a piece of steel bent at a right angle . One or the other might or might not fit better on your particular nut . Rough rule of thumb - The cast one raises the strings a bit higher , the bent steel one spaces the strings a hair farther apart .

[@Boogiemoose]

I have this with the Certano benders. I also had problems with the pick hitting the fretboard. Installed the roller bridge from Certano and problems was solved.

[@Boogiemoose]

That was easy. It even came with a template. 15-20min and done

[@Texasbluestunes]

What did you do for the nut? I bought the same bridge, but it isn’t the same height as the stock nut and David Certano doesn’t offer a nut to fit the Gretsch.

[@Boogiemoose]

@@Texasbluestunes I use stock nut, no problems with that

[@sterlingmcvay2469]

I turned a Right Handed Dobro into a LEFTY using one of those Metal Nuts. I just Reversed it and it worked fine for me.

[@wideawakenotwoke6178]

Great tone I think your playing technique makes it sound so good!

[@robertgiaraffa6928]

On my Electromatic I added a FlatCat neck pickup and 3-way toggle switch, and it sounds fantastic. To get a little more spacing between pickups, I cut the fretboard off at the 24th fret. I had to cut off a little of the control cavity cover too.

[@robertgiaraffa6928]

Forgot to mention: I also added washers under the bridge to raise it slightly so the strings were at the recommended 1/8" above the FlatCat.

[@tsmith8567]

Couple of thoughts; ( I have built a few lap steels LOL over 2000 ) so the nut riser raising the strings so they are not parallel with the neck will create issues over time warping the neck. Nut risers are usually made of zinc, which you may find to have a tinny tone, best to replace the nut with Bronze angle. String gauging, as stated, needs to be specific to tunings. Dead spots mentioned are scale issues with the harmonics loop from the bar to the bridge creating a problem actually with the pickup placement; which Bill Lawrence used to preach a lot about, and there are mathmatics already worked out for that if you want to look them up. Pickup placement from the bridge has to be correct to the scale. I've collected the parts and am routing that body style this winter but with the 24.5 scale, I love the overall look Gretsch created there...it'll be a one off Melobar Gretsch look :) Good video, thank you Troy and keep them coming!!

[@cacaloca5434]

Anything you can recommend me that I can buy online to tighten up the low end strings in c6?

[@anthonyoresteen4767]

If your strings are "floppy", use heavier strings. Use a string tension calculator. I find that 29 to 31 lbs of pull per string work nicely for lap steel. Once you have figured out the gauges you need for a given scale length & tuning, buy individual strings from an on-line source like Just-Strings and make up your own sets. I make 5 sets at a time.

[@JohnSims3]

Troy sells hi sown strings...

[@anthonyoresteen4767]

@@JohnSims3 Doesn't matter who sells them. Lap steel guitars can have a scale length from 21" to 26". A set calibrated for a long scale (25.5" to 26") will NOT be correct for a 21" short scale steel guitar. If your lap steel is the same scale length as the one Troy calibrated his set for then great, buy them but beware the set is optimized for only one scale length & one tuning. I keep 17 different sets of strings for all my lap steel & pedal steel guitars - different tunings & different scale lengths & different # of strings.

[@cincinnatipedalsteel4347]

Thanks for this video Troy! Been wondering what easy things I could do to improve this lap steel. Appreciate it

[@butchhilsabeck4982]

Hi Troy, I bought and installed the benders and roller bridge on my black 5700... I also made a new nut to raise the strings flat... Played great, I thought, until I realized that pick up was to far below the strings... after raising the pick up all is great ... The missing set in the set up I see everyone misses.

[@margarethouse404]

I'm familar with adjusting pickups , and am chasing that with a different lap steel. Got the bridge HB from totally unusable to not terrible . But even with the Nut Riser on the Gretsch , the original pu positioning is great . ( Or at least gives me exactly what I'm looking for , YMMV .)

[@FDimmick]

Curious about the make and size for the strings for C6. Wonderful sound!

[@mdhj67]

I'll reverse wind the tuners on the E strings to avoid that hard turn off the nut slot. Sometime it confuses me when I'm tuning.

[@JohnSims3]

I'd change the nut to a bone nut. :D Nice lap steel!

[@kingstumble]

If you wanted to raise the height of the bridge I suppose you could stick some sort of shim under it.

[@thegrimreefer6744]

Could you throw a bender on one of these, just found your videos and ready to take the plunge in learning!

[@cacaloca5434]

I believe the nut in your video is actually the Grover acoustic nut sold on Amazon. The link in the description is for the Allparts brand which seems more flat

[@LessonsWithTroy]

Thanks! I changed it

[@cacaloca5434]

@@LessonsWithTroy I ordered the Grover. I hope it helps out

[@cacaloca5434]

I dont know how you got your low end so tight. I just tried the grover and the thicker gauge strings are still to loose.

[@danfrankum6233]

I watch you reviews. You turned me off of the Record King with the issue you had & almost turned off with the Gretsch issues. Now with the simple mods made on the Gretsch I may consider it. My question is, do you think it can fit a Bender? Thanks.

[@maxjr758]

Trying to deside which Lap Steele to get fir mecand mybwife to learn on, but unsure what setup folks use as far as apms, pedals etc. Were just learning Guitar, Banjo, Mandolin now Lap Steele, so we dont have anything other than, a Fender Frontman 10 w , and a Pevey amp. So makes it hard to understand what it will sound like with our minamal equipment. You did breifly turn off the effects pedals , so we did get a sense of what it may sound like.

[@dalebaker959]

Sounds beautiful, how can I get that sound from my Gretch out of my spark 40 amp.

[@phillipbell860]

Have you ever thought about adding benders to your Gretsch lap steel to get more of a country sound out of it?

[@tindan4283]

Great sound from the Gretsch but I'm also wondering what is the amp you use with it.

[@margarethouse404]

In the video , Troy mentioned he's using a Kemper .

[@iangoodall7228]

Hi Troy. Could you advise the string guages for the C6 set you put on this Gretzch please?

[@douglaskacir8327]

I ended up wrapping 1st & 6th strings around tuner post in the opposite direction! I ordered the Certano bender. Is stock bridge going to work or do I need to change the bridge! Good Job Troy!

[@seasharpdeflat]

I just bought a Gretsch G5700 steel (like the one in the video) a week ago. I put a set of ghs C6 strings on it. I love it, but I notice the G string on the 12th fret is muted. Does anyone know what might be causing this?

[@bluesvillestation]

Troy the way that nut riser is fitting it looks like it may shorten up the scale length.

[@LessonsWithTroy]

I didn’t really notice it

[@zyzyking]

Mahalo Troy

[@phillipbell860]

Troy, can you tell me what kind of roller nut will work on a Gretsch G5700 lap steel guitar?

[@andrewclemons8619]

What about a push pull pot with a treble bleed tone capacitor

[@lover123550]

Hi! Was wondering if you do tabs for 6 string lap steels for commission? I’m having the hardest time finding tablature!

[@deandaniel4911]

I am looking for somewhere to purchase a roller nut that fits this guitar

[@superorangeish]

How would having an 8 string alter the C6 tuning?

[@cacaloca5434]

Can the arsher nut riser sold on amazon work for this Gretsch?

[@stanthesteelguitarman8228]

I find it amazing that modern steel guitars are often poorly designed in one way or another, especially when the manufacturers are able to look back upon the fine examples of the past from Fender, Gibson and Rickenbacker. I too have found the height of the strings of the Gretsch Electromatic are set far too low, the string spacing too narrow at the nut end and the sharp edges of the nut itself catch my fingers when playing at the first fret. All elementary stuff which surely should have been eliminated prior to production! Your simple addition of the nut raiser eliminates all those problems!! The Gretsch single coil pick up, on the other hand, I think is rather good, as you say.

[@cacaloca5434]

What are the best c6 strings to use for this 22.5 scale length?

[@emiliodias2731]

Olá amigo sou aqui do Brasil comprei uma awaiana d 6 cordas .queria saber a afinação q vc uza ...podi mi dar a afinação .. e as marcas das cordas q vc uza . Gostei do som de sua guitarra adorei ...

[@Kirrel]

Hey Troy, interesting video for me since I'm trying to build one for my son. You mention the shorter scale but what length would that be, and what length is a regular scale? For now I'm already pretty stuck with a 625mm scale length roughly based on the scale of a Fender Strat or Telecaster. But maybe I'll build another one in the future and any thoughts on this would help me out very much. And how does the length of the scale effect the overall sound, I can imagine that longer delivers a lower tone, and the other way around. I can't really find any helpful videos on KZbin that address this part of building a lapsteel . . .

[@LessonsWithTroy]

22.5 inch is pretty short and 25 inch is the scale of a dobro 25.5 is the Duesenberg

[@margarethouse404]

The difference isn't about the tone . 22 inch - ish makes it easier for the wrist to do steeper bar slants . 25 inch lets existing Dobro players directly transfer their muscle memory . Plus gives slightly more margin of error with bar position for intonation , by about 10% .

[@mulkspiller]

I’m away to install some certano benders on mine, I dunno if this will be a daft question but would the nut riser still work or ?

[@invisableobserver]

I have a '58 korina Gibson Skylark that I would like to restring & tune to C6, what string brand & string gauges would you suggest?

[@cacaloca5434]

Im having the same issue deciding. It mainly depends on your steels scale length. Not many options for this 22.5 scale length

[@ronboles9829]

What if I don't like C6 and Hawaiian tone ? Have you tried open D with heaver strings ?

[@margarethouse404]

I'm not Troy . But my 5700 w/ nut riser is tuned in GBDGBD .

[@emiliodias2731]

Aí vc fala se começo das cordas fina pra groça .ou das graças ora finas obrigado se mi atender ficarei grato

[@kipkilponen7584]

Did you have to raise the pick up to the strings level?

[@margarethouse404]

I'm not Troy . But with the same Nut Riser on my 5700 , the stock pick up position gives me great tones ( or at least , the tones that I was seeking .) But Pick Up tweaking is a personal preference thing , is free , and totally reversible . Try it first with previous adjustments . If it doesn't suit your preferences , then break out the miniature screwdrivers , and start experementing 1/4 turn at a time ( both pu body , and pole piece screws ) .

[@usualsuspect5173]

Would the nut riser effect the palm benders?

[@LessonsWithTroy]

Might tighten up the open d tuning

[@jdfolbre]

Could you put a Certano bender on it?

[@LessonsWithTroy]

For sure

[@morteniversen6984]

@@LessonsWithTroy Would that be pretty much the same thing as the video where you put it on the Recording King lapsteel? Just lining it up and so on?

[@jdfolbre]

I need to compare them side by side but the RK seems like a better value. Thoughts?

[@tomforsythe7024]

hehe... nut riser