New lap steel: Chatsworth Guitars

[Mark Evans]

I just had to toot a horn for a new Lap steel I got, built by Tom Burton at Chatsworth Guitars (well, it’s essentially a one man operation).
It’s called an LSLME (‘Lap Steel Legacy Mark Evans’… woot! My own signature model har har)

It’s always a bit of a leap to opt for a new custom build (vs. used and not vintage)… but after a lot of conversational back and forth, feeling each other out, I got (and received) a good vibe about the project. Tom has a few basic designs, but skies the limit, and he provides and suggests options. For example he was raving about some billets of redwood and knotty pine he received - and highly endorsed the knotty pine. As a dyed in the wool mahogany guy for most of my acoustics (weissenborn and Spanish style guitars), knotty pine just sounded weird. He provided pic examples of finished past work, and even sent me pics of stained wood samples. I went for the pine and am Glad I did. Unique. Great tone. Vintage open gear tuners, wenge wood fretboard, Railhammer Clean cut P-90 Type pickup, custom fabricated aluminum bridge and nut, 23” scale, walnut control plate, a sort of civil war era blue stain, hand rubbed finish. A Lot of heart and soul in the build, and it shows in the tone and playability. Easy player, just chunky enough, real dimensional sound. It compliments my two vintage laps (Oahu and National) nicely.

[Michael Kiese]

Aloha Mark,

Beautiful steel! It has a real iconic look with the blue and brown.

When it's standing up, put a little cowboy hat on it. It'll look like a cowboy wearing chaps. lol.

Give it a real old school cowboy name like "Curly" or "Spud" or "Jake" or something.

Glad you love it and thanks for sharing.

Enjoy!

[Bill Groner]

That's some dang knotty pine!

[Mark Evans]

That's some dang knotty pine! What kind of Pup is that?

Made by Railhammer
Humcancelling P-90 style called ‘Clean Cut.’
First I heard of them, it’s one kind Tom uses.
Real sweet, not overly gnarly or powerful. I prefer the clean tone. Cool design.

https://railhammer.com/products/humcutt ... ut-bridge/

[Joe Cook]

Congratulations Mark, very cool! I love too see what builders are doing and new handmade custom guitars are fun! Enjoy.

[Michael Butler]

beautiful job!
a friend of mine, who was a woodworker(since passed) said he was always worried about where the knots were. curious, was there any consideration of a tuning machine over a knot?
thanks, play that puppy!

[Allan Revich]

Very nice, congratulations!