Lap steel guitar

Uncommon card · No. 135120

The lap steel guitar, also known as a Hawaiian guitar or lap slide guitar, is a type of steel guitar without pedals that is typically played with the instrument in a horizontal position across the performer's lap. Unlike the usual manner of playing a traditional acoustic guitar, in which the performer's fingertips press the strings against frets, the pitch of a steel guitar is changed by pressing a polished steel bar against strings while plucking them with the opposite hand. The steel guitar's name is derived from this steel bar. Though the instrument does not have frets, it displays markers that resemble them. Lap steels may differ markedly from one another in external appearance, depending on whether they are acoustic or electric, but in either case, they do not have pedals, distinguishing them from pedal steel guitars. The steel guitar came from Hawaiʻi and gained a foothold in mainland American popular music. It originated in the Hawaiian Kingdom about 1885, popularized by an Oahu...

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