Hawaiian guitar

A lap steel guitar is a guitar played on the lap with a steel. It is similar to the slide or bottleneck style with the guitar held in regular position. The steel allows for the use of slant bar techniques not available on the slide guitar. The slide guitar allows for the use of fingers on the neck in addition to the slide.

There is confusion of the terms "Slide" and "Steel". Although the Hawaiian guitar, now also known as the steel guitar, is indeed played with a "sliding" motion, almost all traditional players use a tone bar or steel NOT a hollow slide.

Lap steel guitars are generally one of three types:

The latter type are now the least common of the three types of lap steel guitars, despite having been developed before the lap steel and resonator guitars. Acoustic lap steel guitars are generally the quietest of the three; however, renewed interest in acoustic instruments in the 1990s associated with improving amplification techniques and interest in vintage and historical musical instruments has led to a resurgence in interest in the distinctive sound of these instruments.

The most basic form of lap steel guitar is a regular acoustic guitar that has been modified for this purpose by either replacing the nut and bridge saddle with taller versions or by fitting a shim under the originals. This is done to raise the strings away from the fretboard. Regular guitar players keep the strings close to the fretboard to ensure ease of playing while lap steel players aim for the opposite by ensuring the strings never come into contact with the frets.

One of the most common form of lap steel guitar is the "Weissenborn" style. This kind of guitar takes its name from one of the original manufacturers and, as with the Dobro, the company's name has become a generic name for all guitars of the style using a resonator cone. The Dobro specifically is the version with a single cone and spider frame.

The Weissenborn type of guitar is similar in appearance and construction to a regular acoustic guitar with one defining difference. The neck is square and hollow with the back and sides of the guitar not stopping at the joint between the neck and body (the heel) but continuing up to the headstock giving an increased volume due to the larger internal area of the sound chamber. this was the new way of guitar

Playing a guitar laid flat and using a bar to slide up and down the strings has been common in the Hawaiian Islands for well over a century. The exact beginnings are unknown but it gained popularity as a playing style in America in the 1910s with the boom popularity of Hawaiian influenced music. Another boost came after World War II servicemen returning from stations in the Pacific brought this "new" idea with them.

...
Wikipedia