Lap Steel Slide guitar?

[jpmist]

Been playing all my life and never tried playing one but caught myself gazing lately. I pondered getting a Harley Benton lap steel to toy around with but then I saw online where I could get a conversion nut that would fit over the nut on one of my guitars to raise the strings and give that a trial run.

My goal here would be simply to play along with some of the lovely steel guitar fills I hear on some of my favorite tracks. (Here's one - https://tinyurl.com/Noting-Hillbillys) Likely I'd still keep the guitar in standard tuning as my brain breaks open and leaks whenever I try open tunings. I feel I have a good handle on the CADGED system and can picture the fretboard ok particularly where the A and D chord is.

Anybody pick up the slide at a later age?

[unclrob]

Not at a later age but still.I have setup guitars with a raise nut sort of cool.ITS THE TONE OF THE LAP STEEL that makes you ahhhhhhh.Get the lap steel there so much fun.An open G tuning is the way to go.Have fun.

[Queequeg]

Not a lap steel but occasionally I will grab a glass slide. What I know is that I have to devote 30 days to get over the hump with slide. And I seldom do that. The two challenges are damping the strings behind the slide and getting/controlling a sweet vibrato with it.
And, yes, you can play in standard tuning, but I agree with unclrob- open tuning is the way to go.
Don't fear open tuning. Find a tab for a simple tune in Open D or G and learn it.
By the time you can play through it, you will have conquered your fear of open tuning.

[jpmist]

Thanks much, guys.

In the old box o' guitar parts I managed to hang on to a steel cylinder slide that I must have bought decades ago. I imagine at that time I was thinking of tackling one of those searing Allman Brothers leads and gave up because I kept fretting the string with the slide. Derek Trucks, I think plays similarly.

Boy are there a lot of youtube vids referencing Derek Trucks and his style. They mention open E as well as G so I may have to climb down off my reluctance a bit. We'll see.

So I have this partscaster on a stand I don't play much so I may as well give it a go with a conversion nut and see where it leads me . . .

[Queequeg]

Thanks much, guys.

In the old box o' guitar parts I managed to hang on to a steel cylinder slide that I must have bought decades ago. I imagine at that time I was thinking of tackling one of those searing Allman Brothers leads and gave up because I kept fretting the string with the slide. Derek Trucks, I think plays similarly.

Boy are there a lot of youtube vids referencing Derek Trucks and his style. They mention open E as well as G so I may have to climb down off my reluctance a bit. We'll see.

So I have this partscaster on a stand I don't play much so I may as well give it a go with a conversion nut and see where it leads me . . .

Yes, there's a lot of open E out there, in particular with the the Allman Brothers  (and bands they spawned.
My trouble with open E is you have to tune up on three of those strings.
(String notes: E-B-E-G♯-B-E, from low to high,)

But you can tune down to open D and capo on the second fret to achieve open E.
Of course, that's problematic if you're using a conversion nut.