Artisan EA-1 Lap Steel

I understand these things are made in China.

They have crappy tuners, one volume, one tone and one single coil pickup.

I bought one of these because of the price. MF has been selling them on sale for around $80 (from a MSRP of $130) but when the started running the blow-out sale for $60, I could no longer resist.

I had recently bought a book of classic hits of the 50's which included a very decent transcription of Santo and Johnny's "Sleepwalk". So when I saw the sale ad, it was Karma.

After I finish getting this one song down, I'll probably put it away in a closet, but for me, it's well worth the $60 to master one of my favorite old tunes. But it's also fun to simply finger pick away and try your luck with some sliding chord progressions in open tuning.

But guess what, for $60 (or even if you paid closer to the MSRP) it sounds quite good! It's not noisy at all! It has a fuller sound than I usually would expect from a bridge single coil pickup. And although I'm often into pickup replacement searches, I think this stock single coil does a fine job. I'm impressed.

I'm currently playing it through a BOSS RV-3 so I can drench it with sufficient reverb and then into a Fender Pro Junior. It really sounds amazing for the investment.

The input jack is in a strange place, it requires that you use a 90 degree plug to avoid getting your picking hand obstructed too much.

I already mentioned the tuners. They are like a classical guitar slotted head. The wrappings tend to wander off center toward the wood and stiffen the turning action. I had a bit of trouble getting it into tune. It arrived with one minute chip out of the paint on top, but for the price I decided not to bother with the return. The finish is rough around the headstock, but overall for the price I paid, it is still nice to look at.

The action still needs a setup, but I'm not even sure how to intonate a lap steel since you don't fret this ax. I still need to level out the strings a bit, but they came pretty close to level.

I'd step up if I were going to use this for much more than my own personal amusement.

This is my first experience with lap steel.

You also need to buy a lap steel or dobro style slide so you can hold onto the top of the slide.

But I'd say, buy one! The tone is surprisingly good. You should expect any better quality for the price and I'm having a great time with mine.

I spent $30 for the slide, plus shipping and tax I'm into it for a little over $100 and it's been a cheap form of new entertainment for me. Also now I have an ax that I can leave in open tuning without the problems of neck relief, tremolo adjustments, etc.

So if your lap steel curious, get one. If your lap steel serious, look higher up the line.

I'm giving it a high overall rating because the value to price ratio is so high.

Cheap lap steel for the beginner. Nice finish, good sound. Can be had brand new from 60 bucks and up if you find a good sale. 6 strings, volume and tone.

Cheap. The ground wire fell off, 10 minute repair. No shielding, somewhat noisy. But it's cheap, what do you expect? The strings that came with it are just sad. Changed them to GHS strings, and what a difference. But that is like 15% of the value of the guitar. The slide was 1/3 the cost of the guitar.

Cheap. Setup was marginal. BUT it has an adjustable bridge, can set intonation (why?) and individual string height. Took a little while to set up, but it works well. Finish is outstanding for a cheap guitar.

Cheap. As said before, the ground wire fell off. 10 minute repair. Works well now.

Got it from Musicians Friend. Excellent support.

Just started playing steel on a whim. I play through a Carvin transistor practice amp and an all tube rack set (for my other guitar). At this price, anyone can start playing steel.

Bought it new via ebay. Made somewhere in China or somewhere. As simple as a lap-steel can be. Single coil PU.

Well, it sounds o.k., nothing to write home about. Can be improved with a better PU, I guess. I played it through a Fender Deluxe and a POD For a single coil it's pretty quiet.

The guy who designed this guitar must have been drunk. Or has never seen a lap steel before. The input jack is on the wrong side so it get constantly in the way with your right hand. The action is far to low, if you're playing with finger picks your thump pick is hitting the fretboard all the time. The finish is horrible, on the peghead you can barely see the finish. But hey, it's a cheap guitar, what do you expect.

It's o.k. I guess I won't have any problems for the first time. The tunes should be replaced. What else? It's a simple lap steel.

I've been playing Pedal-Steel for 5 years now and need a lap steel for a bar gig. My Pedal Steel is a Sierra Crown Gearless, played through a Fender HotRod Deluxe or POD. I don't think I'd buy it again. I like the price, but I absolutely hate the low action. Compared to all the other lap steels I've played it's far the worst.

Decent lap steel with single coil pick-up and gig bag. Shoddy craftsmanship and nice tone. Design flaws impact playability, but they are not deal-breakers. Check eBay for vintage bargains before buying if you want a better deal. Also, many pawn shops have lap steels hidden in dusty corners for less money.

Amazingly nice sounding, not as much hum as on my other single coils. I run through a passive volume pedal into an Ampeg Reverberocket 212. Even when I add crazy effects to the chain it sounds pretty dang good. Nice balance between strings and good clean country tone when played clean. Also, emulates David Gilmour's slide sound very well if you're into hippy space out music.

For some reason, it comes with an adjustable bridge. In case the physics of guitar sound elude you, this is completely unnecessary on a slide instrument. Additionally, it comes with the bridge in a default electric guitar set-up which renders the guitar more out of tune as you go up the neck. As soon as you get it, intone one string properly and set all bridge pieces in alignment with that one. One other MAJOR pet peeve is the jack location. If you look at a picture of the instrument, you'll see that the jack is where most lap players will rest the heel of their hand. A right angle patch cable will alleviate this somewhat. And finally, the tuners feel fragile and flimsy. Every time I adjust them, I am fearful that something is going to break. Nothing has yet, but it seems inevitable especially if you're alt tuning crazy. In spite of these obvious design flaws and shoddy workmanship, it plays nicely and gives a surprisingly decent tone.

It will not last but it should be easy to work on.

It's some prison in China, no doubt.

I own one of everything. If you want to try out a lap steel this is about as inexpensive as you can get. I would recommend checking eBay for an old Rickenbacker Electro, Supro, Kay or Gretsch. There are millions more lap steels than lap steel players so it is a buyer's market. If you want to skip the trouble and get one right away, go for it. It is worth the price.

hey there! a new lapsteel owner here.
well it all started when i played one for kicks. and well as the saying goes "the bug bit me".
so for a couple of years i am looking around for a lapsteel i can get for cheap. by cheap i mean next to nothing.

haha. yeah right.

well low and behold one day while searching on the internet i come across one on the musicians friend site. and it's only 79.99!!! eureka! well it takes another year before i buy it and here we are today. well a month later anyways.
first off it's better looking in life than on the screen. i ordered the red one. the body shape is pretty standard "slab" kind meaning it's not a weissenborne shape or anything fancy like that. the fret board is a long piece of plastic that is screwed in to the guitar. it's pretty thick and the "frets" are clearly painted gold and there are roman numerals in the fret marker positions which i thought was a nice touch
there is one volume and one tone knob and that's fine because thereis only one single coil pickup. speaking of which it's as quiet as a church mouse even with a distorted tone! which i can't say for some other guitars out there! it sounds very sweet and sustains nicely with good volume. it would make the perfect strat pickup in my humble opinion.
the bridge is like a strat which ash individual saddles that can be adjusted. which i can't see why you'd need that but hey i am sure someone has found it and loved it. it seems pretty good quality but it's on a lapsteel and is hard to gauge the true quality when i won't be adjusting the strings anytime soon.
the tuners are a little cheap but seem to do the job with intonation and not slipping. they are of a nylon guitar kind which i frankly was worried about. but so far so good.
there is also a pick guard that is chrome and it looks nice.
the knobs by the way are strat kind.
a jack is installed on the players side of the guitar which is pretty retarded but hey-it's an 80.00 guitar. can you expect everything to be prefect.

i didn't think so.

i plugged in to my fender stage 112se which is a horrendous 160 watts with 1 12" speaker. it noisy but has a good tone that i've no wish to change.solid state too. yeah i know.
the sound is just great. like i said- it's noiseless and has a sweet tone like a good strat. far too good for this cheap a guitar.what a deal!! the tone knob has a nice shape when rolled and the volume is very smooth. the knobs are bit tight but hey...
it's an 80.00 guitar.

action? it's a lap steel! it's always high! and high enough at that.
the nut is some kind of wood/synthetic which seems a little cheap but is not presenting any problems yet. apparently another buyer had a problem with his. i call it a fluke.
the pickup is at a good height and the routing and all that good stuff was done very well. whoever makes these things ( i couldn't find artisan on the internet) does pretty decent quality.
the finish was a nice thick red flake paint job and no flaws were present. i haven't checked the wiring but i am gonna assume that it's good since i haven't experienced any problems.

this guitar seems to be very reliable and i'd use it live proudly! and without a back up.
all the hardware despite it's no name properties seems adequate enough and well built. like a kia.

like i said i could't find artisan on the web which pretty much means they don't really exist and the company that built my little beast just put any ol' name on their. but why?
it's probably a samick or something!
no repairs yet and as simple as these guitars are- it'd take real simpleton to break one.
no warranty was included. but for something this inexpensive who cares!?

i've been playing for about 14 years give or take and i still have almost all my guitars which are: an 89' fender squire,a samick nylon that's about 12 years old, a carlos robelli steel string acoustic, and my buddy a 94 strat anniversay special. all of them have been pretty faithful to me over the years except the strat specials' pickups which were not good and still give me trouble though i think it's the wiring or it's just cursed. probably cursed.
if it were stolen or god forbid lost i'd easily replace it with the same!
i wish the jack was on the opposite side! i needed an L jack but who cares..it's 80.00!
if you wanna great lap steel but don't want to pimp your girlfriend out to be able to afford it-buy this one! it's as good as most of the high end ones and certainly cheaper!

Every feature you could want in an 80-buck lap steel--strings and a pickup!

Bright shiny tone, more similar to a shimmery pedal steel than a fat bluesy lap steel--likely because it came with very light strings. I tune it to Dobro G, or sometimes drop the second string B to an A so I can bend up to the B for pedal steel effects. Electronics are clean--no real noise to speak of, tho haven't recorded with it yet.

Finish is flawless metallic black with a chrome pickguard--nice. Fingerboard screws can look like position markers--they should have made the screws black to match the fingerboard! Bridge saddles are individual, 3-way adjustable with the included Allen wrench--nice touch on a budget axe. Had to tweak the heights a bit to make the steel bar sit evenly--took all of 30 seconds.

I think this is a good solid axe.. As someone mentioned above, the nut looks like it might splinter eventually--I think I'll go buy some small baseboard molding with a similar profile at the lumber store, and cut about 50 nuts to have on hand! Nut is screwed in with accessible phillips screws--should be no problem to fix if necessary. Tuners and bridge are solid.

You can buy an extra year of protection from Musician's Friend, but I didn't bother--the ordering and shipping were fast and smooth, and I've dealt with them before--no complaints on that issue. Beats the hell out of folk of the wood.

I own a Regal Dobro with Quarterman upgrade, and a bunch of other stuff--been playing guitar for 25 years. You can't go wrong with this little cheapie--nothing to lose!

Like all the others reviewed here, it's the single-singlecoil pickup, tone/volume, six-saddle bridge lap steel that Musician's Friend blows out for 80 bucks with gig bag. Honestly, it's the best friggin' deal in recent musical instrument history. Features? Well, it has six strings, six tuners, and a fretboard... seems adequate to me.

Damn thing sounds bitchin. I got into the Friend's of Dean Martinez, who play this awesome kind of spaghetti-Western-meets-lounge-surf instrumental thing, fronted by the incomparable Bill Elm on a double-eight lap steel console, and made it my life's quest to learn to play like him. So I got this lap steel as a cheap way to find out that I probably have zero talent as a steel player. Turns out that with a bit of practice and some thoughtful advice from some generous websites, even a ham-fisted steel novice like myself can coax some nice toes out of this thing. I highly recommend three things: 1) a Dunlop "Lap Dawg" steel (or any other similarly shaped steel--the round cylinder-shaped steels are much more difficult) 2. a good volume pedal (mine is a Morley), and some fingerpicks and a thumbpick. Oh, and get some good records to listen to--check out the aforemntined FODM, and the Vanguards. This thing, with the right amount of reverb can sound like an honest-to-god pedal steel (once you learn the slant-bar trick), and with some distortion, it will sustain and scream for damn near eternity. You will be AMAZED at the possibilities here.

It's kind of funny thatit comes with a six-saddle bridge, since you never fret the strings anyway. Just tune it up and play. The tuners are a bit stiff-turning. No big deal. Thick laquer black metalflake and a plastic "fretboard," with a chrome pickguard. Pretty indestructible, and again, let me remind you...it cost 80 bucks!

Well geez... it's an 80 dollar made-in-China chunk of wood with a pickup... Not much can go wrong here, and pretty much any replacement parts would only improve it, but unless you throw the thing out of your car, I can't imagine it breaking. As someone else mentioned, all the screws are tight, and it feels pretty stout. I put a bunch of Hawaiian suf stickers on the back of mine to help keep it on my lap (a lot of lap steels come with felt on the underside), but so far I haven't dropped it.

Oh please.

I've been playing acoustic and electric guiutar for 30 years, and this is my first foray into the world of steel. I won't bore you with a list of my gear. Instead I'll bore you with my advice for tunings. Get a set of much heavier strings, and experiment with an open G, or my favorite, A minor. John Pearse sells lap steel strings especially for Am6 tuning, but I use them for F major as well. You have to learn the fretboard every time you change tunings (I make little charts that tell me where all the notes are), but you can get some cool effects by doing so. A bastardized c6 has a distinctly "country" sound, while open G and D are easy blues keys. The ONLY problem here is that with 6 strings, you really have to learn the bar slants to get much of a pallette of chords. I'm totally sold on the lap steel, though, and plan to buy an 8-string very soon. The bottom line is, if you are at all interested in the lap steel, this is a no-brainer and is a virtually risk-free way to get a decent instrument to mess around with. But the little thing is adicting, and I find myself dropping steel parts into a lot of the music I record. It adds a great ambience, fills a lot of space (almost like an organ does), and can impart an eery kind of lonesome vibe (think Brian Eno) in addition to its more conventional blues and country sounds. Be aware that the "Sonica" and "Surf City" brands of lap steels that you seeon e-bay are virtually identical to this, and Musician's Friend consistently prices theirs lower. Dig it!

I've been playing for 35 years. This little baby has a sweet sound through all my amps. This was really just going to be a toy, but I ended up playing it as much as my Supro.

Like all single coils it is noisy, but the overall tone is surprising

Set up was average. The finsigh is nice. No noticeable flaws at delivery

Couple serious problems here. The Nut disintergrated. (And I was tuned to low base Hawaiian A at the time.) Absolutely no where to get a replacement nut that I could find. Also keep in mind I've only had it 2 months.

Also the retaining nut on the jack keeps working loose. I can't seem to kee it tight.

Can't find a company

I have been playing over 35 years. I own a '65 Telecaster, Yamaha FG140 (Vintage 1968,) A Yamaha 12 string acoustic/electric, a 40's Supro Lap Top, Regal Squareneck RD75 an old (1920's?) unkown maker Mando/Banjo, a Gibson Mandolin and a obro 60.

I love the sound but the guitar is now unplayable until I find a way to replace the chaepo screw down nut. Fortunately, this was an experimental toy that I could afford to have break. (The Supro is the meat and potatoes.)I didn't expect much and was pleased overall. The biggest issue is the non-standard nur. ithout making one myself I sure don't know wher I am going to get one.

It's a very basic, slab-style 6-string lap steel. The pickup is a Fender-looking single coil with standard volume and tone knobs. The fretboard marker is a strip of glossy plastic that's screwed into the body. I have no idea what kind of "hardwood" the body is. It has chrome hardware and a stainless steel pickguard. The headstock is slotted and the 3-on-a-strip, no-name tuners work well. The nut is wood - mahagony? - and the bridge/saddle arrangement is the same as on a Stratocaster with individual saddle pieces that can be height and position adjusted. It's like a lap steel version of a Squire Strat. Althought not mentioned in the Musician's Friend catalog, I was very pleasantly surprised to find it came with a very nice softcase with a large front pocket, carry handles, and both shoulder sling and backpack straps. Mine was strung with round wound light guage strings.

I had expected this inexpensive Chinese made lap steel to sound anemic and had planned on having to replace the electronics before it would be useful onstage. That was not at all necessary. This thing sounds great right out of the box. I did need to replace the strings though. The light guage round wound strings didn't take well to lower open tunings. As you might expect with a single coil pickup at the bridge, it has a naturally bright sound. The tone controls works well in taming the high end and using a J-Station Tweed model, compression and a healthy amount of gain, it emulates David Lindley sounds nicely.

The fit and finish is good. There are imprefections but at this price they're non-issues. The most noticable one for me was the sharp tops on the phillip head screws, like they installer had slipped with the screwdriver. They all need to be filed a bit but it's no big deal. The fretboard overlay is a bit gaudy looking but again, at this price who cares?

It's a slab o'w wood with strings so there's not much to go wrong. The most fragile part would be the tuners but they'd be easy to replace. I think you'd have to try hard to damage this instrument.

LOL, I doubt there's any "customer support" available from the manufacturer! I also doubt any is needed.

I've been playing guitar for 30+ years but am very new to lap steel. I got a Carter Pedal Steel a while back and have always wanted a lap steel too. The EA-1 is the perfect 6-string lap steel for starting and/or gigging. If it got stolen or damaged, I'd buy another in a heartbeat.

2003 Chinese-made lap steel guitar with one single-coil strat-style pickup, a volume control and a tone control. For the curious, it has 28 frets on the solid plastic "fretboard." By the way, the fretboard is screwed very tightly into the guitar. I usually go over all my guitars with a screwdriver not long after I get them and tighten down all the screws, and that was not necessary here. It's put together very well. I have no idea what kind of wood this is made from, but it's heavy and solid. The finish is a thick coat of blue metalflake auto paint, dutifully applied; nothing special but decent mass production work. The "pickguard" is chromed metal, which is a nice touch. The bridge is a strat-style back-loader, which does what it's supposed to, but it's a touch difficult to string up; you have to put the strings in at just the right angle. Fortunately, you won't be changing the strings on this all that often; hey, it's a lap steel! The tuners are acceptable, meaning they're cheap, but so far they have held the guitar in tune, so I'm not bothering with them. My major gripe is with the positioning of the jack, which gets in the way of your right hand if you want to pick near the bridge. However, a cord with an angled plug can solve this problem immediately. It came with a pretty neat little gig bag that fits the guitar well. This is not a fancy lap steel, but it's very solid, and it's made well.

I bought this to add to the Giant Pile O' Instruments, but I have been surprised by how much time I am spending with this little critter. The bottom line is that it sounds very good, through all my amps and effects. It has a sweet, singing tone which is very addictive to the ear. I even run it through my Digitech RP-50 and it sounds good there. Switch into the "Surfing" patch on the RP-50 and you're instantly in Santo & Johnny Land; I defy you not to play "Sleep Walk." I don't find it to be particularly noisy, although on some very extreme distortion settings it does feed back a little. As far as tones, it depends on how you play it; a lap steel is dependent on the skill of the player more than anything else. However, the Artisan responds well to different hand positions and picking styles, and you can coax a lot of tones out of this little chunk of wood. Add in some effects and you'll be surprised. Big bang for the buck here, soundwise.

The action was at least two inches above the fretboard! Which is how it's supposed to be. The positioning of the pickup to the strings is perfect. There were no flaws in the hardware or the setup, but bear in mind that a lap steel is basically a board with a pickup and strings; there's not much that can go wrong. That being said, the Artisan is put together very solidly indeed, and I can find absolutely nothing wrong with its construction.

I have a feeling this guitar would withstand nuclear war. This is a big solid chunk of wood with auto paint on it; you'd have to take a chainsaw to it to damage it, basically. I would gig with it, no problems, and it's certainly reliable enough to play on a gig without a backup.

Artisan is not a company as far as I can tell; I've seen these lap steels advertised elsewhere on the internet under a variety of brand names. I would suspect that these are mass produced in China, and they'll put whatever name the buyer wants on it. A Google search revealed no Artisan Guitar Company. If it developed a problem I'd either work on it myself or I'd send it back to Musician's Friend and get another one. It's not under any warranty as far as I know except the one from Musician's Friend. I really don't think anything could go wrong with this that couldn't be fixed with a screwdriver and a soldering iron; like I said, it's a board with strings and a pickup.

I've been playing for 29 years (yikes! just worked it out on the calculator). I own a lot of other gear, including a Rickenbacker 330, a 1959 Fender Jazzmaster, a Strat and a Tele, a Guild D-25, and a gopichand, among other things. I have played pro and semi-pro for a while now. My point is that I really can't think of a better deal on a lap steel than this one. It plays well and sounds great, and it's very well constructed. This would be a worthy addition to your arsenal, and a fantastic buy for someone who is just learning lap steel. I am quite infatuated with this little blue beast, to the point where I'm trying to figure out how to fit lap steel into just about every song I write these days. I would recommend this to any guitar player without hesitation.