Artisan EA-1 Lap Steel

I already owned and played (at my gigs) vintage 'Supra,' and 'Nationals,' including multi neck consols. I saw the Artisan, and thought I'd try one out at a gig. After performing with one, I bought three more.

I have them in sparkle red, and blue.

Compared to the Morell, which is at TWICE the price, it blows it away. The Morell has only one volume 'pot,' and a painted on fret marking board. The Artisan has a volume and tone, and a RAISED board, with reflective markings.

The pick-ups I found are not consistent from one to another. Having said that, I did replace a pick up with one I had sitting around. However, none of them sounded bad, and with a good amp, and the right strings, any would do.

This has a THREE octave range, and the SHORT SCALE makes it easy to reach and 'bend' with minimal movement. Good for me, because I sing while I play it - AND it stays in tune!

Go here, and you can listen to it's sound on 'Love in Vain,' and 'SLEEPWALK.'

http://www.myspace.com/joeyjoelsblues

I use it to play both slammin 'DELTA' Blues, and soft lyrical tunes like 'SLEEPWALK.'

I use vintage (early 80's) moded MusicMans, on both the clean and overdrive channels. Sometimes run it through a 'Cry Baby,' digital echo, and/or Univibe.

Not particulary noisy any more than any other single coil 'pu.'

Clean clear sound on normal settings, or great overdrive tone. Thick, or thin, depending how you set tones and amp.

ALSO, besides the amp - the STRINGS ARE CRITICAL TO GOOD SOUND. I recomend using a straight 14 set, with a wound third string.

As I said, I own some great vintage lap steels, yet I LOVE this one. I don't have to be so senstive as to knocking it around. (though I don't, I am far less sensitive on who else plays it, or throwing it in and out of my car).

The action is fine, and the string height is good. The input jack is too close to where the wrist sits, but if you use a 'RIGHT' angled plug, it is NO problem.

I have been playing the same one on stage and in the house for almost four years, and it has not been any problem, and it stays in tune. I always take a 'regular' guitar backup, but have never taken a backup for this. My 'National' has broken strings on Gigs due to it's metal bridge, but my 'Artisan' has never broken any strings.

I bought it on Musicians friend, and the bag it came in was under par, and they sent me a new one. Other than that, I don't know.

I've been playing 30 yrs or so. I have vintage Fenders, Gibsons, Supras, Nationals, Harmonys, and Epiphones.

I totally love this lap steel. Inexpensive, so I don't stress if I ding it, and it puts out the sound and plays well.

If you have not a money problem, and want a status symbol, then pay $1500. or more for something else. If you want to play, and play well, not worrying about much, then spend the few bucks for this one. Even a change in pickup will not break you, but the reliability is a great peace of mind. I totally support this model.

Check out it's sound on my MySpace page. (hurry while they are still up: SLEEPWALK, and LOVE IN VAIN.)

http://www.myspace.com/joeyjoelsblues

Basic ,as stated before , Blue Sparkle painted wood body w/ one sigle coil Pup ,tone and volume.

I love the sound I get from this steel , before I ordered it a musicainsfriend ,I went to GC and played on a fender ,so when I got this baby it took some time ,but I love it , just as good sounding as te fender ,but about 350 bucks cheaper.Its not noisy , Pots alittle scatchy but that can be fixed.I love using this with MXR Dyna comp ,and Delay . Get a steel bar , I use the Dunlop lap steel.
Great for counrty ,blues , and a good imagination. I have reworked songs to play with this baby.
Best thing is a Volume & Tone knobs!

Setup ??? Its a raised bridge . saddles seem cheap , but they do a good job, they don't break strings any faster. May put on brass saddles later.Bridge is cheap wood , but I have had no problems with bridge ,so I,m not worried ,(head the steel for 4 months)Saw one reviewer complained about the plastic bridge? Dude there no action on the board!
Tuners are fine

These will last for ever , The leg stands may strip out ,but the lap steel will live forever.

Well they don't sell em on Musiciansfriend anymore ,so your guess is as good as mine.

I f you find one buy one , there cheap and work get ,and everything is easy to fix or upgrade.A Morrell for twice as much has only a volume knob. They are no longer sold on Musiciansfriend ,but you can still find one at Ebay ,sometimes under a differnt name than Artisan

A very nicely presented 4x2 in a lovely black sparkle finish. The 'features', such as they are, have been well described in previous reviews.

Sounds as good as many more expensive steels that I have played. Subject to the alterations detailed below I am currently using it through a Roland Micro-Cube on Brit-Amp setting with a little reverb or delay depending on what I am playing. Any thing from Hawaiian to nasty old Blues. This plank caters for all.

Set up? Are you kidding? Slavishly assembled by nimble little fingers in the Mysterious Orient.
All of the necessary components seem to be in place. The tuners tune, the bridge is a bridge, the pickup picks up, the controls control but the nut is nuts!
The only use that the nut had was to act as a template for the replacement nut I fashioned from a piece of 1/2" x 1/2" scrap aluminium angle. The nut slots were cut with a penknife.
This modification raises the action somewhat and intonation is available at the bridge. The rather low action at the pickup end has been simply cured by the use of a shorter thumbpick.
Please remember that this is the cheapest steel guitar on the Planet and it does what it says on the box.

This instrument has show stopping capabilities in the right hands.
Any hardware issues can be addressed by looking in the 'scrap' box.
The finish is adequate but is irrelevant at this price.
It seems as dependable as any other and hasn't let me down so far.
Please do not attempt to smash this on stage as you will probably hurt yourself.

At this price who cares?

Played steel for a few years after many years with a Tele. I have number of other higher quality steels and this one does what it does quite adequately .
If this were stolen I would have serious concerns for the thief's sanity. I would replace it.

It's made in China, like so many things nowadays. It's got 28 frets, one single coil pickup (adjustable height), a volume knob and a tone knob (not very subtle). It's got an adjustable bridge (contrary to what is said elsewhere, this is very useful, unless you never play chords, adjusting the bridge is one of the first things I did.) The jack is on the wrong side of the instrument, which can be solved by using a square 90 degree angled plug. It's not clear what material the nut is made of, but it's not really strong enough (I had to pad some of the slots to adjust string height.) The tuners are nothing special, but they do the job. Mine came with adjustable legs and a gig bag - and a little hex key to adjust the individual bridge saddles.

It does more than what I would have expected from a cheap instrument (this has to do with the advantage of the simplicity of lap steel construction). It is remarkably quiet for a single coil pickup. The sound is on the bright side. I like it.

I had to adjust the bridge and the pick up a little bit, otherwise I had no complaints (apart from that weak nut).

Everything will survive but the nut (but that's a cheap replacement.)

Well, this comes from China, it's cheap and hasn't much that can break...

It's a great lap steel for its price. It's my first and I guess once I'm totally comfortable with it I'll upgrade to something fancier.

It's a lap steel, basically a two-by-four with strings and a pickup. The pickup is a strat type, and it has one volume and one tone control. It includes a fairly adequate gig bag, with an outer pocket good for steels, strings, and a tuner.

For misfeatures... the output jack is placed right where you would naturally rest your right hand while playing. Ewww! You pretty much have to have a right-angle plug on your cord. I'm knocking the features down for that, but up for the pickup choice, as I'll explain...

The stock sound is a mixed bag. The pickup is suprisingly good. HOWEVER... on mine at least, the strings weren't grounded properly (turned out to be a broken wire), the pots were scratchy, and the tone sweep was poor. There was a great deal of noise in addition to the usual 60hz hum from the single-coil.

I replaced the stock pickup with an old Fender Lace Sensor Gold, replaced the stock volume pot with a new WD 250k pot, removed the tone control entirely, and moved the output jack to the old tone control hole, and paid good attention to grounding. Now it sounds KILLER - hum-free, noise-free, fat and warm and bright and very balanced. I imagine any aftermarket Strat pickup you like would work, although I'd stay away from the "hot" ones.

So a 7 for sound before the mods, but a solid 9 after the work was done.

Actually, it's pretty crappy, but what do you expect for $50? I mentioned the stupid jack placement and broken grounding. Throw in some stripped screws and a nasty bridge design combining the worst features of a hardtail Strat and an old Gibson stop tailpiece, mediocre tuners, a very questionable wood nut, and routing so bad they painted over sawdust inside the guitar and well... yuck.

The real annoyance, though, was when I did my electronics mods. The pickup hole was strat-shaped, but not really strat-sized. The stock pickup fit, but i had to file it out some to fit the Lace Sensor. Then I had to drill out the volume and tone control holes to 3/8" to accomodate the output jack and a better (and bigger) volume pot. Cheap components suck!

While I'm at it, I'll mention that the strings come pre-rusted from the factory, and they're basic "electric guitar" strings poorly suited to lap steel use. Bleh. I've seen bad strings on new guitars, but these must set some sort of record.

I was able to fix the electronics, but the poor bridge design continues to be a little uncomfortable as a hand rest - not something you want on a lap steel.

Out of the box, it was pretty bad. But the problems were mostly electronic and fixable. Right now, I think it's perfectly reliable and should last for ages, although I'm a bit leery about that nut. But hey, it's a two-by-four with strings. How bad could it be?

I plan to gig with it, and I might buy another, just to have in a different tuning.

Musician's Friend has always worked out well for me, but then I've never had any problem. I'm sure they'd exchange it if it was broken on arrival. Beyond that, good luck.

Despite the work required to bring it up to snuff, I'm quite pleased with it. It works, stays in tune, and sounds like a lap steel. It's also very small and light, a plus.

I'm mostly playing it through a Pignose amp, which is WONDERFUL with this guitar. Pignoses can be a little dark with some guitars, but it just sings here. Better yet, it's just the right volume for jamming along with acoustic guitars and unamplified singers. The Pignose and the steel together weigh less than an acoustic guitar, and they're smaller too! If you play a lot of acoustic jams and learn to play this thing well, people will love you AND you get to solo a lot!

But if you're going to jams, please learn to play it decently first! Bad steel players are probably worse than the guy who got a djembe last week and thinks he's a drummer now. :}

I've also played it through a Trace-Elliot Velocette 15w tube amp, and that works fine if you crank it up (typical with that amp and ANY guitar). I've also started adding reverb from an EH Holy Grail pedal, which helps with the Pignose but isn't necessary.

It's a lap steel. It's not a "features" instrument. So some features it does NOT have...

It doesn't have the output jack in a sane location. Better get yourself an angle plug, because otherwise it's very much in the way of your right hand.

It doesn't have decent grounding or shielding for the electronics.

The bridge design really sucks... it uses Strat-style adjustable saddles, but strings through the back, not through the bottom. So actually getting new strings to thread over the saddles is a real trick. Oh, and speaking of strings, it had the worst strings I've ever seen on a new guitar.

This was a pleasant surprise... it sounds REALLY good. The pickup is far better than I expected it to be. Changing strings makes quite a difference, as does adjusting pickup height - experiment! As a plus, the pickup appears to be a standard strat bridge pickup, which means that roughly fourteen gazillion replacements are available to tweak your tone.

Ugh.

Worst. Strings. Ever. Construction is better than you'd expect for $50, but not by a whole lot. Durability is probably a function of simplicity. Mine shipped with a pretty nasty corner ding.

That being said, I think it's probably gonna last forever. The tuners seem okay, the electronics are easily rebuilt (and I'll do so), and then... like someone said, it's a 2x4 with a pickup and strings.

Musician's Friend is a good place to buy from, if you don't mind music-pr0n catalogs showing up on your doorstep every other week. I've purchased from them for years without problems. Throw in a slide, strings, and an angle cord (you'll need it) and you can hit their "free shipping over $99" mark pretty easily.

Despite the knocks noted above, it's a great little guitar! I've hardly put it down since I got it a week ago. A little tweaking makes it perfectly playable. More importantly, it allows me to experiment with lap steel playing to see if I'm really committed before dropping hundreds of dollars on a Chandler or vintage instrument or something. Add a cheesy little battery-powered amp and it can be easily carried all over the house. I brought it to a jam and it was a huge hit... should be an even bigger hit in a month or two when I can actually sorta play the darn thing. :}

I got the black metal flake color. It came with a backpack style gig bag with a pocket for picks, steel, whatever. A top mounted jack, a volume and tone knob, and chrome pick guard, and a white (cheap looking) single coil pickup occupy the top. The body seems to be a synthetic material, light but solid feeling. The worm-gear, non-brand tuners are shiny and seem to be solid as well. The fret board looks like plastic and has gold fret numbers stamped into it. The nut appears to be wood and pretty frail looking. Plain, yet fuctional look to it all.

The sound is nice and crisp, more bright than I thought it would be. My the audio taper on my volume knob seems to favor the upper end...pretty much all or none. The tone adjustment is rather wimpy, with the low being very muffled.

The gap between the pickup pole and the highest string is much larger than the other gaps, reducing the signal from that one string noticably. Not sure if I can adjust this. The nut seems fragile, and the wood where the notches are is very thin. This probably contributes to the overall brightness of the sound. The finish on the body is very nice.

Have only had this for a few days now, but this guitar seems like it would handle years of moderate amounts of playing. Not sure I'd rely on this for my bread and butter, but an ideal back up. At this price, get two or three!

Musician's Friend is an allright place for online ordering. An instrument this inexpensive would probably not be worth investing too much $ into repairing, although a pickup swap out might be a good mod.

This is my first venture into the lap steel guitar universe. I tuned it to the C6 tuning, and my very first strum sounded straight out of Hawaii! I'm hoping to get into David Gilmour type soloing, but I can see trying all sorts of music with this little thing. For my tone bar (slide), I'm using an 11/16 deepwell socket. I might graduate to a bullet type bar one of these days.

It's got what you'd expect in a lap steel - 1 single coil pickup, a volume and a tone control. No bells, no whistles, but what else do you *need* for a basic lap steel? The finish is black metalflake, chrome pickguard (if you can call it that), and slotted tuners (similar to those found on classical acoustics). Came with a gig bag.

Having never played any other lap steel, it's hard to make a comparison. Playing in a surf band, it suits my style perfectly (in C6 tuning, EVERYTHING sounds Hawaiian). Not noisy at all, but I have been playing it through a Johnson J-Station into an old Crate POS (the JS has a noise gate, so I'll have to play it through my Reverend amp and Fender reverb tank for a better assessment).

Personally, I think it sounds great for what it is, ie, a cheap, beginner's lap steel. As far as variety, I'd imagine that's more up to the players imagination than the instrument itself - but hey, if you think you can play 80's metal on it, be my guest. Hello? It's a lap steel...

I do wish it stayed in tune a bit better, and I'm not entirely pleased with the tuning kets. The action was waaaaaaay high (just kidding here, folks, it's supposed to be). Honestly, it's a great little steel for a beginner (ie, me).

I'd buy another one if anything happened to this one (I named him Johnny, I may get another one down the line just so I can name it Santo). I imagine 'lil Johnny will take some abuse, but I have faith. HANG IN THERE 'LIL JOHNNY! You can DO EEEET!

MF can mean several different things to musical instrument consumers...

I've been playing for 16 years. My current rig is either a CIJ Jazzmaster or a Gretsch Streamliner --->Ibanez Tube Screamer--> Boss TR-2 Tremolo -->Visual Sound H2O --> Fender Reverb Tank --> Reverend Hellhound head --> Avatar 212 cab. Somewhere in there I need to fin space for the lap steel. There really isn't anything to compare it to, but for someone relatively well versed on the guitar who wants to branch out into steel territory, I'd recommend it.

This is one of the best lap steels that I have ever played.It is made in China and sold by Musicans Friend.The guitar is a solid wood tone monster.The wood could be bass or alder.The tone reminds me of the Gibson lap steels of the 50s.The guitar body has wonderful blue paint that really stands out against the chrome plate on top.The pick up is a single strat but is perfect in this guitar.The only thing I do not love about the guitar is the fret board but it can be replaced.It works fine but does not look that great.The guitar comes with a nice gig bag

I play crying in your beer Hank Willams style real country music.The guitar is perfect for classic country.I play pedals and non pedal using a LTD 400 and several huge tube amps.The guitar sounds rich and full.

The fit and finish is fine.It looks grand.

The guitar plays and stays in tune.The guitar can stand up to hours of hard country playing.The parts alone on this baby would cost over $200.00 if you wanted to make one .You will not fine a better deal on a new 6 string lap steel anywhere.The construction is flawless.It was made with CNC machines.The reason it is $59.00 is the labor in China is he next to nothing compaired to the wages in the USA.If you want a great deal that is a steel on a steel buy one from Musicians Friend.Pros like myself are playing these and asking why go and spend extra money when you are wanting to try out the steel?

Musicans Friend is great to deal with.

I have one in all three colors.I have been playing over 30 years and have owned more steel guitars then anyone I know of.This little guitar is a fantastic steel guitar that I will be using for years because it has great tone.The builder sure knew how to build a guitar that has the sound and sustain that a lap steel shoud have.Some have tried to ban good reviews on the Artisan because America has nothing to beat this with but I hope these sell like crazy so people can get into a steel guitar without wasting alot of money.

Go out right now and buy a cheap pickup, tuners & vol./tone knobs...
and a quality 2x4, and you can make this thing. But, for $60, you
can have one that someone else built and save the time.

It sounds like the best electric 2x4 you ever heard.

There's nothing here to screw up, except the input jack location.

( I have to admit that I did relocate the input and installed a
higher output pickup in mine, tho' the PU they give you is
very usable.)

2x4s are meant to take hard usage, and I do have another for backup.

I doubt if backup exists.

I've been playing for 38 years in a wide range of styles with guitars
that ranged from bargain-simple to "boutique"-fancy. For pure fun,
there is no reason to spend any more than this to explore slide...it's
hands down the best $60 you'll ever spend on lumber. I've got two.

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.

As a casual hobbyist, I don't ask for tons of features, but I am satisfied with this steel. For me, it's just for the sound it makes. The features have already been listed in another review. Mine has a red metal-flake finish.

I play most styles of music on several instruments. I got this steel as a way of broadening my sound and adding a "country" edge to my more folk-based recordings.
I primarily just use instruments for recording, so I just play this through a Digitech RP-3 into my computer. I get a bright, clear tone that I'm happy with, which I often fade into using the Digitech's volume pedal. I use a Dunlop 902 tone bar. The sound tends to naturally have a "wah" quality to it (without effects), almost like a musical "meow". I find it a charming timbre to use. Good for that "whiny" pedal steel sound heard in traditional country & western music. It sounds good through distortion, too.
I think it's best for country/folk-type music.

It was nice and comfortable from the get-go.
I agree that it's a bit odd (okay, very odd) to have the 1/4 in. jack on top of the body between myself and the strings. However, it doesn't bother me to have my hand turned around it to play near the bridge. But I usually pick the strings near the center of the instrument, so the cord doesn't get in the way.

I haven't owned this instrument for a long time (about a month now) but I've used it for recording and a studio session, and it's dependable. I would perform with it without a backup.

I haven't had to deal with customer support.

I've been playing guitar and other instruments for about 10 years. I have simple tastes, with a Danelectro U2 reissue and a Fender standard fretless Jass bass. Then there are the other instruments such as mandolin, saxophone, theremin, accordian, etc. but that's another story.
If something happened to this lovely little sound-maker I'd get another. I'm surprised I like the sound so much, at its price. I'm happy with it. I actually bought it just as an "accessory", seeing the price on it, but it's becoming one of my favorite instruments now. I've given it a home.
If the input jack was on the side of the body, near the volume/tone knobs, it would be perfect. But it's still no problem for me, and I'm not losing any sleep.
My thanks to Artisan for supplying a nice instrument at a nice price.

Made in 2002(?)

It has a 3 octave fretboard and is made out of wood but not sure exactly what kind of wood.

The lap steel only has 1 pickup (single coil) with a volume and tone knob, with a steel (chrome ?) pickgaurd going around the controls and around the pickup.

My lap steel has a blue metal flake painted finish and to tell you the truth it looks pretty good (I know the steels also come in black metal flake and red metal flake).

The bridge is a stop tailpiece with individual string height adjustments.

The tuners are pretty good (from what I can tell), not sure on what brand they are though.

The lap steel came with a nice padded gig bag and a small allen wrench (for the string height adjustments on the bridge).

This steel sounded really nice.

I play all sorts of styles of music (Gospel, country, blues, classic rock, etc.)

I used the steel going through an Ampeg SJ-12T and it wasn't noisy much, the only noise that came out of it was when the volume was turned up and you took your hands off the steel then it had that small little hum sound, (that alot of single coil guitars have) but that was about it.

I had the steel guitar tuned in open E and it sounded full (at least to me) and I was able to get some nice sounds out of it by using the tone knob and also using a volume pedal that I had laying around the house. The sound got bright when using a pick (or picks) with it, but mostly I just used my fingers instead of a pick (without picks it had a nice mellow sound)

It would have been cool if it had another pickup to change the sound some but what do you expect for a "beginner's" lap steel.

The finish was really nice. It was smooth and really glossy. There was a little tiny rough spot in the paint on the headstock (on the very top edge of it, on the back side) but that really didn't bother me a whole lot.

The pickup sounded good, it has screws on each side of it for adjustments (I guess ... I didn't mess with it).

The controls felt really snug (nothing loose) and the same with the tuners. The only thing I noticed that was a little loose was a few screws that were used to mount the "plastic looking" fretboard but that was about it, so I went ahead and tightened those up.

One thing I didn't like about it (when I first saw it) was the way the plug is mounted on the lap steel. It is mounted on the opposite side of the tone / volume controls and right on the top next to the bridge (on the side where your wrist / arm would go). So I have to play the lap steel with my arm going around the plug and resting on the bridge (which after doing this for a few minutes didn't bother me as much as I thought it would have), but I still would have rather had the plug on the opposite side next to the controls or on the side (not on the top of the instrument).

I think this lap steel will work great for live playing and I think the hardware will holdup over time.

The finish again looks nice and it seems to be thick (but I could be wrong), but overall it looks really nice (and at the price of the steel you can't complain too much).

I would depend on it in a live situation and would use it without a backup.

I've never dealt with the company that made the lap steel (I really don't know much about the company anyways).

I bought the steel from Musician's Friend, and I've delt with them quite often and have really been happy with all of the stuff they've shipped out to me.

Artisan = N/A (for customer support)
Musician's Friend = 10 (for customer support)

I've never really played (or even owned) a lap steel before but I've been playing the guitar for over 10 years now and have been playing a resonator guitar (with a slide about 50% of the time) for about 2 years.

I would most likely get another one of these lap steels.

The main thing I like about the steel is the blue painted finish and the price.

One thing about this lap steel that I was surprized about was the lap steel cost $79.99 and on Musician's Friend's website (and catalog) it didn't mention anything about a gigbag, so when I opened the box and saw the gigbag I was really happy about that ... so to me this was really a good deal ... a lap steel and a decent gigbag all for $79.99