TIM LARSON: This is a Gretsch Lap Steel. Not a very fantastic instrument, not a bad instrument, something to learn on to play lap steel. Basically a plank of wood with a pickup in it and I play it with a bar. Everyone has their preference for which bar you use. Some people use the bullet bar that is just a solid cylinder. I like this one. This is a [SOUNDS LIKE] Sho, and it’s got a place for your index finger and a place for your middle finger, and then you got your finger picks.

PATRICK OGLE: How many finger picks do you use?

TIM LARSON: I use three. Some people use more, some people use less. I'm not very good at his but I have it tuned to open D (D, A, D, F#, A, D), so that when you strum across, it’s a D chord. So, whenever you put the bar on, you geta chords.

[TIM LARSON PLAYING HIS GRETSCH LAP STEEL GUITAR]

PATRICK OGLE: Now, when you're buy it, when you have a lap steel which is like somebody wants to learn to play, this is an older one. I mean what should somebody look for and why would they try to get a new one?

TIM LARSON: Try to get a new one?

PATRICK OGLE: And we're talking about beginners here at least.

TIM LARSON: If you're going to get -- For a lap steel, there are not many companies that make them, so you're going to probably have to buy an old one. This one, I believe is from the '90s like the early '90s. Finding one like this would not be bad. I didn't pay very much money for this. I think I paid $110 for this. I know Chicago Music Exchange had them for S500 which is, you know, to be honest with you, is quite a bit for this instrument, which is sort of a ripoff. But you can find a real nice Gibson one from like the '50s for about $330, and you should definitely look towards that. You don't want anything too pricey. You don't -- You could argue this that if you buy something that sounds bad it may turn you off to it but, you know, why spend a couple of grand on an instrument that if, you know, you'll decide you're not going to like it after six months anyway.

PATRICK OGLE: Do you see -- I mean the thing is that I've seen an old one. I mean you see old guitars and they're worth anything but it just doesn't seem like there's this sort of collector frenzy surrounding these that you find but there is.

TIM LARSON: Mostly with pedal steels. National Pedal Steels are worth a fortune and --

PATRICK OGLE: Explain the difference between pedal steel and a lap steel.

TIM LARSON: Pedal steel you play with -- there's pedals and there's levers and it controls octaves and it controls the strings and the tone out of them, and then a lot of them have two necks and sometimes they have three, and if you'll probably have one that's twelve and you'll have one that has six, and most of the time you'll see, even lap steels, you'll see with eight strings instead of six. This one is sort of like the half-assed version of a lap steel guitar. It doesn't sound bad. I like to run mine through a lot of effects to make it sound a little bit better. I used it on my record and ran it through all kinds of effects and it sounded, you know, pretty good. But it takes a while to get used to playing it. Getting used to it, the finger-picking was fine for me because I finger pick all the time, but getting used to -- there's no frets. If you can look and see this fretboard, it's bolted on or screwd in, it's just basically a guide, and that's all you really get, you know. If you look at the action on it, it's raised so you can play this with a bar [PLAYS A CHORD], and you get different tones by pressing down.

PATRICK OGLE: And there you kind of hear like you get -- If you have an imagination, you can hear why this was used in Hawaiian Music.

TIM LARSON: Oh yeah, that they call it Hawaiian lap steel.

[TIM LARSON PLAYING A COUPLE OF LAP STEEL LINES]

PATRICK OGLE: You can play some [INDISCERNIBLE] now. I guess you [INDISCERNIBLE].

[TIM LARSON PLAYING A COUPLE OF LINES ON HIS GRETSCH LAP STEEL]

PATRICK OGLE: Let's pause in moment in silence for [SOUNDS LIKE] Don and O [INDISCERNIBLE]

TIM LARSON: All right. We'll play one with a pedal, little songs.

[TIM LARSON PLAYING A COUPLE OF LINES ON HIS GRETSCH LAP STEEL]

[TIM LARSON PLAYING A COUPLE OF LINES ON HIS GRETSCH LAP STEEL]

TIM LARSON: [SINGING] Just move off the freeway.