Table steel guitar

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Excel XL-800D table steel guitar

The table steel guitar is a type of electric steel guitar intermediate between the lap steel guitar and the pedal steel guitar. Table steel guitars typically have multiple necks and/or more than six strings per neck, and are too large to be easily played in lap steel fashion.

They are particularly favoured in Hawaiian music, especially the twin neck eight string per neck configuration.

The original table steel guitars were intended to be placed on a table for playing. Many more recent table steel guitars have built-in legs (or, if you like, a built-in table), but no pedals.

Table steel guitars most commonly have eight strings per neck, with six or seven strings less common and mainly on older instruments. Up to four necks is not unusual, as without the benefit of pedals, the player has only as many tunings available as there are necks, but two necks most common. As with the pedal steel guitar, the neck closest to the player is most commonly C6 tuning, and the next closest E9 tuning.

The line between electric lap steel guitar and table steel guitar is fuzzy, with a great deal of overlap. Some makers and authorities do not use the term table steel guitar at all, but refer to any steel guitar without pedals as a lap steel guitar. In 1956, Gibson were selling an 8+8 string with folding legs as a lap steel guitar, but this particular instrument is unplayable in lap steel fashion; The Fender Stringmaster with up to four necks was also described as a lap steel guitar in some Fender catalogs, while in others it was simply described as a steel guitar. On the other hand, other authorities describe any solid body steel guitar without pedals and with more than one neck and/or more than six strings per neck as a table steel guitar even if it is actually played in lap steel position.