Lap Steel and C 13

C 13 spells C – D – E – G – A – A#, but the lap steel chair has no bar for it: at every fret of the CEGACE neck, and on every short slant, the strings that land on its tones leave one out or too few of them ring.

In a country arrangement that is an ordinary night's work — the lap steel plays the part of the chord the bar can reach, or a single-string line through it, and lets the guitar and the rest of the band carry the chord. This page draws no grip a steel cannot hold.