Lap Steel and D# 13

No bar position in CEGACE spells D# 13.

D# 13 spells D# – F – G – A# – C – C#, 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.