inverseroom wrote:
What tunings are there? Open ones, I assume? Honestly, I've been playing regular guitar for twenty years in various tunings but I have never so much as picked up a lap steel.
Here is a site that is pretty useful has links to just about everything you need, different tone bars, instructional materials, tunings, even a string guage chart which is helpful.
I've been playing various slide instruments for llonger than i care to admit and I would recommend using an open D tuning (lowest to highest dadf#ad) to start with. Having the third in there only once makes its easier to play minor chords without having to slant. I like it for its versatility across different styles and its especially good for darker more moody type of stuff.
As far as bars go I think you'll be fine with what you have. I've always preferred heavier bars myself-better sustain and better tone in my opinion.
It's also worth getting a "stevens"style bar to mess around with. It's easier to do hammer-ons and single note stuff with one of those.
If you've got an extra guitar lying around that you don't play much I would suggest getting a nut riser and a saddle for it. You can use it to mess around with different tunings while not having to retune the lap. This can be useful, particularly since some of the tunings, like the C6 that is used by a lot of lap players, really requires a different set of strings. Hope this is helpful. Congrats on your new purchase.
Brian