Remove the strings from your guitar. The lap steel conversion is easiest to perform if the strings are removed from your guitar. This will allow you to adjust both the bridge saddles and the nut more easily, which will help you to raise the height of the strings above the fretboard.
Adjust the bridge saddles as high as possible. The saddles on a guitar's bridge are the 6 individual grooves over which the strings pass. They can usually be adjusted either using a flat head screwdriver or an allen wrench. Adjust them until they are as high above the guitar's body as they will go.
Install a slide guitar nut over your guitar's existing nut. The strings will also need to be raised at the other end of the neck - namely, at the nut. To do this without costly and permanent modification, you'll need a specialized product called a slide guitar nut or a slide guitar extension nut. This simple metal nut can be easily fitted over the top of your existing nut, where it will be held in place by the pressure from the strings.
Restring your guitar with heavy gauge strings. Once you have adjusted both the bridge and nut, you can restring your guitar. Note that lap steel guitars are typically strung with heavy gauge strings, which allow for a beefier, more sustained tone when played with a slide.
Tune the guitar to an open tuning. When tuning the strings, forgo the standard E tuning for an open tuning. Open tunings are a necessity on slide guitar, as they allow you to play a wider variety of intervals without needing to fret individual strings (which you can no longer do). Perhaps the most popular tuning for playing lap steel guitar is (from low to high) D-B-G-D-B-E.
Play your newly converted lap steel guitar. To play your new lap steel guitar in the traditional manner, lay the body of the guitar flat across your lap with the fretboard facing the ceiling. Use a slide on the fretboard and pick the strings either with your fingers or with a combination of thumb and finger picks.
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