Can I play Hindustani ragas on a lap steel or resonator guitar?

You can play Hindustani ragas on a lap steel or resonator guitar. Indian slide guitar grew from the Hawaiian guitar, a lap steel instrument, and KalaSudha sells adapted lap steel and resonator guitars for Indian slide technique.

Brij Bhushan Kabra raised his strings with a high nut so the bar clears the frets, and an open tuning gives a stable chord on the open strings, which suits raga. The ethnomusicologist Andre-Jacques Elias notes that the Hawaiian guitar had no chikari, high drone strings, so it could not play jhala, the fast closing section. Concert instruments add them: ask us about our Indian slide guitars.