My journey so far

[Stan Steel]

Once upon a time, long, long ago in a far away place called London, a young man became obsessed with the wonderful steel sounds of bands like “The Good Commander and his Lost Planet Airmen, Burritos, Asleep at the Wheel”etc.
Being pretty hard up, he decided he would build his own Pedal Steel! With the help of diagrams from Winnie Winstons book, he set about knocking up a changer. He purchased an 8ft x 1ft x 2in plank of rough sawn Rock Maple from the other side of town, which he bought home on the front top deck of a bus (the only place it would fit!)
By the time he arrived home, the bus was completely full and the “Plank” had to be man-handled past yelping passengers, picking splinters of this exceptionally hard wood from their shoulders.
“Ooh what lovely wood” he exclaimed, as he worked it into shape, adding various inlays and veneers.

He loved Denmark Street, and he spent lots of time in the “Sho Bud Shop” on his hands and knees with a pencil, trying to work out what the heck went on underneath “this Magical Beast”. (Yes, he was that strange chap with big hair).

His best chum came home from University, saying that he had met a fellow who actually had a “Little Buddy”. Even though this chap was an exceptional slide player, he couldn’t get to grips with the pedals, so he sold it.
His wife, on the other hand, had a lovely friend who l certainly “got to grips”with...... we got drunk, got married, got kids,
and the half built guitar went into the attic........

FAST FOREWARD 40 odd years..... Eldest daughter moves house and out of the attic came the Steel!!! Oh my goodness, l need a lap steel.... NO! I NEED TO FINISH OFF THE MECHANICS OF MY OLD FRIEND FROM LONG-LONG AGO!!!. If I don’t, when I croak, nobody will know what it is, and it will end up in the bin..... Every small engineer shop in the Kingdom of Bridport was approached, but all they could say was “we need a precise drawing of what you want mate”
As I really didn’t really have a clue, I went to the local hardware shop and brought plenty of threaded bars, lock nuts, rods, curtain rails and the like. The sawing, drilling, hammering and swearing continued for some time until... Eurica!!!
I’ve got a pedal a rod and bell-crank to raise 2 strings half a tone... and to my amazement it was tuneable!!!
A very buisy week or two saw the whole thing take shape as if by magic. Even the E’s could be raised and lowered in a push pull style! Then, big disappointment, it all went tits up..... Oh! All it needs is a drop of loktite on the nuts ha! ha! Sorted!!!

Then it was time to get down and start learning. It was all going pretty well for someone with a “duff” hip, blown out top end hearing and a Goldfish memory,

THEN...
One day on eBay there was a smashing Sho Bud,Lloyd Green and oooh, my goodness it came with a Sarah Jory LP with her playing this guitar as a little girl. I have met Sarah through a couple of friends down here in Dorset, so it seemed rather wrong not to press the “buy it now” button.
For the price of a cheap car the beast was now mine!!!

Speaking with Darren who sold it to me, I found out he had got the guitar from Sarah’s exceptional telecaster player, Dean Barnes. Gosh and crikey, I’ve known Dean for a long time in a previous life, long before I ever heard of Sarah..... Now, Dean was always up for a “bit of a deal”so, for the crack, I looked him up on the internet to see if he would be interested in an old Sho Bud I had acquired......
Oops,deep heart drop. First hit on internet spoke of sad untimely death of my old mate......... very upsetting to say the least, but every time I sit to this loverly guitar, I remember him, which is nice, and I just hope a little of his great talent may filter down into my little fingers when I play.

Thank you for reading this rather long post,
and thank you all for your inspiration and help on my long journey

Big respect, your friend and mine,
Stan x

[Danny Mitchell]

Great story, Stan. I've got to admire the sheer gall at attempting, and succeeding, to build your own steel
Good luck with your journey.

[Gretschnut]

And I was only saying to Stan yesterday that he should write all this down. Well there you go. Ken did you ever meet up?

[Ken Byng]

Maybe I was in the Sho~Bud shop when Stuart popped in, but so many people used to come and go it was difficult to keep track.

Stuart
I drove through Bridport the other day on my way to a gig in Devon. A nice part of the world. There are some very good players within reasonable proximity of you. You have Gussie York in Cullompton, plus Mike Wrixton, Bernie Tinsley and Jimmy Pritchard in the Bournemouth area. It's never too late to get seriously involved in the world of pedal steel. You have a good guitar to learn on, and there is a lot of educational material (free of charge) on the internet, in the form of tablature and video tuition on YouTube.

Good luck with your endeavours and if you need any advice just drop me a PM.

Cheers, Ken.