Sho Bud Pro 1? Advice welcome & needed!

[chris hillman]

Not sure what I’ve bought here… or where to start. Its some sort of Sho Bud Pro1 I think?

The mechanism doesn’t seem very standard at all and I’m treating it as a project guitar. I’m not bothered about it not being original... I’ve played a few and the sound is beautiful so, I think it’ll be a good one once done.

Its tuned to E9th but I think it must have been something else as the pedals seem utter madness to me.

There are 9 Pedals at the moment and they function as such:

1) 3rd String down ½ a tone
2) 5th String down ½ a tone
3) 5th String down ½ a tone
4) 3rd String down ½ a tone
5) 5th String down ½ a tone
6) 4th String up ½ a tone
7) 5th String up ½ a tone & 9th String down ½ a tone
8) 6th & 7th String up ½ a tone
9) 7th String down ½ a tone

Haven’t even started on the 5 Knee Levers.

As I play universal, I’m thinking of stripping it down and keeping it Emmons pedal setup with the universal knee levers. And maybe add a couple more to get pedals 6 & 7 of the uni set up… but im not trying to get ahead of myself though.

Definitely looking for advice though! Would it be best to strip the rods off and copy the Excel for the A B C pedals?

I know this is going to be a big project. I don’t need it in a rush and I’ve build B benders and little things from scratch.

I bought it from Frank Peters family. I'm not sure if anyone knows of him here.

Anyway, advice welcome and i'm itching to crack on soon so just need to know where is best to start

[Ken Byng]

Definitely not a Sho~Bud undercarriage. It looks to have been done fairly professionally, so it just may need a new pedal / lever set up. As it is a customised copedant your suggestion of starting from scratch makes sense. That substantive rail that someone has put in should have a positive affect on any cabinet drop.

As it's only a 10 stringer, you may struggle to put a uni set up on it. I would just put standard E9 Emmons pedals on 2, 3 & 4 with a Franklin pedal on 1. the rest of the pedals would be redundant. There are enough levers to give all of the modern pulls, but as the changer looks to be single raise, double lower, it may be that the additional pulls are tuned underneath. It may have started life as a rack & barrel undercarriage and someone then changed it to get rid of the rattles. It would be nice if you could find out some of the guitar's history.

[chris hillman]

Thanks Ken,

Yeah i'm not sure but i think Ronnie Bennett may have done the work. There was another Bennett pedal steel with similar insides. The family didnt know too much.

I think firstly a standard E9th 3 Pedals and sort out the leavers is where i'm heading. Just need to pluck up the currage to start taking bits off. I guess i can always follow my other steels set up a bit.

Any history would be welcome. The last owner used to play for the Kentuckians. It drew me to the add as i found their LP in a charity shop a few years back... not the same guy apparently though but, same band.

[JohnDavisStringsHere]

Nice lookin axe and sure looks like Ron's work to me.... Where are you based Chris.? glad to help if I can....

[Nick Bidmade]

You've got a serial number there, Chris. You could put an inquiry on the US Forum - I'm sure there'd be someone who could at least tell you what your guitars origins were.

To build on ken's suggestion, you might be able to add a 'Sigler' pedal - again, a search on the US Forum would give you the exact change, but it essentially converts E9 to (Ithink)B6 - certainly a 6th tuning. Located in the right place, you can use it with A pedal and 'Franklin' pedal, but there's stuff on the US Forum that explains.

[chris hillman]

according to Don Bloods site it was one of the 362 made between: 12/24/75 - 2/24/76.

I'll look up that change Nick! sounds interesting. John, i'm in Manchester.

Is there any good way to start do we think? or should i just start from scratch with all the rods out? Just trying to make it easier on myself.

[JohnDavisStringsHere]

Chris, Manchester is way too far for me to be of help so, I would suggest you contact Baz Gaskell for some help/advice he is a great player and a very helpful guy plus he lives just outside Manchester... PM me if you want his contact detail....

[Tony Russell Davis]

You've got photos to rely on for the rebuild - pulling the mech. out and starting from scratch is probably the easier option as you won't then be fitting things around obstacles. There is a 10 string uni. developed by Jan Vissier, search for "Devis" guitars. I don't know how successful it is as I have never dabbled in uni. tunings.
One thing I would say about the rebuild is - there seems to be no plate under the limiter screws on the KLs, so the end is "drilling" into the woodwork. See if you can put some piece of metal there to take the damage, something the size of a 1p would do.

[Nick Bidmade]

Good suggestion Tony. I had this on VKL - slowly it was wearing the wood away as the 'stop' was the body of the guitar. A 5p piece glued underneath worked a treat (until I took the VKL off as I couldn't bear the constant re-tuning required because the guitar doesn't have split tuning..).
Half A pedal or sliding down 1 fret and engaging B pedal works pretty well and doesn't sound any worse!

[Tony Russell Davis]

5p piece Nick? Spendthrift!!!