This is my fingertip. I refinished the body. Someone painted the front with red spray paint.
This is the Nashville permanent. I'm going to do a complete restoration on this one.
If you notice on the E9th part of the plate, someone thought it would be a good idea to try to convert it to 24 1/4 scale and totally destroyed the slot for the changer. Why someone paint these beautiful guitars is beyond me. These people should be Shot, no pun intended.
Jim Loessberg has a website with a ton of pictures. there is a sho bud section with pictures and an old sales pack from sho bud. It shows the permanents with and without endplates. I hope the link works:
Might be original blue paint. At least it was blue before someone hacked up the E9th neck.
How many strings on this puppy? Click on the section showing the knee lever. It will enlarge itself. http://www.jimloessberg.com/sho-bud-insert.jpg
The sho bud in that link has the same inlay and has light tops and dark aprons as the blue topped one in the pictures above. You can see it when you zoom in. Looks like the same guitar.
That 16 string guitar is probably one with dual strings, like a 12 string standard guitars. Sho Bud made a few of those, one is pictured on Pete Drake's Amazing Steel Guitar LP.
I used to have one exactly like the George Edwards' D9 in that old catalog, blonde birdseye with white lacquer necks. My D10 has black lacquer necks on a blonde birdseye top with an ebony front apron. It was originally built for Ronnie Toth in NJ, the case still has his old address
I have many of these guitars but one of great interest is a triple neck I bought on Ebay, two ten string necks and a 16 string "double string" neck.
All metal is real gold plating, and the wood is maple and rosewood, as all triples are in the "permenant" vintage, it has wood ends instead of aluminum. Astoundingly beautiful guitar, so far!
Appears to be!!! I'd like to see a pic of the changer! Whoa!
Probably not what you were expecting. This one is a double-course 8-string (16). It's from a cabinet end 11-11-16 that has 11 pedals, waiting to be restored.
Chas: Are the courses unison or octave ? Adjusting a pedal mechanism on a double course instrument must take quite a expertise. I've built multiple-course instruments, and indeed I'm in the process of building one right now, but I wouldn't even attempt to put pedals on one.... that's far beyond my talent.
Alan, the courses were both unison and octave. Keep in mind that I'm not an expert on these things, and if you look at the end shot, each finger has a screw to push it forward, independent of the one beside it, even though they both share the same pull rod. The thinner strings have to travel farther to get up to pitch so what that screw does is position the finger on the left side forward, so that it doesn't travel as far as the one on the right.
but I wouldn't even attempt to put pedals on one.... that's far beyond my talent.
I don't rely on talent, I rely on ignorance. I trust that I'm too ignorant to know that it can't be done.
Wow! some beautiful Shobud permanents on this thread.
I love those guitars. They are not only beautiful looking guitars, they have a real special sound. Shoot! Wish I had one!
I was digging into my Nashville perm and noticed something very odd that would explain the blue paint. I believe this was a guitar originally built lefty. The endplate on the key side has identical holes as the changer side. And if you look at the picture with just the key heads, you can see on the body where they cut out the slots for the changer. The only way to cover it up is to paint the guitar. This is probably a left over body they sold with this ugly paint job. If any of you guys out there knows someone who can fill these holes on this endplate, let me know and I will send it to him or her. Thanks, Phil
It looks like you are going to have to paint the top. If you are thinking of colors, my Miller wanna-be sho bud has black painted tops with wood necks. In case you needed some ideas or examples of colors.
PT,
"The only way to cover it up is to paint the guitar."
Maybe you could sand it down enough to apply a veneer. Most veneer stock is paper thin, and the choice is amazing! I would suggest finding a woodshop that uses a vacuum bag for it's glueups. Not hard to do, and probably wouldn't cost much at all. It's only gonna take a shop an hour or so to do it. You'd really want to prep the surface well, as any irregularities would show through. But you'd have to do the same if you were gonna paint it. Do a search on the web for veneer suppliers. Find some nice Curly or Burl Maple.
I just did a quick search. Common thicknesses are 1/42" to 1/64" in some pretty amazing woods. Not really expensive either. I searched for "wood veneer supply."
That's a great idea, I will look into that. There's a place here in town that sells veneer, but you have to buy a sheet that's 8'x4'. Curly maple is not cheep. I still need to get one of the end plates fixed and get the pickups rewound too. I just don't want to put too much money into the guitar that started out as a mistake. This guitar has alot of errors to be corrected.
I've built multiple-course instruments, and indeed I'm in the process of building one right now, but I wouldn't even attempt to put pedals on one.... that's far beyond my talent. 
