Updated Sho-Bud Maverick

Brian Phillips · Post by **Brian Phillips** » 28 Sep 2011 10:38 am

Howdy guys. Did some cosmetic updating to my Maverick, and wanted to share the results. It had that awful fake birdseye vinyl, covering up perfectly good maple, and I figured it was time to do something about it.

Removed all the necessary parts, removed the vinyl.

Stained and finished to my liking. I left the changer and the pickup in place -- just taped over 'em. That coat-hanger system on the Maverick is a bitch to re-assemble, so I didn't want to mess with it.

Sanded the black crinkle finish off the endplates. I used chrome polish to give it a bit of a shine, but it's still not perfect. Kind of a brushed aluminum look, though.

Put all the parts back on, except for the plastic raised fretboard. It was quite dirty, so I soaked it in alcohol to try and get the 30 years worth of grime off ... Aaaaaand it destroyed the white and red paint. Luckily, Tom Bradshaw sells heavy vinyl fretboards online, so I ordered one from him (looks much much better, anyway).

After a much-needed polish on the legs, pedal board, and rods, and some WD-40 applied to the moving parts, this thing is good to go!

There's a noticeable difference in sound once I lost the vinyl covering. Fatter sound, better sustain. I'm very pleased.

If you guys have any sanding tips for those endplates, please let me know. I'd like to work on them more if they can be improved.

-brian

Bill Ford · Post by **Bill Ford** » 28 Sep 2011 12:14 pm

Can't really tell how bad they are in the pictures, I beadblasted a set that looked pretty OK to me, that will clear up a lot of imperfections and you may be able to tell if they will polish out. If they are cast beadblasting may the best.
240/320/600/1000, wet sanding, then polish is the usual way to go to prep for polishing.

It looks a lot better without the shelfpaper, I would have went with a lighter stain tho.just my personal preference.
Bill

Lynn Fargo · Post by **Lynn Fargo** » 28 Sep 2011 1:24 pm

Hi Brian,
Nice job. I did something similar to my Maverick back in the 70s. I redid her in red stain and put some silver trim on her I got in the auto dept. When I upgraded to my Pro, I put the Maverick up for consignment in a local music store. The owner razzed me because he had a brandy new vinyl one there for about the same price as my 3-4 year-old girl. Guess which one sold first! I sometimes wonder where she ever ended up.

You know, despite their shortcomings, I think the Maverick had a pretty good sound. I still have some tapes of my first couple of bands and the tone of that steel is not too shabby.

Keep on pickin',
Lynn

Bud Angelotti · Post by **Bud Angelotti** » 28 Sep 2011 1:32 pm

Great resurrection ! Love those mavericks, no matter what they say !

by the way, my first car was a Maverick.

Ron Pruter · Post by **Ron Pruter** » 28 Sep 2011 2:33 pm

Hi Brian,
Nice improvement.
On buffing end plates. No easy task. You will need some form of power buffer. A stationery one is best spinning at least at 1K RPM. I borrowed the motor out of my band saw, (1/2 h.p.) Buffs pads can be purchased cheaply at Harbor Freight tools. After sanding ,as per above, Use a courser rubbing compound to start with and work your way down to very fine. The plates my have pock marks in it and there's nothing you can really do about that. Make sure you wear a hat, keep skin covered and a good quality dust mask. Alum. dust is just bad stuff. It is even associated with alzheimers. If you take this kind of time, you will have a mirror finish. Good luck. Ron

John Billings · Post by **John Billings** » 28 Sep 2011 3:39 pm

Nice job! Except for the WD-40. That stuff is worthless as a long term lube. WD means "Water Displacement," which I seriously doubt is a problem. Go to a bike shop, and get some dry Teflon stuff. I like the color! You might be able to find a local buffing/plating shop that can really spiff up the endplates.

Clyde Mattocks · Post by **Clyde Mattocks** » 29 Sep 2011 9:24 pm

If the end plates are too pitted to be buffed, spray paint them with black wrinkle paint. They'll look nice on that guitar.

Mike Wheeler · Post by **Mike Wheeler** » 1 Oct 2011 5:41 pm

John is right. It would be very worth your time to clean those parts again and re-lube with TriFlow...a great lube that will last a very long time. The WD40 will gunk up in just a few months and you'll wonder what has happened to your guitars action.

chris ivey · Post by **chris ivey** » 2 Oct 2011 9:08 am

here's another...

Brian Phillips · Post by **Brian Phillips** » 3 Oct 2011 1:00 am

Chris, that looks awesome. The wood is much prettier than mine. Was that the blonde version, or did you remove vinyl?

Brian Phillips · Post by **Brian Phillips** » 3 Oct 2011 1:07 am

John and Mike - Thanks for the word on the WD-40. I'll snag some TriFlow. Plenty of bike shops to choose from here in Austin.

chris ivey · Post by **chris ivey** » 3 Oct 2011 10:25 am

brian..it was the same as yours. a friend of mine did it , not me. i just set the pulls back up properly. it just happened to have some pretty wood underneath. yours looks great! you did a real nice job on it. these little steels have more potential than most people realize! there is alot of automotive pinstriping tape available for trim and borders.

Lynn Fargo · Post by **Lynn Fargo** » 3 Oct 2011 12:11 pm

Ok, so I dug up some old pics of the Maverick I redid. Looking at this pic, I guess I painted the endplates silver. Guess I should have polished the legs a little before I took the pic.

She didn't look too bad on stage though.

Robert Bunting · Post by **Robert Bunting** » 24 Oct 2011 4:59 pm

these are great!

do you have trouble getting your mavericks to stay in tune?
are there upgrade kits for the mechanics?

Bill Ford · Post by **Bill Ford** » 25 Oct 2011 4:56 am

Then, there was the lefty (no, the picture is not flipped) Maverick. I modified this one for a left handed friend.

Russ Tkac · Post by **Russ Tkac** » 22 Nov 2011 12:20 pm

Paul Redmond's Hot Rod Maverick looks very nice.

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Edward LeVasseur · Post by **Edward LeVasseur** » 22 Nov 2011 3:18 pm

A sunburst Maverick would be very nice

chris ivey · Post by **chris ivey** » 23 Nov 2011 9:29 am

someone's got to ask!what's the little snubby lever do? some kind of lock?

Richard Sinkler · Post by **Richard Sinkler** » 23 Nov 2011 11:05 am

I was wondering the same thing. I thought it might be a vertical that was folded out of the way, but it seems too short and it looks as though there is a vertical at the left edge of the pic (can't tell for sure).

Of course, it could be a self destruct button in case a curious banjo player (sorry b0b) sits at the guitar and tries to use the lever.

Paul Redmond · Post by **Paul Redmond** » 11 Dec 2011 7:47 pm

The stubby little lever is a lock that holds #7 in F#. I use the short Uni tuning (no D string at #9...B instead...#10 is a low G#). When I release the lock lever, the string drops to a unison E (with #8). When I raise 4 and 8 up to F, #7 also raises to F. When I drop the E's to D#, #7 goes back up to F#. When I flip the lock back up into the body, #7 goes back to its regular F# pitch. That lock allows me to play 2-octave major chords with the pedals up or down, or with the F lever and first pedal...they're all major chords. I also raise my 9th B to D on a KL which gives me a 2-octave dom. 7th chord as I tune my 2nd string to a D. I use this lock mostly for Gospel music but also use it while just comping "wide" chords behind a slow ballad.
PRR

Paul Redmond · Post by **Paul Redmond** » 30 Dec 2011 1:56 am

I apologize for the mechanical crudity displayed in the pics posted here. I actually built all the under-carriage stuff for this guitar without ever having seen a real pedal steel back in 1978 a few weeks after I purchased this guitar. To this day, the "crude" linkage works so well and so utterly accurate, that I hesitate to change a thing at this point in time. I have actually gone out and played 4-hour gigs with this little guy as you see it. "Don't mess with success".
PRR

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Updated Sho-Bud Maverick

Updated Sho-Bud Maverick

Maverick Pedal steel