Introduction + Shobud Fingertip

Alistair McLean · Post by **Alistair McLean** » 15 Jan 2013 1:32 am

Hi everybody,

I'm a long time guitarist, short term lap steel player and very new to the game pedal steel player from Melbourne Australia. It seems like a great forum here, and I'm looking forward to being a part of it.

I've wanted to learn to play pedal for years, but due to a lack of instruments in Australia (and a lack of time and money), I've never had the opportunity.
In a good twist of fate I got paid out for a bunch of gigs at the same time as a pretty cheap pedal steel came up for sale, which I jumped on.

It was all I could really afford, and I think it was at a great price, but it's going to need some work so I thought I could this thread to document my restoration attempt on the guitar.

To the best of my knowledge after a lot of searches on this forum, it's a mid 60's dual neck ShoBud Fingertip, which seems to get a lot of great reviews for it's sound, and some pretty hit or miss reviews based on it's playability and setup.

To start with- some pics of it as it arrived to me in the post.

Alistair McLean · Post by **Alistair McLean** » 15 Jan 2013 1:48 am

Obviously it had a few issues straight up- #1 that one of the pickups was smashed in transit!
This is perhaps the most frustrating part, but I'm passing an insurance claim on so hopefully I'll be able to replace it with something as similar as possible. I've taken the parts to a great pickup winder in Australia, but he has said without the plastic casing, it's almost impossible to replicate something that will suit the guitar.

The undercarriage is also a complete mess- an odd setup, bit's of filthy, rusted bent wire everywhere, and not much logic. Fortunately it shipped with a whole lot of spare parts, including around 20 good condition pull rods, so that should be solvable in the future.

It also has a funny issue I'm not sure what to do about, in that the knee levers only seem to have bars across the E9 neck. Is this usual for a Fingertip steel of this age? It would be great to have access to both the C6 and E9 neck with the knee levers, so I'm going to have to look into this. One of the knee levers is also snapped, so I'll need to find a replacement or weld it back together.

Anyhow, it was also just filthy and needed rewiring as well, so I decided after a 50 year career it was time to completely overhaul the steel.
I stripped all the parts off (with a lot of very careful photos and videos so I know how to reassemble everything!), and gave all of the metal parts a bath in vinegar to remove some off the surface rust, and then gave them a good scrubbing and coated them all in WD40 to stop rust and aid in lubrication.
This seemed to work very well, and a lot of the parts are looking fantastic now. I'm currently in the process of polishing the large aluminium pieces with some Purple Polish to bring out the shine again, which is working fantastically.
I'll post some pics of that as well.

The body itself was in pretty gross condition, and had some splits starting to form underneath the pickup surrounds. I've removed all the lacquer with a combination of paint stripper and sanding, which has worked fantastically. The wood underneath is beautiful, particularly the brazilian rosewood fingerboards and inlays.
All of the woodwork was overseen by a good friend of mine who makes fantastic drum kits (http://moodydrums.com) and is generally a bit of a genius when it comes to wood. We've discussed finishing options, and he is going to spray it with nitrocellulose lacquer with a very light stain, to really show off the natural beauty of the wood while keeping it in a stain very similar to how it would have left ShoBud 50 years ago.

Before-

After sanding- the inlays look great! The lighter patch on the top of the fingerboard appears to be some filler that we will have to stain darker to match the rosewood before spraying.

Alistair McLean · Post by **Alistair McLean** » 15 Jan 2013 1:51 am

And that's about where I'm up to now.
Over the next few weeks I'm going to print up some ShoBud decals similar to the ones I removed, finish polishing the metal, and get the body sprayed and done.

From there I can begin reassembling and start planning out a logical set up for the instrument. Hope you guys enjoy the progress over the next couple of months!

Alan Bidmade · Post by **Alan Bidmade** » 15 Jan 2013 3:00 am

Interesting! You are a brave man to strip a psg down without prior experience. I get a nosebleed if I even look at a screwdriver so this kind of project is beyond me. A couple of words of (limited) advice - the general consensus among psg players is to keep WD40 well away from any moving parts - it may be ok to clean parts, but it appears to gather dust and crud and over time completely gunges up moving parts... so don't use it when re-assembling.
As far as decals go, have a look on Bobby Seymour's website (www.steelguitar.net) as he stocks Sho-Bud decals. Good luck and keep us posted. I'm sure it will look fantastic when completed.

Alistair McLean · Post by **Alistair McLean** » 15 Jan 2013 3:08 am

Hi Alan,

Thanks for the reply. I'm using WD40 just to stop rusting on the parts. I've noticed that the thumbscrews in particular rust up very quickly.

For lubrication I'll likely use sewing machine oil, as that's what I use in my tape delay units and reel to reels as it doesn't gum up.

Thanks for the link on the decals, I'll look into that.

Bud Angelotti · Post by **Bud Angelotti** » 15 Jan 2013 4:32 am

You're a brave soul Al !
Sometimes, you gotta do it yourself.
Go get it !

Aaron Goldstein · Post by **Aaron Goldstein** » 15 Jan 2013 6:27 am

Wow, a cool project and indeed brave to do this kind of work on a fingertip. But you're clearly doing it right and you're going to have an outstanding guitar in the end. Way to go, looking forward to more progress pics.

Bent Romnes · Post by **Bent Romnes** » 15 Jan 2013 9:06 am

Al what a great project you have started! I wish I could have something like this to work on during quiet moments. We learn so much from something like this. Good luck!

Bob Muller · Post by **Bob Muller** » 15 Jan 2013 5:18 pm

Hello Alistair, congratulations on your new fingertip project. As a first suggestion read the following post in full, if you have not already done so.

Shobud Fingertips--subtle differences got a picture??
[ Goto page: 1 ... 12, 13,

I have five of the fingertip guitars, I feel they are one of the nicest vintage Sho-Buds available. I have done restorations on two of them so far, nothing really difficult about it, just takes a lot of time and yes it must be done before the guitar will be useful to you. It looks like you have a good start on the restoration, the cabinet should be completely stripped, very lightly stained on top, re-lacquered with new decals which should be available. You will find that James Morehead, and Ricky Davis are extremely knowledgeable in these guitars, I also have quite a bit of experience working on these guitars. James can probably also help you with parts for this guitar if you should need them, I believe that Michael Yahl is also making some parts for these now also. The one thing that you stated you have used a WD-40 on this guitar, DO NOT DO THIS!!! Flush out all of the parts and re-oil with a lightweight oil, again NO WD-40!! It will give you grief in the long run. You can have your original pickups rewound if you wish, I think a better option would just be to install new True Tones. If you use the new pickups will probably need to make new mounting plates, the originals are very crude, but you can make them work. When you are finished you will have a very nice vintage guitar, with a great tone. Playing it is going to be something like driving a restored 58 Corvette versus driving a new model. However the 58 is still a very beautiful machine, and will draw crowd anywhere you go. Another good update for this guitar would be to re-Rod with new rodding and connect the rods to the changer with a new style spring clips which are available. This will remove a lot of slop in the mechanism. Here are a couple photos of one I restored just like yours.

Good luck on the project, and be sure to keep us posted on your progress. If you would like to talk about it I have Skype up and running, if you have that capability we could give that a whirl. Again good luck with your project.

Alistair McLean · Post by **Alistair McLean** » 16 Jan 2013 3:13 pm

Thanks everybody for the encouragement!

Bob- beautiful photos, hopefully mine will turn out something like that!
I'm sure I'll definitely take you up on the Skype offer in the future when I get stuck with something.
2 quick questions- is there any issue with using WD40 on non moving parts? Such as the thumbscrews or screws themselves? I've always found it's great to stop rust. For all moving parts I'm intending to use sewing machine oil for lubrication.
Secondly, could you suggest a source for the 'new style clips'? I'd love to have a look at them to see whether I could afford to do that upgrade at the same time.
Should I be looking at something like these clips- http://www.psgparts.com/Spring-Retainin ... -ROD-1.htm

Thanks again everyone!

John Billings · Post by **John Billings** » 16 Jan 2013 4:09 pm

That's Roxatone paint on the underside. From a Canadian firm, and distributed by Sherwin Williams. But yours looks to be in good shape. James Morehead can tell you how to clean it, and set you up parts and advice-wise.

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 16 Jan 2013 5:02 pm

It's unfortunate that this is your first pedal steel, because it's going to be a while before you get round to playing it. You've taken on a big project. As Bob said, get yourself a pair of True Tone pickups. Good luck, and be sure to post pictures showing progress as you work on it.

John Billings · Post by **John Billings** » 16 Jan 2013 5:15 pm

I got a Fingertip pup off ebay, for a great price. They're out there.

James Morehead · Post by **James Morehead** » 16 Jan 2013 10:01 pm

A good link to gather info. Just holler if you want to ever talk about fingertips, They are a passion of mine. Enjoy your project, Allstair.

http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=127037

Benjamin Franz · Post by **Benjamin Franz** » 17 Jan 2013 1:18 pm

Geez, look forward to seeing that floating around Melbourne.

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 17 Jan 2013 1:22 pm

My first pedal steel was a fingertip Sho~Bud.
I traded it off because I couldn't keep it in tune.
A local Sho~Bud rep., Al Udeen, wound up with it and he got rid of it too because he couldn't keep it in tune.

Good Luck!

James Morehead · Post by **James Morehead** » 17 Jan 2013 1:55 pm

Hummm, I must be doing something wrong, mine stays in tune.

Sorry you had a bad experience, Erv.

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 17 Jan 2013 2:01 pm

James,
You must have gotten a good one.

John Billings · Post by **John Billings** » 17 Jan 2013 2:26 pm

Mine also stays in tune. If the threads on the roller tuning nuts seem loose, try a little bit of violin rosin rubbed onto the threaded screw.

Alan Berdoulay · Post by **Alan Berdoulay** » 17 Jan 2013 3:36 pm

I have James's old 67 fingertip.......works like a charm.

Bob Muller · Post by **Bob Muller** » 17 Jan 2013 6:22 pm

I also think the Fingertip stays in tune very well, I have several differant brands here and the Fingertip stays in tune with the best of them if it is in good repair to start with.

Alistair McLean · Post by **Alistair McLean** » 17 Jan 2013 9:24 pm

John Billings wrote:That's Roxatone paint on the underside.

Thanks for the info- I was confused when I first got it as it looks like odd chipboard, and I couldn't find the join lines between the solid wood top and chipboard bottom. My friend who is helping me refinish it realised it was some sort of spray paint/coating. Pretty ugly stuff!

Reading though the big Fingertip thread now. Some good info in there!

John Billings · Post by **John Billings** » 18 Jan 2013 6:44 am

http://roxatone.com/

Bob Muller · Post by **Bob Muller** » 18 Jan 2013 10:00 am

Alistair, I removed the paint from the underside of mine and finished it natural. It is solid wood, but you will have to sand it smooth first if you want to do this.

Alistair McLean · Post by **Alistair McLean** » 12 Feb 2013 3:07 am

Hi everybody-

Well, sanding/refinishing took a little bit longer than I hoped, but I think it's turned out pretty well. Nice to compare these pics to the pics in the first thread!

Now it's on to getting the guitar playable, so I'll probably be asking for some help soon! I need a new pickup obviously, plus a replacement knee lever. I've also got to rewire all of the electronics in the guitar, and I'm assuming I'll find some more parts that need replacing as it goes along.