Sho Bud Pro 1? Advice welcome & needed!

Christopher Hillman · Post by **Christopher Hillman** » 24 Mar 2015 9:33 am

Not sure what Iâ€™ve bought hereâ€¦ or where to start. Its some sort of Sho Bud Pro1 I think?

The mechanism doesnâ€™t seem very standard at all and Iâ€™m treating it as a project guitar. Iâ€™m not bothered about it not being original... Iâ€™ve played a few and the sound is beautiful so, I think itâ€™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 Â½ a tone
2) 5th String down Â½ a tone
3) 5th String down Â½ a tone
4) 3rd String down Â½ a tone
5) 5th String down Â½ a tone
6) 4th String up Â½ a tone
7) 5th String up Â½ a tone & 9th String down Â½ a tone

6th & 7th String up Â½ a tone
9) 7th String down Â½ a tone

Havenâ€™t even started on the 5 Knee Levers.

As I play universal, Iâ€™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 upâ€¦ 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 donâ€™t need it in a rush and Iâ€™ve build B benders and little things from scratch.

I bought it from Frank Peters family (UK). 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

Dan Beller-McKenna · Post by **Dan Beller-McKenna** » 24 Mar 2015 10:11 am

Ricky Davis · Post by **Ricky Davis** » 24 Mar 2015 10:56 am

That is all shobud except for the pulling system underneath and pedals. Looks homemade and looks like it might work fine.

Richard Sinkler · Post by **Richard Sinkler** » 24 Mar 2015 11:06 am

Really nice.

Skip Edwards · Post by **Skip Edwards** » 24 Mar 2015 11:11 am

Wow... You win the award for having the most pedals on a S10 Bud...and a 10 stringer, at that.

Lane Gray · Post by **Lane Gray** » 24 Mar 2015 11:43 am

It's a shame that they discarded the pullers and barrels and hex-head rods. With that many pedals, the old system would have been fully flexible.
I agree with Ricky, it should work.
It looks home made, but by someone who knew what they were doing.
If its previous owners were British (you didn't say where you got it from), I bet the British Steelies Society would know who did it.

Ron Pruter · Post by **Ron Pruter** » 24 Mar 2015 12:21 pm

Ricky,
The tapered knee levers, the pullers, the keepers (pull rod to bell crank), the 1/2 inch crossrods, those big pillow block bearings, are all ShoBud ? From what era? RP

Dan Beller-McKenna · Post by **Dan Beller-McKenna** » 24 Mar 2015 2:58 pm

Very interesting stopping mechanism on the knee levers.

Christopher Hillman · Post by **Christopher Hillman** » 24 Mar 2015 4:14 pm

Sorry yeah it its been in the UK for at least 30 years i think. I think Ronnie Bennett who makes steels over here did all the work underneath. The guy who sold it to me had a Bennett pedal steel as well and they looked very identical.

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

Is it a pro one body do we think? i assumed it would say pro 1 unless they all didn't?

Whats the best way to sort out the basic ABC and Levers? Is there anything i can follow... i've got my Excel to reference... not sure what the done way is in this situation.

Skip Edwards · Post by **Skip Edwards** » 24 Mar 2015 4:30 pm

It looks like it may have been refinished, so the ProI decal might be long gone.
For a short time around '75 Sho-Bud also made a version of the S10 that was called a 6139, and had the squarefront body, 3/2 changer, as well as 2 hole pullers with nylon tuners.
Basically it was a ProI with one less knee lever and minus the decal.
Whatever... it's a pretty cool gtr.

Christopher Hillman · Post by **Christopher Hillman** » 24 Mar 2015 4:38 pm

That might be this then. I have noticed its a lot more square then the pro1s i've seen.
Also not seen a sho bud with this colour and the shobud pattern/decal... so i thought maybe its been refinished .

I've very happy though

Glad its getting positive feedback

Ian Worley · Post by **Ian Worley** » 24 Mar 2015 8:46 pm

There is a description of various Sho~Bud models through the years re-posted here: http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopi ... 90#2342990. I thought that 6139 only applied the older (early '70s) round front S-10s but I'm not certain of that. Ricky Davis could respond to that more authoritatively.

It is from that transitional time around '75 where there were some mix-and-match combinations of parts. The body has the older rope style inlay (not diamond), but the newer square front. As suggested above, the guitar has very likely been refinished, and the decal simply not replaced.

Skip Edwards · Post by **Skip Edwards** » 24 Mar 2015 11:25 pm

Yeah, it's one of the stranger things that Sho-bud did, having two almost identical S10's.
Both models were almost identical...squarefront bodies - same body, actually - same changer, pickup, undercarriage, everything. The only difference was the ProI came stock with 2 knee levers and the decal, while the 6139 had one KL and no decal. They soon figured out that they didn't need 2 S10's and the 6139 was discontinued.
And you're right... the 6139 badge was carried over from the older, roundfront, rack & barrel S10's, unofficially known as a single neck Professional.
I've still got the one that I bought new in '72.

Ricky Davis · Post by **Ricky Davis** » 25 Mar 2015 9:03 am

Yeah I'll go early '75.
Ron there is NOTHING underneath that is Shobud except the Changer and lower and raise springs and that bracket. Everything up top is shobud...not not one piece of the pulling system underneath is shobud.
Ricky

Ron Pruter · Post by **Ron Pruter** » 25 Mar 2015 2:18 pm

Sorry Rick. Misread ya. Thought you said underneath the pedals

Christopher Hillman · Post by **Christopher Hillman** » 25 Mar 2015 5:13 pm

Heres an update on the steel.

I've spent about 3 hours on it tonight. Started by taking off the mechanism for the 8 & 9th pedals and de cluttering the body of random rods etc... long story short i've now got A & B pedals.

I've changed the bottom 2 strings to B and G# with pulls on both them... nearly universal if you like. Makes sense to me.

Very happy with this... hopefully tomorrow I'll get the C pedal and something else done.

The A pedal has to travel a bit further than the B and tricky to press down though. whats the best way of raising it? The threaded end of the rod cant go any further... quite like the hight of the B... if not i guess i could lower the B to match.

Lane Gray · Post by **Lane Gray** » 25 Mar 2015 5:33 pm

The A pedal normally travels farther than the B.
Normally, we adjust pedal height so that the two are about the same height at the bottom of the travel.

Christopher Hillman · Post by **Christopher Hillman** » 26 Mar 2015 6:46 am

Struggling with the idea of fitting the E raise (F lever)... the 4th string raise is taken up with the C pedal 4th string raise. need to use the same rod to do both and put a stop half way down for the lever?

anyway here is the first two pedals.... me just messing about and getting used to the string spacing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXgytro ... QMnrrIt3dQ

Earnest Bovine · Post by **Earnest Bovine** » 26 Mar 2015 7:40 am

Sounds gorgeous! But how anyone can play with no D string is beyond me.

Christopher Hillman · Post by **Christopher Hillman** » 26 Apr 2015 1:28 pm

An update on this steel. I've managed to turn it into a 10 String Universal. It has 6 Pedals, ABC and 5 (F lower) 6 (E raise D Lower) 7 (C# but not quite A#) from the Uni tuning.

Struggling to get my Pedal "7" A#/C# raise to work. I used the same C# rod as the "C" pedal, then used the Pedal stop to fine tune the Pedal. The only problem is I cant get the A# which has its own rod and nylon tuner to move enough to do the full tone raise... any ideas?

I need to do a half step/full step 2nd string lower and 1st string raise next.

Chris

Heres the mechanism below. The two bell cracks above the spring, in the middle are for the pedal in question.

Tim Russell · Post by **Tim Russell** » 26 Apr 2015 2:31 pm

I've always loved Sho~Buds, this one is just beautiful. Not sure if I've seen that color before, but it is breathtaking.

Christopher Hillman · Post by **Christopher Hillman** » 27 Apr 2015 7:15 am

Yeah not sure if its just faded Tim, Its a bit darker at the back and with the white logo... i assume it was a dark steel or been refinished. either way, its staying that way

chris ivey · Post by **chris ivey** » 27 Apr 2015 6:43 pm

Ron Pruter wrote:Ricky,
The tapered knee levers, the pullers, the keepers (pull rod to bell crank), the 1/2 inch crossrods, those big pillow block bearings, are all ShoBud ? From what era? RP

no, they're not. that's some nice looking hardware. plenty to make a cool setup with.

Tom Gorr · Post by **Tom Gorr** » 27 Apr 2015 8:28 pm

Re: Question on pulls. ... what string gauges are you using. ...Btw... sweet axe!

Christopher Hillman · Post by **Christopher Hillman** » 28 Apr 2015 2:42 am

Tom, not sure right now. The guy i bought it off had replaced the strings with what seem like a usual E9th pack. I'll probably experiment with a universal pack minus the last two strings.

Chris, its all made by Ronnie Bennett, i;m pretty sure. I dont understand what they changed the levers as i assume it would have had some anyway. maybe he liked Ronnies work better... he had a Bennett steel for sale too.