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Topic: Blind Squirrel finds an Acorn or Newbie with a Sho-Bud |
Brian Hollands
From:
Geneva, FL USA
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Posted 16 Jan 2018 11:15 am |
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I knew I'd have to join if I ever bought a PSG, so here I am...
Over the weekend I picked up an LDG - that's the good. The bad is that the guitar is missing the undercarriage - but at least I could afford it!
Other than that it's complete. It has the pedals and rods, pickup, etc. The changer seems to be in good condition. It's had an aluminum neck installed. The body is unfaded and very nice. The gent who sold it to had another LDG and had just never gotten around to bringing this one back to life.
I think it's an early 80's vintage. I'm gathering that it would have had the SuperPro undercarriage. Obviously, I'll be looking for parts. The main question there is would I have to source a SuperPro style undercarriage or would any Pro 3/4 stuff work. The changer is triple raise double lower...
I've played guitar for quite a while and have wanted to start playing steel for a couple of years now but haven't ever so much as sat down behind a PSG before. I'm planning to clean this one up and string it as a console steel to start finding my way around on it. Then add pedals and knee levers in after I've scrounged up the parts.
Any thoughts on where to find parts (I know of ShoPro and gear guy on eBay) as well as any lesson material/videos that may be better given the current lack of pedals will certainly be appreciated.
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Patrick Thornhill
From:
Austin Texas, USA
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Dan Beller-McKenna
From:
Durham, New Hampshire, USA
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Posted 16 Jan 2018 11:32 am
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Welcome to the club, Brian! Can't say for sure whether you have to use Super Pro parts, but those are mostly readily available from Michael Yahl at psgparts.com (and the Ebay guy you mentioned). The changer is there, so you are already ahead of the game.
Lots of people here can help you through the rebuild when you get to it.
Have fun! |
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Brian Hollands
From:
Geneva, FL USA
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Posted 16 Jan 2018 12:24 pm
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Thanks Gents.
I'd seen Michael's name before but didn't make the connection with PSGparts.com I've been on the site and saw they have Bud parts.
I've already learned a ton from this site and a couple of associated sites - b0b's page too. This seems to be the TDPRI of the Steel world. |
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Herb Steiner
From:
Spicewood TX 78669
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Posted 16 Jan 2018 12:25 pm
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Several questions: Have the screw holes already been drilled for the undercarriage parts (Sho-Bud had a jig that delineated all the correct hole placements)? Have you ever seen a completed undercarriage, or watched one being assembled? Is there a complete LDG somewhere that you have access to? If not, and you want to try the job yourself, you're in for quite a learning experience. Simple as they may look, a steel guitar undercarriage is a pretty precise mechanism
I assume you're quite inexperienced with pedal steels. Better to send the guitar to someone who knows how to properly assemble an undercarriage. Closest to you would probably be Billy Knowles at Steel Guitar East. You can reach him here in Forumland. It will save you hours and hours of making mistakes.
_________________
My rig: Infinity and Telonics.
Son, we live in a world with walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with steel guitars. Who's gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinberg? |
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Brian Hollands
From:
Geneva, FL USA
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Posted 16 Jan 2018 12:51 pm
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Quite in experienced is putting it politely. I don't know jack...
That said, I've restored cars and done some fabrication work on race cars. I'm not too concerned about the mechanicals, rather once it's together getting it set up and adjusted properly. I'll look Billy Knowles up. I'd like to try to put everything together myself but once that's done (or I give up) it would be smart to have someone who knows make sure it's set up. I expect it'll be months to a year before I have the guitar back to fully functional. Depends on how quickly I can find parts and how much they cost.
Here's a picture of the underside. The holes are drilled and there was something under there before but whether or not its been tinkered with I simply don't have enough knowledge to determine. I can try to get some more detailed pictures if needed, this is all I've got at the moment.
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Carl Heatley
From:
Morehead City,NC
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Posted 16 Jan 2018 1:23 pm
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Where in NC are you....I can build what you need.
Carl.
Last edited by Carl Heatley on 16 Jan 2018 1:49 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Erv Niehaus
From:
Litchfield, MN, USA
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Posted 16 Jan 2018 1:25 pm
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I hope you got a good deal on that guitar.
By the time you obtain all the parts to make it whole you'll have quite an investment in it.  |
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Brian Hollands
From:
Geneva, FL USA
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Posted 16 Jan 2018 2:25 pm
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Carl, Other side of the state from you. Franklin NC way out in the mountains. I'm not ready to do anything just yet but I'll keep that in mind...
Erv, The seller said I could probably sell the pickup for what I paid for the whole guitar. He was more interested in it being brought back to it's former glory. It was basically a no-brianer and i didn't even think about haggling with the man. |
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Fred Treece
From:
California, USA
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Posted 16 Jan 2018 5:57 pm
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Prefacing my comment — I don’t really know if it is possible to string your undercarriage-less instrument, but if it is...
Definitely string it up, tune to E9, plug it in and start sliding around. You can learn about blocking, chord grips, volume pedal control, and start on developing an ear for intonation. Single note melodies, non-pedaled harmony scales...The list is long, but also realize the game changes drastically when pedals and levers are thrown into the mix.
You also might as well start saving up for instructional material by Jeff Newman, Paul Franklin, Joe Wright, Winnie Winston, or any other fantastic teachers and players who are on Skype or do live lessons. And not leastly, always scour the Forum’s search function first with any questions you have, because chances are good your answers are already here. |
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Kevin Mincke
From:
Farmington, MN (Twin Cities-South Metro) USA
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Posted 16 Jan 2018 8:58 pm
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| Is this the guitar Alex Johnson in Texas had for sale? Lots of good advice given already. You bought it right, I was looking at it as well. I would send it to Jeff Surratt at Show Pro and have him put it back to as close to original or have it upgraded with ShowPro undercarriage. I e got a Super Pro I’ e been trying to put back together with original parts & they’re hard to find. The LDG is worth it to be done right. |
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Bobby D. Jones
From:
West Virginia, USA
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Posted 16 Jan 2018 9:47 pm A Blind Squirrel Finds an Acorn or a Newby gets a Showbud.
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| Beautiful guitar from the top. Now to fill under the hood. Get Mr. Green's Copendent, It is here on the SGF. And then do you restore it to Original? or use more modern square cross rods, and bell cranks with more holes for easier timing Raises and lowers? Decision Time. Good Luck on this project of rebuilding this Baby. |
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Brian Hollands
From:
Geneva, FL USA
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Posted 17 Jan 2018 6:06 am
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I bought the guitar from Allen Holiday in Shelby NC. He'd bought it in it's current condition as I understand from "an 80 year old man about 15 years ago".
Allen may be a former member here. He had been on the forum at least. He still plays and has another LDG along with a very nice little studio.
He told me to look up Jeff Newmans stuff as he'd found that very good years ago - he said he'd been playing for nearly 40 years...
Really nice guy - seems most in the PSG community are and are very willing to help.
I took the changer apart and cleaned it last night. The guitar has been played but the fingers seemed mostly in good shape. One had a bend in one lower finger where the rods attach, another looked like both lower holes had been drilled out for a larger diameter rod??? One finger also had a bit of slop at the rivet where it attached to the raise finger. I'm not sure how much slop there is acceptable. I'd guess it had a total of maybe .010" movement. Re-peening it may tighten that up.
I've got to check the pickup and re-mount it. May try to do that today but it snowed so the roads are pretty bad at the moment. I need to get some screws, spacers (for between the bobbin ends, and I think I'll put some threaded inserts into the body as the wood is stripped/oversize in the existing holes.
I love these little bits of data you guys drop - I didn't know that Lloyd Greens copedent was different, although I gather there's lots of different preferences for the knee levers. I'll look it up. The search feature has already been helpful.
As far as originality, I'm thinking this one is more of a "player" grade given the missing parts and aluminum neck. I'll see what I can find to get it back together but job one is just to make it work. If it was a real early model I'd probably be more concerned about originality but at this point I think I'm closer to beggar than chooser... |
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Richard Sinkler
From:
aka: Rusty Strings -- Missoula, Montana
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Posted 17 Jan 2018 7:11 am
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Lloyd's setup:
https://b0b.com/tunings/green.htm
_________________
Carter D10 8p/8k, Dekley S10 3p/4k C6 setup,Regal RD40 Dobro, NV400, NV112 . Playing for 54 years and still counting. |
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