My Pedal Steel Project - Nightmare. What would you do?

[Dan Behringer]

So…I bought a Wilcox D10 that was originally built for my late father about 18 years ago. He never got it to work at all, and I never knew why. He wouldn’t let me help him with it, and he eventually bought a Sho Bud and sold the Wilcox. I heard it was up for sale so I went and bought it for a project. For $600 I figured I could at least get one neck working and get my money back. I’m now thinking I was wrong.

First issue – The changer mounting blocks were designed to be bolted through from the bottom but Mr. Wilcox had cut the holes for the changers too wide and there was no wood left for the bolts. He drilled out the mounting blocks from the top and attempted to use decking screws at an angle to hold the changers in place.
The wood under the C6th changer was all busted up, so there was no hope for that neck. I was able to mount the front changer with two machine screws, thru-bolted with a large hand-made washer on one; the other actually went through a lip on the end plate. I know this is Mickey Mouse but it’s the only possibility.

Second issue – With the strings on, the all-pull changer fingers scissored all the way back because there were no stops for the raise fingers. Not only that, I had to make the return springs as there was no way to buy any the right size.

What I did – Since I was planning on only four strings being lowered, the other six strings I riveted the raise fingers and lowering fingers together. That way they act like one piece, similar to a pull- release system.
The other four, I cut some sheet metal and welded extensions to the raise fingers at the bottom so they would contact the same stop as the lower fingers. All I have is a stick welder so I did the best I could and ground out the imperfections. After a couple of attempts I finally found the right size piano wire for the return springs.
I eventually realized that I didn’t have the parts to install a reversing knee lever to lower the 2nd and 9th strings but the changer will work for that set-up.
So….What I ended up with is a SD 10 with 3 pedals and 2 knee levers. This thing actually works! I think I went over every single piece of this guitar 6 times and got it working as smooth and quiet as humanly possible. The rollers on the nut were all cut different sizes and I measured each one and sorted them like a gauged roller system and that seems to have worked perfectly. The only issue is when you lower the E’s they return ½ a cent off from perfect, which is pretty much undetectable when you’re playing.
My dilemma now is that I really don’t feel it would be ethical to sell a piece of crap like this. While I believe I could keep it working for years to come, it could turn into a nightmare for anyone else. What would you do?

[Pete Burak]

It sounds maybe like the type of Steel a guy could keep around to have for a new Student to play???
fwiw, I started on a Steel with 3 pedals and 1 knee lever.
There are other threads about this brand, if you do a search.
Maybe you can post more pics of the screwed up stuff?

[Dennis Montgomery]

While I believe I could keep it working for years to come, it could turn into a nightmare for anyone else. What would you do?

I've been on both sides of similar pedal steel situations before. Bought lemons, sold lemons. Unfortunately, a couple of the lemons I bought the seller was not honest about what a mess they were...by the time I realized I'd been taken, I had no recourse...oh well. I'd explain everything you did in this thread as part of the forsale ad...full disclosure. Make clear it's a project guitar for someone mechanically experienced and not meant for a beginner

[K Maul]

It looks real pretty from a distance.

[Pete Burak]

I presumed you want to keep cuz it was your Dads. I would put it in a room in my house with a Steel Seat and an Amp, and just play Dads Steel from time to time, maybe give someone a beginner lesson on it, etc...

[Bob Carlucci]

Does it have serious sentimental value to you?
If so, keep it around, play it now and then, and enjoy it..
OTHERWISE-

Sell it real cheap, is your best option.. tell folks all its problems, and just eat the money you lose on it.. Gotta be worth a few hundred anyway.

There are a LOT of guys here with fantastic mechanical and woodworking ability that would fill those holes, redrill correctly, get the changer mounted solid, and devise workarounds for any other problems encountered.. There are guys that will buy it no question in my mind, but would want it real cheap, understandably..

I would sell it for whatever I could get, eat the rest and be DONE with it. Done it many times over the years .. I sold a really nice round front Bud once for like $400.. Could NOT get that thing to stay in tune, and had no idea why.. I sold it to a young guy with full disclosure.. lost a ton of money, but you know what?, that just happens sometimes.. Sell it cheap, disclose fully, wish the buyer well, and get out of it... bob

[Dan Behringer]

There’s no sentimental value, like I said Dad couldn’t get the guitar to work. I’m guessing he didn’t want me to know he was took to the cleaners on it. We knew Chet Wilcox personally and I still find it hard to believe Chet would have sold something in this shape.
Maybe I’ll hold on to it for a couple years and someone might come along and buy it. If that doesn’t work I might part it out and get a few dollars out of the pieces.
Here’s a pic of the changer as it is now.

[Bill Hatcher]

i liked chet wilcox. he never represented his steels as anything more than what they were...just his own makings. i had a couple of his lap steels and they sounded nice and were not very much money. i just upgraded what i didnt like and made them better than they were.....sort of what you have done.

edit. i see the cracked wood around the C6 neck. i had a carter guitar that broke in exactly the same place. best way to fix that is to take a router and rout through the crack and splice maple into it. usually the stress will warp the crack open and glue just wont hold maple together under that much stress. worked great on the carter i had.

[Dennis Montgomery]

Maybe I’ll hold on to it for a couple years and someone might come along and buy it. If that doesn’t work I might part it out and get a few dollars out of the pieces.

Rather than part it out, I'd stabilize the changer, replace the strings, tune it to C6 and sell it as a 10 string console steel. I've done that twice with nightmare pedal steels, one the buyer left and still plays as a console and the other completely rebuilt and got it working

[Larry Baker]

f.w.i.w. If I'm not mistaking, Jefferson County Music just south of St. Louis has these steels now,
but perhaps with a different name on them???

[Damir Besic]

I have never seen a D10 Wilcox , or S10 for that matter, every Wilcox steel I’ve ever seen was SD10 ... I don’t know what this is ...

[Dan Behringer]

Dennis – That’s genuinely good idea converting it to a C6th and something I hadn’t thought of. I’ll keep that in mind!

Larry – I don’t believe JCM is still building steels. I haven’t seen any for sale in a long time, not even on their website. Anyway, I’m done throwing money at this thing.

[K Maul]

A console C6 with no pedals but one or two knee levers can be useful. I built something like that out of old Shobud and Miller parts and got a cool looking, easily portable instrument that I use in a 40s-50s Honkytonk/Swing band. It has C6 pedals 5 and 6 (the standard second and third pedals) on knee levers.

[Craig A Davidson]

I remember Wilcox guitars. Chet brought them to a couple of the first Northeast Iowa Shows. They were rather crude at the time because he was making everything by hand. Later on he built some really nice decent guitars.

[Donny Hinson]

i see the cracked wood around the C6 neck. i had a carter guitar that broke in exactly the same place. best way to fix that is to take a router and rout through the crack and splice maple into it. usually the stress will warp the crack open and glue just wont hold maple together under that much stress. worked great on the carter i had.

I don't know why all guitars don't have a spline installed in this area when they're built.

[Larry Bressington]

What about padding out the area with wood glue and wood filler, or (add some wood and shim it), let it set for a week and re drill mounting holes. It looks like a nice guitar, they can work wonders these days with wood and glue, always drill tap your holes in wood before screwing them in ...i would not throw the towel in on this project.

Where the C6 changer is cracked, that is definatly repairable, a long dowel rod can be inserted from the rear, remove changer and endplate, drill through from rear, glue in dowel rod.

[Donny Hinson]

Another idea would be to just part it out. You'd probably only make a few hundred doing so, but there'd be no guilt (or blame, in the future) about saddling someone else with a lemon.

[Dustin Rigsby]

That’s a very early Wilcox. Chet built a few D-10’s . Those early guitars were pretty crude. I had an early SD-10 and a later S-10. The S-10 was a much better guitar. I would keep that as a house guitar.