What do you supposed is the most common fate of steels?

[Duane Reese]

Obviously not every steel that has ever been built is still alive today, as we've seen some die in house fires, but what is the most common cause of death for a steel guitar? For an individual instrument, a steel is a pretty serious affair, and not exactly the kind of thing that I could see someone throwing in the trash when it's too old or worn out, if they even did wear out.

Of all the (pedal) steels that have been crafted over the past several decades, what percentage survives do you think? What happens to the ones that don't?

[Jim Cohen]

I think they all end up in Havana, like all the old '50s Chevys...

[b0b]

They get resold on Ebay, unfortunately. I have to wonder how many new players get discouraged and give up after buying a worn-out old pedal steel. Then they sell it to another clueless beginner.

[Ray Montee (RIP)]

I've discovered more steels that have been butchered beyond belief by someone that tho't they were a much better mechanic or engineer than in actuality, they were.

So sad............

[Kevin Hatton]

Check your local lake or creek bottom. I'm sure there are some there thrown in by discouraged newbees. They are next to the golf clubs.

[Bill L. Wilson]

The old line comes to mind, "what do you throw a drowning steel player? " "BOTH HIS AMPS"

[John Scanlon]

Death? Or fate? Those seem to be two different questions. Being resold on eBay (or on here) doesn't seem to be the ultimate fate to me, and certainly not the death. I feel like I see way more instruments go to advanced guys than beginners here.

[CrowBear Schmitt]

could a majority just end up in a closet, under the bed or in an attic until an estate sale brings them back to life ?

would be kool for some to go to inner city musical programs

[Eric Philippsen]

I think Crowbear is right about a lot of older steel guitars. That is, they end up in closets, basements, under the bed, etc., until some family member decides to clean house, make more room or make some money. Additionally, a percentage are lost to fire, flood or even the trash heap.

[Dick Wood]

The Judge gave'em to all my Ex's.

[Gene Jones]

Steel guitars that survive the players death are an enigma to those who must dispose of their collection.

Standard guitars, even dobros, are somewhat understood by the non-musician public.....but, a pedal steel guitar is a momentous question mark.

First, no non-musician heir knows what to do with a pedal steel guitar. They can't even disassemble it to put it in it's case, much less know enough to sell it. So, someone comes forward and offers to buy at a price a little above a dobro with a broken neck, and they think they have made a great deal.

All steel guitar players with a sense of responsibility should dispose of their gear while they are still alive. I am trying to do that.

[Dennis Coelho]

Or at least leave behind printed instructions on (dis-) assembly, packing and sales value. And directions to the SGF site.

[Jim Pitman]

Dennis and Gene, I've thought about the same thing.
I've got some history/provinonce(sp?) for the several instruments I own not just PSGs that will die with me. Thought of adding an addendum to the will with history/stories/mods/whatever so my kids can answer questions if and when they decide to sell them.

[Dennis Coelho]

Whatever you want to go to some certain person or place, you should make that gift while you can.

No matter what your relatives assure will happen to your stuff once you are gone, they will make decisions based on their own needs and ideas.

I've been "loaning" instruments to younger students with the intent that they keep them, and I've been selling other stuff so as to that leave that for others to do. Same with books and tools.

[Richard Sinkler]

The Judge gave'em to all my Ex's.

[Chris Boyd]

I have a description,history and the approx value of all my instruments(updated every few years) stored in their cases...amps too..in the event of a sale or my death,the info is readily available..

[Stuart Legg]

They die but they live on as organ donors.
My Sho-Bud has had several transplants.

[John Russell]

Many years ago someone here told me of seeing a frustrated steel player picking up his guitar and setting it in a fire place (with a roaring fire burning). The person was a pretty well known band leader here who had heard and played with some of the best players in Nashville. I was then a pretty inexperienced steel guitarist so I took it as a subtle hint. Fortunately, I kept playing and now I stay pretty busy gigging.

[b0b]

My first pedal steel was horrible, a Hise with two legs that screwed into the case/pedalbar. It broke strings like mad and refused to stay in tune. When I'd had my fill of it, I dissembled it and hitch-hiked across the US, leaving a piece of it everywhere I stuck out my thumb.

[Chris Boyd]

Too funny Bob... love it !

[Ned McIntosh]

Old steels - really old steels, as well as those affected by the economic down-turn - end up in the pedal-steel boneyards in Arizona, not far from the Davis-Monthan aircraft recycling facility.

A few - the best of the best - are preserved, wrapped in plastic, transparent areas sprayed with Spraylat, waiting mute and patient for the time they are refurbished and sold to new owners. These are generally the newer models, less than fifty years old, with fewer than 45,000 playing-hours on them, or less than 45,000 cycles (a cycle is a complete assembly-play-disassembly cycle).

Older steels are "parted-out". Pedal rods can be reclaimed for various uses. Fretboards and machine-heads are quite valuable for the secondhand market. Old pickups are especially prized, and skilled technicians reclaim them, test them, measure their impedance, clean them up and sell them to the steel refurbishers for use in new or refurbished steels when that "vintage sound" is required.

Old cabinets which are beyond repair are broken into smaller pieces and used for a number of different purposes, depending on the type and figure in the wood. One well-known builder of custom banjo-bridges prizes certain hardwoods from old steel-guitars. Wood-turners and craftsmen also recycle this wood. Not much of the cabinet is actually wasted. Cabinets which are in good condition are bought by steel re-builders and totally re-worked. Some very fine steels have resulted from this.

Undercarriage components can be scrapped or recycled, depending on the brand and demand for parts. A lot of old Emmons push-pulls benefit from this lucrative market, and the pot-metal Sho-Buds likewise can be extensively refurbished using reclaimed parts from other Buds. Aluminium bellcranks, stop-collars etc can be smelted and recycled into soft-drink cans, and steel can also be re-melted. Clips, bushes, split-pins, clamps, set-screws and such smaller items are usually salvaged and dumped into scrap-bins. On weekends, hobbyists scrounge through these and buy items of interest, usually by weight rather than unit-price.

Old steel-guitar strings are also reclaimed - you'd be surprised what diverse uses can be found for precision-drawn steel wire. Small "mom-n-pop" workshops near the guitar scrapyards strip off the windings, sort and measure the wires, then surface-polish them or cut them into lengths according to the end-user's requirements. Even the brass ball-ends are capable of being re-used, after tumbling to clean them and being graded into sizes and diameters.

Larger components - pedal-racks, pedals, legs, end-plates etc can be re-used after reconditioning, or sent for melting and re-casting or other reprocessing.

What's left usually isn't much, and is dumped in landfill or burnt.

So, if ever you are fortunate enough to visit the aircraft boneyard in Arizona, take the short trip further down the road and swing by the steel-guitar scrapyards. There you'll see serried ranks of decrepit Dekleys, ranks of sun-bleached MSAs, row upon row of tattered Sho-Buds. In another area you'll find all the old Emmons - you can't miss it, there's an overhead sign which says "Emmons, not Lemons!" Just behind this is a smaller section devoted to BMIs, ZBs and Russlers. Adjacent to this is a larger section with a miscellany of old steels; Domland, Blantons, the occasional BosSan, maybe a CLR or two, rarely even a very old, battered Bigsby totally beyond repair. Here is where the old steels come to die, crunched up by large power-tools, bandsaws, air-hammers and hydraulic presses.

In another section, neatly arranged in rows, are the more modern steels, those which have a good chance of life again as an instrument or which are rich in salvageable parts. You'll see examples of GFIs, Carters, JCHs (only a few), newer MSAs, perhaps a Bethel or two, Derbys, Desert Rose, MCI and EMCIs, plus several other brands, some instantly recognisable, others with their identities deliberately removed.

As you walk amidst the steels, listen carefully to the wind singing in the strings. Is that the sound of a ghostly John Hughey? Wasn't that an Emmons lick you just heard? Was there a hint of Ralph Mooney in the way that old steel just sighed as a wind-gust came through?

It's a fascinating, eerie and strange place, the steel-guitar boneyard.

[Duane Reese]

Ned wins.

[Chris Boyd]

Too funny Ned... loved it!

[Donny Hinson]

While some older steels may make it to the landfill, most of those falling into the hands of the non-cognescenti will eventually be scarfed up by traders or flippers. These cagey folk will scour want-ads, flea markets, yard sales, and craigslist and offer to take those worthless Bigsby, p/p Emmons, Sho~Bud, and Rickenbacker steels off people's hands for a few hundred dollars. Then, they will clean them up a little, raise the price 10% to 15% (to cover their time invested) and then pass them on to needy steelplayers all over the world.

[Michael Hummel]

Ned, not only did I truly appreciate your sense of humour, but I hope people notice how beautifully you write.

It seems almost a lost art, especially in North America. I have my fingers crossed, hoping that the Commonwealth countries can keep the standards high for everyone!

Mike