I'm very curious about the history of this steel. It has a couple of distinctive, if hardly unique, features on the top side: rope inlay and Grover tuners. As you can gather from this pics of the underside during re-rodding, it is in excellent condition with no added holes.
On top, the finish is in near mint condition and the pedals are so clean that I wonder how much this steel was ever played.
But it was not neglected; someone replaced many of the pot metal pieces underneath with good looking aftermarket parts. The knee levers look like the Michael Yahl replacements I have on my '81 Super Pro, but the Brackets do not. They are slightly taller (2.25" vs. the 1.75" originals) and shorter at the base (2" vs. 2.25"). Also, the "foot" does not have an oval to accept a linking pin, but rather a smaller hole. They are also solid, without the cavities on one side of the originals;
Other undercarriage parts (pedal rod cranks, bell cranks) are aftermarket. If nothing else they lack the distinctive circular marks from the Sho-Bud pot metal castings. I haven't pulled any of them to examine more closely, but they "look" slightly more substantial than the original parts. If nothing else, someone took care to polish them up to a bright shine.
The changer appears to be all original, but it is as clean as a whistle, so I am guessing it has recently been pulled and cleaned. Some of the pull rods look like home-mades. I actually had to replace one that was too short for the threads to clear the changer. Oddly, the return springs were a bit of a mixed bag with what looked like a few ill-chosen replacements. I replaced them all with NOS ones that I had left over after my Super Pro rebuild last summer.
Anybody recognize these parts (or, better still, this steel)? FWIW I acquired it from a Guitar Center in Maryland.
Honestly, it’s worth the risk just for the thrill of seeing a pedal Steel shipped for $17!