Sho-Bud is not ot of business, only sleeping

Bobbe Seymour · Post by **Bobbe Seymour** » 28 Sep 2002 7:36 am

Very interesting, and strange things are happening in the world of steel guitar manufacturing now. Gibson and Fender may possibly get into the fray soon. Keep watching and listening, We may be awakening a sleeping giant. This could be good for all of us. This could bring the prices way down and get better guitars to us on a local level also. There are double the amount of players now that there were a couple of years ago. The big companys know this and will possibly be coming on line to "take up this slack"

Bobbe

Jim Florence · Post by **Jim Florence** » 28 Sep 2002 7:50 am

Bobbe, I hope that's right. My all time favorite PSG was my Fender 1000, for it's day and time. If you wanted to experiment with a pedal change you could flop down in the floor,move a cable or two, and you were in business. Mine met with an unfortunate accident, I was in the Phillippine Islands and broke. Met a guy with a Fender 400, and 400 dollars. You can guess the rest. If it weren't for string breakage I still can't think of a single thing wrong with them. Oh yeah , and they weren't 3 raise, and 3 lower.
jim

Al Marcus · Post by **Al Marcus** » 28 Sep 2002 1:24 pm

Jim-That's right, so easy to change a setup, but lot of broken strings, and Heavy!...al

Bobbe Seymour · Post by **Bobbe Seymour** » 28 Sep 2002 4:37 pm

And so hard to find the correct tuning screw! Ha! Ha! ! Anyone got a #1 Reed and Prince driver?

Roberto/

Rex Thomas · Post by **Rex Thomas** » 28 Sep 2002 6:26 pm

So does this mean I could order my new Sho-Bud from Musicians Friend?

Jim Florence · Post by **Jim Florence** » 28 Sep 2002 6:59 pm

Just checking my memory. Weren't there black screws for raise, and silver for lower?
Jim

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 28 Sep 2002 7:00 pm

I don't think we'll see "mass-produced" inexpensive pedal steels for some time, if ever. There's just too much hand assembly work required. If the market were bigger, we might see manufacturers taking advantage of the 75 cents-per-hour foreign labor market, and building steels in Mexico, or maybe China. Alternatively, fully mechanized assembly lines (like those that brought VCR's from $750 to $75 each) would also allow low prices, but a company couldn't see much profit with the small market size. You just can't sell enough steels to justify spending 5 million on an automated line for them unless you could sell 100,000 of 'em.

Given the prices of everything else, steels at five grand are still a bargain. After all, a decent spinet piano (comparable to a student-model steel) costs $2500, and a decent baby grand (which I'll say is comperable to a "pro-model" steel) is about $7,000. Solid body guitars (which are a "snap" to build...compared to a pedal steel) are bringing $600-$1500 for a decent one, though some of the Mexican ones at $300 are pretty fair, but that's only because the market is large enough to support mass production for them.

Consider us lucky! One benefit of our "niche market" is that undesirable (poorly designed and constructed) brands no longer have a long production span. They fade away quite rapidly.

Rex Thomas · Post by **Rex Thomas** » 28 Sep 2002 7:10 pm

Aw, I know it, Donny. Even at "double" the players it's still a small market. I liked the concept although these steels are so personalized that I could never imagine some customer service rep getting a steel order right. Hard enough as it is.

I guess you noticed I managed to survive the "Domland" thread.
Beaten & bruised, but still taking on nutrition!

John Russell · Post by **John Russell** » 28 Sep 2002 7:52 pm

I don't know what the numbers are regarding pedal steel guitar players but I'd say there are about 5-10 times the number of accordion players around here as there are pedal steel players, and this is TEXAS!

I wouldn't mind seeing a return of the good ol' days like the '70s when you heard more traditional syle country and swing, more steel players then, lots more. With all the "Americana" style music nowadays, it's not too far-fetched. However (returning to the subject) I can't imagine the demand for pedal guitars to go up to make mass production viable. Also, I'd hate to see the excellent builders we have now run out of business. Their instruments are of such high quality, way better than ever before, and the prices, to me are very reasonable. Remember when Fender had Sho-Bud make their last steel guitars during the '70s? Not much demand for these instruments on the used market that I'm aware of.