Rebutal to Ricky Davis

Leon Roberts · From: Tallahassee,FL USA

Ricky, I have always valued constructive criticism. In the future I’ll try and insure that my remarks are mature and to your liking. I’m 71 years old and I guess I should take that juvenile comment as a compliment. I'm starting a new topic because I don't want to hijack another post.

That being said, let me start by saying that if John Coop had lived up to the agreement that he and Ernie Cawby had agreed to, you would have never heard a peep from me. John had Ernie’s Professional for four months and had defaulted on the agreement that he had made with Ernie. My understanding of the deal was for John to refurbish Ernie’s Professional with Triple raise/ double lower “Super Changers” and all new parts for the undercarriage. After four moths passed, Ernie called me and asked if John Coop sent me the parts and the guitar, would I put his guitar together for him. I was all enthused to be installing the parts made by a tool and die maker. From all the hype on the forum I was and ready to go. YeeeeHaweee.

My enthusiasm faded when I started to install the John Coop Parts together.
The cross shafts were vintage Sho-Bud which was not that bad in itself. They had been chromed, or I might say over chromed, and was much larger that what was required. So the Pulling fingers would not slip on the cross shafts and needed to be reamed out. These pulling fingers being chromed made this task much more difficult. Also most of the “L” brackets required reaming
also. The “Super Changers” needed to be reamed out so the changer axial would fit through the changers. All these problems were caused by over chroming. By the way, the Super Changers John sent Ernie were double raise/double lower, not triple raise/double lower. John told Ernie that you couldn’t put triple raise/ double lower changers in a Professional. Below is a photo of my Professional with triple raise/double lower changers. Anyway , while reaming these “Super Changers”, I slashed my hand so badly that I had to beg out of a gig. When the reamer hit the excess chrome, it ripped the changer out of my hand slashing it open. I will admit that this was my “bad”. I’m used to reaming 2024 and 6061 aluminum and I found just how hard chrome is. I finally put the changers in a vise with wooden inserts to accomplish the reaming. Evidently I didn’t ream the parts enough because when I played the guitar after initial assembly, I thought it needed to play easier. So I made a report and posted my findings on the forum and stated that I would get back and let everybody know what the results were after some final tweaking. This final tweaking meant I would dis-assemble the guitar and ream some more. Then you took me to the wood shed in your post. “Juvenile” was the word you used to quantify my remarks. John Coop didn’t send me any helper springs so I made the observation that the John Coop package didn’t include helper springs. You came to John’s rescue and allowed that how his parts should play slick and easy without the helper springs. I thought that I would just let it slide and not ruffle any feathers. Then I thought, “who in the hell does Rickey Davis think he is?” I know a little something about Sho-Buds. As a matter of fact, I was working on and playing Sho-Buds when he was cracking his gonads on the pommel horse at some Texas University. I traded for my first Sho-Bud in 1975, it was a black Pro-III in a box with all the parts. I put the guitar together and was satisfied until Kevin Ryan brought me his brand new Franklin to work on. I think the year was 1984 or 85. Kevin had tampered with the return compensators on his 4th string thinking he was tuning the “D#” note. He finally got the tuning wrench on the proper nylon tuner but his fantastic ear told him the “E” note was note returning to proper pitch. He called Mr Franklin and after they talked for awhile, Mr. Franklin asked him if anyone in San Diego knew anything about pedal steel guitars. Kevin told him about me and brought the Franklin to me to adjust the return compensators. That Franklin blew my mind with the ease and smoothness of the action. I love my Sho-Bud but I started a crusade to make it play as well as the Franklin and later the ZumSteel. I think I have arrived. All three of my Sho-Buds have smooth easy action and I don’t have to use a .022 wound to make the “B” pedal feel right. I can also raise the 1st string “F#” to “G#”, the 2nd string “D#” to “E” and the 6th string “G#” to “F#” on the RKL. They all start and time out and the same time. This is accomplished with adjustable raise helper springs, triple raise/double lower changers and 14 hole pulling fingers. The Sho-Bud tone is preserved by having the upper changers machined from 2024 aluminum.

I’ll be at the Dallas show and if I see you I’ll introduce myself.
Leon

Ricky Davis · From: Bertram, Texas USA

Hey that's cool Leon; you'da Man.
I of course didn't realize many things and sorry you had to slash your hand over it.
And how did you know I cracked my gonads on the pommel horse???ha....that's funny right there.
Anyhow; no worries here.
I won't be in Dallas as I have to play gigs...but Coop will be there and ya'll can discuss all that amounst yourselves; I'm outta it.
And you are right> I am a nobody and you should never worry about what a kid like me should say in the future; and I'm certainly sorry for dissing you in anyway; as you certainly know your stuff and I don't know jack-**** compared to you.
Ricky

Ken Byng · From: Southampton, England

I just love happy endings

John Davis · From: Cambridge, U.K.

At least its not raining here, in fact we`ve had quite a nice day!

Mickey Lawson · From: Cleveland, Tennessee, USA

Sure is refreshing to see a steel player admit he doesn't know jack-**** about something.

[This message was edited by Mickey Lawson on 22 February 2006 at 06:46 PM.]

Tony Prior · From: Charlotte NC

and all this time I thought the Internets most exciting moment was winning a bid on EBAY..

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TPrior
TPrior Steel Guitar Homesite

J Hill · From: Colorado, USA

Pure entertainment.

Jim Phelps · From: Mexico City, Mexico

Don't some people know about email?

Ken Byng · From: Southampton, England

What are gonads?
Are they extinct advertisements?

Gary Shepherd · From: Fox, Oklahoma, USA

Winning abid on eBay is no longer exciting for me. It's expected. I'm excited when I don't win a bid now.

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Gary Shepherd

Carter D-10

www.16tracks.com

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