ShoBud Super Pro

[Sam Lewis]

Well, there comes a time and it has. Tomorrow I will be 90 and I can't handle the SuoBud Super Pro any more. Beautiful black lacquer, perfect except a few bar dings between the necks. 8 floor and 6 knee's Asking $2850.00 plus shipping. The "Wow tone" comes at no extra charge.




THE CASE IS IN AS GOOD CONDITION AS THE GUITAR -

[Bill Edwards]

Whats the setup on this one?

[Sam Lewis]

Hey, Bill, Emmons with "E" on >LKL and <LKR
VKL <6
LKR and LKL standard. The 6th KL raises string 4 on C6th

[Ross Shafer]

Good luck on the sale Sam. pleasure to talk with you the other day!

[David Zornes]

I couldn’t tell but are the knees pot metal?

[Sam Lewis]

David, thanks for asking but I really don't know. They are stock as far as I know. I'm the second owner and I believe they came from factory as is.

Thank you Ross. God has given me another friend.

[Ricky Davis]

David; the actual knee "levers", SHOULD BE Aluminum as the knee lever brackets and all rod pullers and Changer Finger tops that are Chromed Pot Metal on All "hex-cross-shaft" Sho~bud's, originally built.
Ricky

[Sam Lewis]

Ricky, thank you, sir, for setting us straight

[Sam Lewis]

Ricky, thank you, sir, for setting us straight

[Terry Wood]

Sam that's a Beautiful Sho-Bud Steel! Someone will have a nice home for it! Best to You!

[Ricky Davis]

No Prob. Sam; glad to help out with any Sho~bud. I will have to ask? Where/what happened to the "Neck Selector Switch" on end plate?? In the pics, it's not there.
Ricky

[David Zornes]

David; the actual knee "levers", are Aluminum. It is the knee lever brackets and all rod pullers and Changer Finger tops that are Chromed Pot Metal on All "hex-cross-shaft" Sho~bud's, originally built.
Ricky

yes, thanks Ricky for clearing that up. You da man!

[Jeffrey Snyder]

It always makes me smile to see an instrument that has been loved and well taken care of.

[Sam Lewis]

Ricky, the switch is a miniature toggle switch located between the cord jack and the tone control.

[Neil Lang]

Sam, Happy Birthday!!!!! I will be 78 on Sat. One of my super Pros is an exact mate to yours!!! Beautiful instrument, my favorite Buds!!! I have 4 of them.....I know, I'm Crazy!!!!
Good luck on the sale.......SWEET!!!
Neil

Ricky...All the "Levers" on mine were also Pot Metal, I changed them to Aluminum. I believe they were stock "Pot".
I have replaced ALL the knee lever brackets & levers on all of my super Pros. That is the only down side of them as original pot metal.
Stock w/ Neck switch, Pickup "Tap switch" & small black tone control knob.

[Ricky Davis]

Well Neil I'm not disagreeing with you about the actual "Lever"...as out of all the late model Sho~bud's I've worked on; I have NEVER seen a broken straight knee lever. Yes many other broken parts but never the lever....to see actually what I was made out of...so that is a guess I suppose that the lever was already aluminum......hmmmmm? I actually have a old straight knee in my junk pile....I'm going to go snap it in half, as I gotta see for myself...ha.
Ricky

[Neil Lang]

Hey Ricky,
Please do and let me know what you find!
I have a pile of around 24 I can look at and test here also. They appear to pot with a chrome finish and also have the sound of pot when tapped on, but I can also break one and see.
Yes...never seen one break, I think the reason being is the bracket is the weakest point of stress.
I may be wrong as I am not an expert on it.....but on this particular era Bud, I have been focused.
And my wife can tell you....I have been wrong many, many times in the last 58 years with her!

[Michael Yahl]

I'll save you guys the trouble. All of those components are die cast zinc alloy, i.e. "Pot Metal". If you examine any part on a Super Pro era guitar, aside from the cross shafts and the rods, you find a series of dots that look like undrilled holes, often just a slightly raised or indented circle. That is what's called an 'ejector pin mark'. They are pins that sit flush with the mold cavity when the mold is closed. The molten material is then injected into the mold, valves open and shut allowing cooling fluid to flow through the mass of the mold, in different chambers, to rapidly cool the injected material so that it solidifies quickly. The mold then opens and when it does, the ejector pins are pushed into the cavity, contact the part, and push it from the cavity where it falls into a hopper below. There are usually multiple parts all attached by runners. Think of any plastic model that you built as a kid. This is the exact same process. Look at any plastic part on anything and on the non-cosmetic surfaces you will find the same ejector pin marks.

This was a perfectly viable manufacturing process at the time these guitars were built and still is. In 1975-76 Sho~Bud contracted with Fender guitars to produce the Artist Series of pedal steels. They were under contract to produce 2200 Fender guitars each year for a total of 4400. That's in addition to the normal Sho~Bud production. Die Casting was the only viable process to produce the volume of parts that they required. They would have had to have had 30 or more Bridgeport mills and operators working 24/7 to produce that kind of quantity. NOT COST EFFICIENT for the price point.

I will defend Sho~Bud's decision to produce hardware in this manner. There were some flaws in the designs, which for this process caused some failure points as we all now know.

When I was in turbine engines we had a customer that had an in flight engine failure. Parts came into the shop marked 'AOG' in red. "Aircraft on the Ground". We were immediately put on overtime and 3 shifts staffed to make the new components. Engineering found that the design, which was some 10 years old or more, had a flaw. They found this flaw using the newest stress analysis software that they had. They didn't have that when the part was originally designed. It was like the opera singer and the crystal glass. The component hit a certain harmonic frequency and blew up!

You don't know what you don't know...

Anyway, all of the factory straight knee levers are die cast and can be 'broken'. Any levers that are aluminum are made by aftermarket manufacturers such as myself. They can be 'bent' but not broken.

End of dissertation.

Sam, sorry to interject this into your sale but this subject has come up so many times in the past years I just had to set it straight.
I'll delete it if you wish.

Michael

[Ricky Davis]

Ok; yes I broke it and yes Pot metal die cast, then I texted Michael to confirm and he didn't reply, then I just buzzing in here and of course Michael did reply in A BIG WAY...ha...Thanks Michael.....You'da MAN!! Always; and that's why I buy COMPLETELY everything Sho~bud from you.
Ricky

[J R Rose]

Beautiful Guitar Sam. The first time I ever saw one of these was years ago at a concert in Tulsa with Jack Green and Jeanie Sealy. I think it was Ron Elliott on steel. He was using two Sho-Bud Christmas Tree amps and the sound was fantastic. Despite all of the negative things about these guitars they have made a lot of good music for years. Their is no telling how many of them have been on #1 records. Best of luck on your sale. J.R.

[Larry Bressington]

Beauty indeed Sam, one of my faves in colour and model, they play like a dream.

[Sam Lewis]

Thanks, guys, I welcome any input. I've known this guitar for a long long time. I serviced it for my good friend (deceased) who was the owner and so far as I can tell there are no issues. From all the praise for the ShoBud I guess I should keep it, but at 90, it's a little heavy for me. I'll stick to my U-12or perhaps fine a light-weight D-10.
You're a great bunch and I appreciate you very much.

[Paul Wade]

sam,
great looking super pro. i have it's twin find guitars

p.w

[David Currey]

Check your PMs & email. Thanks, David

[Sam Lewis]

Gone to Texas