'81 Sho~Bud Super Pro (Built for Ralph Mooney)

[Lynn Stafford]

I bought this guitar brand new from Herb Remington somewhere around 1982. Supposedly, according to Herb, it was built for none other than Ralph Mooney but I don't know if he even touched it, much less played it. If anyone knows for sure, it would be great to know the actual back story. It has a quarter moon and star MOP inlay on the front apron and there are 1/4" spacers under the metal black and white fret boards.

I sold it to a fellow in Oklahoma a few years later and had regretted it ever since. I recently was contacted by a gentleman in Arkansas that bought it from that guy and was given the opportunity to buy it back, which I did.

Here is a photo that was sent to me just prior to buying the guitar. It still looks practically new!



I restrung it with D'Adderio NYXLs and did a thorough setup on it to factory specs. it sounds surprisingly good, even better than I remember!

Here is a photo of Ralph playing an almost identical guitar. Notice, it has teardrop knee levers on it and the wood necks have an inlay on the sides. It appears the fret boards have spacers under them as well.

[Mike DiAlesandro]

Very nice Sho~Bud and piece of country music history. Thanks Lynn!

[Dale Rottacker]

Very pretty Lynn, and congratulations on getting it back ... what would the reasoning be behind spacers under the fretboards?

[Chris Templeton]

This is the same Bud isn't it, Lynn?

[Danny Letz]

The moon is facing opposite on one of those photos. Reckon that works kinda like a mood ring?

[Craig Stock]

Yes, Plus it not as round as the other one

[Chris Templeton]

Good eyes, I didn't examine closely.

[Lynn Stafford]

Good eyes, I didn't examine closely.

Chris,

yes, that's not the same guitar. It seems that there may have been several similar guitars built. Mine appeared to be brand new and unplayed when it arrived and the setup for both necks were both fairly standard from what I remember. I can't remember if both Es were on the left or not. If not, I would have revised that myself. I know Ralph had his E neck on the back of his guitars, which was not the case for this one.

Dale,

From what I remember Herb telling me, Ralph was used to the fret boards on Fender guitars being closer to the strings, hence addition of the spacers.

I was curious about the back history, so I remember getting Ralph's address from Scotty. I wrote him asking about my guitar but alas, I never heard back from him.

[Bob Bestor]

Wow!!!

[Lee Baucum]

https://steelguitarforum.com/Forum5/HTML/012271.html

Here is a previous discussion about one of Moon's guitars.

I posted a photo taken back in 1984, when we opened for Waylon.

Probably the same guitar that is in the photo Chris posted, based on the location of the star.