The Steel Guitar Forum

That lovely Sho~Bud was for sale here in Texas back in 1993 at the TSGA Jamboree, and I remember Tom Morrell and I both looking at it and mulling it over. Steve Lamb owned it back in the day.

"You wanna get it?", "I dunno... how 'bout you?", "I dunno, nice guitar, got the name plaque...". "Yeah, it's pretty... a piece o' history."

We both noticed that the undercarriage had been reworked at that time and that it had 8 or 9 pedals and 4 (as I recall... could be fuzzy memory) knee levers, instead of the 11 pedals shown on the album cover.

Neither of us got it at that time, but I think Morrell had it for awhile, and then let go of it somewheres down the line.

Thanks for that memory Herb. The guitar is still in pretty good shape, and with the levers could be playable with little or no work on it.

I bet Mr Morrell would have played the heck out of it given the chance.

Chalker dumped that guitar because it barely had "acceptable" tone.

Chalker dumped that guitar because it barely had "acceptable" tone.<<

Hey Stephen, There had to be a reason he went to MSA in 1972

Stephen Gregory wrote:Chalker dumped that guitar because it barely had "acceptable" tone.

Stephen - did Curly actually tell you this or is it just heresay?

Ken Byng wrote:

Stephen Gregory wrote:Chalker dumped that guitar because it barely had "acceptable" tone.

Stephen - did Curly actually tell you this or is it just heresay?

Just a little inside joke among some of the forumites. Not really serious.

Stephen Gregory wrote:

Ken Byng wrote:

Stephen Gregory wrote:Chalker dumped that guitar because it barely had "acceptable" tone.

Stephen - did Curly actually tell you this or is it just heresay?

Just a little inside joke among some of the forumites. Not really serious.

I'll be the judge of that...

dang it..it has only 9 pedals and 4 knee levers....now this is a good excuse to suck on that guitar, you can always say : "well, I don`t play like Chalker because I`m missing some pedals"....

Db

The controversy on what Curly played on Big Hits has been hashed around for a long time. In an interview at the Dj Convention in '72, he was asked if he used the ShoBud as seen on the album cover. He replied that it was done on a Fender 2000. When listening to the album, you will notice how low the bass strings are on some of the tunes. When you see the limitation of the D-8 1000 and the tuning curly had, yoy'll hear the 1000 just didn't get that low. A fender rep said that Curly took delivery in '64 after Fender issued them. At a live recording in Henderson NV in '64, Curly was playing a 10 string tuning. His changeover from the 1000 to the 2000 took place sometime between '63 and '64, over a full year before "Big HitS" came out in '65. This is no put down on any opinions on the subject but a direct quote from Curly himself. We know Curly could get more than what the instrument was designed for but he also moved with the times, when he could.

Gary Walker wrote:The controversy on what Curly played on Big Hits has been hashed around for a long time. In an interview at the Dj Convention in '72, he was asked if he used the ShoBud as seen on the album cover. He replied that it was done on a Fender 2000. When listening to the album, you will notice how low the bass strings are on some of the tunes. When you see the limitation of the D-8 1000 and the tuning curly had, yoy'll hear the 1000 just didn't get that low. A fender rep said that Curly took delivery in '64 after Fender issued them. At a live recording in Henderson NV in '64, Curly was playing a 10 string tuning. His changeover from the 1000 to the 2000 took place sometime between '63 and '64, over a full year before "Big HitS" came out in '65. This is no put down on any opinions on the subject but a direct quote from Curly himself. We know Curly could get more than what the instrument was designed for but he also moved with the times, when he could.

Thanks for shedding some light on this Gary. I can recall speaking to Tom Brumley on the phone in the late 70's, and I can tell you that he was a huge Chalker fan. He told me that Curly's tone on that ShoBud was awesome, and who am I to argue about tone with the great Mr Brumley. Mind you, Curly Chalker was a phenomenal player who sounded great whatever guitar he sat behind.

This history stuff is very interesting, and I can't speak on it. But I would like to make some comments on the actual guitar. Take what I'm about to say with a grain of salt, because we Shobud freaks know that nothing about that company is written in stone.
I did a lot of zooming in on the pics, and comparisons with my "first run" Fingertip. "First run" was confirmed by both Ricky and Coop. Most everyone, with a couple notable exceptions, places the first F-tips as being made in 1963.
The Chalker changer and mine are identical. "First run." F-tip changers changed over time. James Morehead had a good thread about this.
But,,, there are many differences in the keyheads. Mine uses string ball ends as rollers, and the axle diameter is very small. The Chalker guitar has large rollers, and a significantly larger axle.
Mine has the original "Sta-Tite" tuners that Shobud used during the (at least early) F-Tips. Although the Chalker guitar appears to have Grovers, if you zoom in, you can see the "S" brand. So they're Schallers, which I don't think Shobud started using until '66/67. My very primitive '67(68?) S-10 rack and barrels axe came with a different model of Schallers. Some people feel that the use of Schaller tuners only started after the tie-in with Baldwin. The Chalker tuners seem to be the originals, as there's no unused hole that was required for the Sta-Tites
On my guitar, the 5th and 6th string tuning machines are off set, which, although cool-looking, makes it a pita to change the 5th string. Chalker's keyheads have those tuners butting into each other, in the familiar Shobud manner. Also notice that the keyheads on my guitar hang over onto the endplates. Chalker's do not.




So, are those keyheads the originals? Were they changed by Shobud when the better-designed heads became available?
If he took delivery of the Fender 2000 in 1964, how long did he play this Shobud? Less than a year?
And,,, if you wanna see some really strange stuff, zoom in on the pedals in this pic from Bobbe!


Enough with the Shobud esoterica!

Curly had the modified pedals on both of his Sho-Buds, I love them as they feel much better than the stock pedals, However there are some incorrect and bad rumors on this thread about Chalker and this guitar.

Yes, according to the still living Sho-Bud personel, and my conversations with Curly at this period of time, this guitar WAS used on this particular Album, BUT, not on all the tunes. Wolverton Mountin was a "Fender" recording. Most others were THIS Sho-Bud. He had just gotten this guitar when he cut the album produced by Pete Drake,(can you believe this?)

But this isn't what is as important as the many TV shows, many sessions and hundreds of live shows Mr. Chalker did in the Nashyville area on this guitar, AND all over the U.S. during this period of time.

As for his tone, these two Sho-Buds (Fingertip and Baldwin) were without a doubt the pinacle/zenith of Curly's tone, his opinion AND mine. This guitar through two Evans tube amps was unbelievable! I can still Feel it!

It's a shame that so many of today's players never got to feel the tremendous wrath of the Chalker legacy, he was truly the greatest of this gargantuous, steam roller, Atomic bomb style of chord blasting and violent speed.

Bobbe Seymour

Thanks for chiming in Bobbe! So, do you know when the keyheads were changed? It doesn't seem to me that all the timelines suggested in this thread line up/

There were several different keyheads used throught the 60's in no special order. The keyheads were chosen according to what tuning keys they had that would fit and were availabile at the moment, (or what the customer wanted if the company had keys to fit)

Speaking of new inovations in steel guitars, David Jackson just got two more patents on new systems and ideas for the new Jackson Steel guitars.
A brilliant man that isn't making a living building parts for old guitars.

Bobbe