The Steel Guitar Forum

I've played the same Super Pro since 1978 and
had no trouble and what a tone this guitar
has. I think all guitars are not the same and
there are some better than others no matter
what name is on the skirt.

I know it's a student model, but what do you guys think of the Maverick, especially the 50's ones with birds-eye maple? ARe they adequate for what they were designed for?

RB

From the SGF Entry Page:

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To Leon Roberts and all others. The middle picture on your post with the light blue background showing the bellcranks, particularly the one on the right is exactly what I did for my 67 Fingertip. I milled a 4-hole, MSA-type bellcrank with set screw into the groove of the crossrod and used the brass rod ferell with set screw. I believe it now has the best action it's ever had and is the most mechanically dependable it's ever been.
Best regards, Larry Harlan
67 D-10 Sho-Bud fingertip, 9x4<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Larry Harlan on 04 February 2003 at 05:49 AM.]</p></FONT>

The old "Maverick" was a superb guitar.Removing the "Coat hangers" and adding R/L fingers on strings 2-4-8 and a more stable bell crank system they make a wonderful guitar. I have rebuilt and sold kits for tons of them. They were stable, looked good and sounded good. Remember they are merely a "Narrow" version of the Pro 1. In the past I many times have widened the body and with the pad they are great. Ed Naylor Steel Guitar Works

RB, around 1973 or 4 I traded a metal-body round-neck Dobro even to Bobbye Seymour for a slightly used early model Maverick. I took it down to Sho-Bud and they replaced the entire undercarriage and added a 2nd knee lever. And while I watched them do that, they served me some venison stew from one of Shot's hunting trips. Talk about service.

The guitar was painted with baby blue enamel. That was a cool '60s color, but it was the '70s and I wanted wood. So I stripped it and stained the body like cherry wood and left the neck natural, then put a bunch of coats of laquer on it. It was gorgeous. It was good maple, but not birdseye, or at least very few birdseyes.

When I got it out recently to start playing again, some of the tuners were shot, and the old tuner head didn't have rollers, just string grooves cut in a solid head. So I bought a Pro type head complete with new rollers and installed it. The new head didn't sound as good as the old one. It had a hollow or ringing sound, possibly the overtones coming through from the strings behind the nut, or possibly because the nut area was cut out underneath to fit over the end of the neck.

This guitar plays a lot of basic stuff, has good action, and sounds pretty good, but not as good as a Pro model, or my new Fessy S12U, not to mention my S12 Emmons P/P. However, the Maverick is very compact and light. For beginners, or amateur old timers who just want the basics in a light, simple instrument, an old Maverick is not bad.

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Student of the Steel, and cheap instrument connoisseur: customized 1970 Sho-Bud Maverick, Fessy S12U, Emmons S12 E9 P/P, Nashville 400, Fender Squire, Peavey Transtube Supreme into JBL 15", 1968 Gibson J50, '60s Kay arch-top, 7-string Raybro, customized Korean Regal square-neck, roundneck Dobro 90C, 1938 Conn Chu Berry tenor sax, '50s Berg mouthpiece, Hamilton upright piano. You make it, I'll play it (more or less)

I paid my rent for two years playing full time on an old Maverick back in the '70s. It was a great steel. It had the grooved nut, no rollers. It had 4 knee levers I hacked together myself. (Three of them actually worked pretty well.) I loved those lawn-furniture legs. I could set the thing up in two minutes. It was light to carry, too. I should have kept it as a spare when I got my Kline, but I didn't (money was tight).

My first steel was a Sho Bud S-10 rack-n-barrel 6+2 that I bought new in 1973. I would like to have a Sho Bud again, but I play a 12 now and S-12s don't seem very common.

I should think it's obvious that my two Sho-Buds are most certainly the most desirable!! And no, you can't have them! I'm too greedy. Redd Volkaert offered to buy one when he saw it sitting in the studio we were recording in. I told him only if he paid me $10,000 (I told you I was greedy!!).

Ed, Bruce, David,
Thanks for the info on the Maverick.

I have a Maverick, birdeye,rounded front with curved levers with 4246 stamped in the frame.It does have coat hangers on the end ofthe rods,but not triple trees. On the other it has what you call the barrels. W
here does this one fit in the equation? Could you add levers to it. This guitar stayed in tune and just never needed tuning. And it souned very good.

h<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Kenny Foy on 14 February 2003 at 05:57 PM.]</p></FONT>

Kenny,
Ed Naylor, who left a post above, knows how to add levers to Mavericks.

RB