The Steel Guitar Forum

Always loved Toys playin,steel & guitar.Met him in 70 somethin when i went to pick up my Marlen from Stadler's Music.Very nice guy.

Toy had a Marlen and a Shobud Pro 2 Custom .He plated the Emmons mostly on stage because of endorsement committments,but always said he preferred the Bud.He was a dear friend since way before MTB.This pic should answer the pick question.Notice playing a Sho-Bud,but this one is mine.

Bob Watson wrote:I saw The Marshall Tucker Band at an outdoor festival in North Carolina just north of Atlanta in 1975. I always thought that Toy Caldwell's steel was a Sho-Bud Professional ( it looked just like the one I have been playing for 30 years ), but Marlen's do look a lot like Sho-Buds. Does anyone know for sure that it was a Marlen?
BTW, I always loved his guitar playing and steel playing.

Bob, I don't know about him owning a Professional, but Toy did have at one time an early Shobud LDG. I have a personal friend who purchased that LDG from Toy back in the later '70's. Of course the early LDG's had an identical body as the early Pro II's which were, of course exactly like the Professional bodies.

I also had a conversation with Charlie Daniels two years ago before he went on stage, where he asked me if I had ever heard of a "Marlen" pedal steel guitar, that Toy Caldwell had given him(Charlie), his Marlen as a personal gift.