Pedal Steel Companies

[Paul Redmond]

Daniel - The Miller that I acquired several years ago was made in mid-1973, so the company was going until at least that long.
PRR

[Fred Justice]

Charles, were well past the 200 mark here at Justice steel guitars.

[Charles Kurck]

Gentlemen:

Thank you.
I have updated the chart again.
There may be another update in the future
if enough information becomes available.

Kind Regards,
Charles Kurck

[Steven Meister]

Thanks for putting this together Charles!

[Brett Day]

There was also the Seymour brand that Bobbe Seymour built. I don't recall the year range and have no idea of how many were built in total.

I think I saw either two or three, but I'm not sure. I saw those guitars in 2000, the year after I started playing steel

[Andy DePaule]

I just acquired a Dewey Kendrick Steel as a fixer upper last week.
Going to be quite a job.

Here is a link to the guy I bought it from, Jim Sliff, so you can see what it looks like;
http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=305258

I searched the web and found zero on this guitar, the man who made it or where it came from?

Maybe he just built one, but if he was steel player maybe someone knows of him?

Then while looking on the forum I came across this post showing it as a company, but nothing else???

If anybody has any idea or better still, actual knowledge, I'd love to know the history of this amazing contraption.
Thanks,
Andy

[Jeff Harbour]

I haven't viewed the entire thread to see if this came up... but Jim Boen did make at least one guitar in the 90's... a 12-string Non-Pedal for Maurice. But, the list presently only shows Boen in production in the 80's.

[Donny Hinson]

Production dates on the Fender pedal steels should read from 1955 to 1976. How many is anybody's guess, but it was certainly over 5,000 of the cable-operated models.

[Fred Justice]

Justice Steel Guitars is well past the 270 mark.

[Patrick Huey]

Hmmm

[Patrick Huey]

Removed as requested

[Andy DePaule]

I have the only known Dewey Kendrik PSG.
It's still awaiting re-construction to make it playable.
May try to get to it next year...
How do we know it's a 1956 Dewey Kendrick? Well thats what it said on a piece of old tape on the case??? Built where? I dunno!



Those knee levers were totally useless!


Talk about a major mess, this will do until the real mess gets here.
The holes where the fingers come through look like they were hacked out with an ax!
I'm planning to just gut it and replace the entire pulling system.
It does have some really fine Birdseye Maple and the sweetest tone of many PSG's I ever heard.

[Andy DePaule]

1 of 5 Blankenships? I dunno know that for sure.
I've only seen this and one other that was shown as a Blankenship Wheeler.
This one only has the name of Lewis Blankenship of Amarillo, Texas.
There may be more but who knows?
These are photos of it as I was restoring it. Plays quite well and seems to hold the tuning well without breaking strings.
Front neck E9th with 2&3 and back neck A6th with 4 pedals.



Built in the 50's it has what would have been an advanced pulling system for it's time. I replaced the single knee lever with 3 Sho Bud style ones.

[Jeremy Threlfall]

I've got an Anapeg from 1978

that's 8 years earlier than the production dates on the chart

[Charles Kurck]

Thanks for the info.  
The list has been updated with numerous revisions.  
See my chart on page one of this topic.  

Regards,
Charles Kurck

[Mike Farmer]

I see that you don't have a lot of information about the company, I worked there I think it was early 1978. the owners names were Ray Kizer and Richard E Neusbalm hence
REN from Richards name and Rays last name Kizer. They both worked at Tokime, a gas pump manufacturer in Fort Wayne.. By the time I started working for Richard, Ray had already passed away. I believe we were working on some steels for Scotty's convention in St. Louis in 78. I have no idea how many guitars were built, but Harold Fogel was playing one at the convention that year. I worked part time for Richard until he died of a heart attack in 79 I think. I got enough parts to finish the last double neck Steel that was being built. It has a black and white formica covering. They were a very heavy weight because they were mostly made of steel except for an aluminum frame and a maple body. A double neck had to weigh 90 lbs. by itself. I used to have some flyers, but haven't seen them for a long time. I hope you can use some of this information....Mike

[Clyde Mattocks]

I can add a little to the Cherokee story. Claro Daughty (now deceased) and I started building them in the late 60s. Claro did the cabinets and finishing and I did the mechanics and electronics. Our biggest output was during the 70s. We only built pull/release. At some point Ampeg sent a regional rep. to talk to us about setting up production under the Ampeg name. However, we realized our system was becoming (or already was) obsolete. Plus Claro's health was declining and we just didn't want to get any deeper into it. We made a few thru the 80s and I think the last one was around '92. There were maybe 70 in all. Since we live close to four military bases, our guitars have wound up all over the world, albeit not in large numbers.

[Dave Mudgett]

Although limited production, Weenik steels, Martin ("Mike") Weenik in Florida builds pedal steels. He's probably built around 15 in the last 8 or 10 years.

I can only assume you missed the first reply to this thread. Martin is a forum member, and Weenik steels are fairly well known around here.