The Steel Guitar Forum

Great topic. Hearing all these olden days stories about kits and homemade steels makes ya really appreciate modern times and this forum. Isolated beginners no longer need to learn on substandard gear, then have to relearn when they get s "real" steel.

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Mattman in "The Big Sleazy"-:
S-10 Dekley, Suitcase Fender Rhodes, B-bender Les Paul

My first steel was a Hughey D10 that I bought from John Brunner. It had 5 levers, two of which seem to be homemade. It was a nice looking guitar. Seems like John Hughey told me a while back that he played one of his guitars on a few of Conway's early hits. I sold it after about a year and bought an new Emmons D10, which I still have.

Ken

In about 69, I was in a garage-band, and we rehearsed in Bo Diddley's garage/studio. He was actually the manager of our band.

Concurrently, my sister was dating Mike Clark, drummer for the Byrds, and they had just recorded the Notorious Byrd Brothers album. At that time, our band was pretty jazzed about the direction that music seemed to be heading, namely, toward C&W.(read country-rock)But that era hadn't quite hit yet, but we could see it coming.

I asked Bo if he had an old pedal steel lying around, and it turned out that he actually had one stashed in a closet.

It was called a 'BeJay,' double 10- and it was beautiful birdseye maple. He sold it to me for $150, and that was my first steel.

Around '72 or so..Maple bodied Maverick. Paid $350 at Sam Ash in White Plains NY.

Sold it 6 months later for $350 to a student.Can you believe that , I was actually teaching someone about something I had no idea about myself !..what a great Country we live in...

Bought it back a few months later ( suprise suprise) , kept it for another few months than sold it again for $350..

t

My first was an 8 string Fender 400 with 4 pedals and no knee levers.
The pedals were attached to wire cables, not rods, and it never stayed in tune of course.
I remember the E lowers were on the fourth pedal, so to get a 7th chord, I had to use two feet, one on pedal 2 and one on pedal 4.

My first was an MSA Sidekick I bought in'75. Great axe for learning but a year later I was playing steel full time and needed to upgrade so I ordered a Sho-Bud. I've still got my old mid-70's LDG which I play regularly. I also picked up a new Super Pro in the mid 80's but the LDG is my favorite pedal steel guitar.

Pepe-Joe You old timers, in the East Tenn and Southwest Va. regon, would remember. Built by Pepe Peeler,of the Bonnie Lou and Buster fame, and Joe Morrell, Morrell music Bristol Tenn. I brought it home in a basket and put it together myself. Great experence!
Wish I knew where it got too. Would like to have it back just to look at.

in 1971 I purchased a slightly used Green LDG
3 & 4. Drove me crazy all that year.

A fender 400 I bought in Germany from a man named Eddy Frankum from Drumrite Oklahoma. He was shipping out going home and I never heard of him again. I think it was in 1964/65.

In 1970, fresh out of the Air Force, I bought a Sho-Bud crossover from Nuncies music store in Birmingham.
In 1974, Mr. Paul Franklin SR, my co-worker at Music City Mfg, built me a beautiful Blue double neck Sho-Bud Pro III with 8X4 and later added an up lever.
I sold this steel when I moved back to Alabama to someone in NC.
Since 1976 I have owned an SD-10 Emmons with 3X4, Thanks to Weldon Myrick.

A long story short: It was a black Fender (Sho-Bud) student model 3x1, came with the Winnie Winston book. I locked myself in the back room every night for hours. Sold it 4 months later for an Emmons S-10 pp. Boy did I think I knew what was going on until I went to Scotty's convention in 1981. Still tryin' to figure the beast out. What a passion!

Mine was also a black Fender Student 3+1. Bought it from the mail man in 1980 for $250. I gigged with it for 5 years. I finally sold about a month ago on Ebay. I got $635 for it. Guess that was a good return on my investment.

Actually, my first steel was my old 1930 something Dobro that i still have and gig with regularly. Bought it for $35 in 1978.

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MCI D10 8+5, ZB 11/10 8+3 Early 30s Dobro, Harmony Lap Steel, ad infinitum

I started on a mother-of-contact-paper Maverick I bought from Forumite Tom Stolaski, so I guess I'm answering for two of us! As others have said, it served me well and paid for itself many times over. I don't wish I had it back.

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Stop by the Steel Store at: www.markvanallen.com

Started with a kit, a Market-Rite ("Market-Wrong") which did not have "that sound" of an Emmons, playability of a Zum, Mullen, or Williams, or the good looks of a wood bodied ZB. It suited my sound and style though which was awful to very awful. I ended up next getting a nice blonde, Sho-Bud, Pro II D-10 from Scotty which helped me drive my wife only half crazy when I practiced. steve <FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by steve takacs on 29 January 2005 at 01:42 AM.]</p></FONT><FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by steve takacs on 29 January 2005 at 01:45 AM.]</p></FONT>

S-10 wrap-around, 6 - 1. Converted it to 3 - 4. Sold it for $350, cuz I didn't know any better.

Shod Bud Pro III. First and likely only steel I'll ever own.

I meant Sho-Bud! I'm lousy at typing.

I did Lap steel to start back in the early 60s. My frist pedal, Maverick. My second,?????LOOKING( But not on EBAY)

My first pedal steel was a Fender 400. It was a start.

My first pedal steel guitar was a Fender 400, it was a start.

i started 0n a fender 2000 d-10. it had ten floor pedals w/o knee levers. that was back in 1969. i now have a 1974 emmons p/p d-10 w/ 10&4.
honestly, i did not know what i was getting into when i bought it, but i came through.
carlos

Bought a brand new Blanton 4S10 in '69 (4 pedals, no knees). After more than 2 years of lessons, I graduated from high school, joined the Army, went to college, got a job, married and had a family. Now, after 33 years of being away from it, I went and bought a Sierra Crown D-10 Gearless 3 months ago - I'm hooked . . . again.

My first was a Fender 400 (in 1972), which I kept about a month. Tommy Cass was getting me started on steel, and told me if I was serious, I needed a better guitar. So I traded it in for a 1970 fatback Emmons D10, and Tommy added 5 knee levers (there were none on it at purchase), and I added more later.

I still have that guitar, which is being currenty restored by Jeff Peterson, who does excellent work, and has been a good friend since the early 70's.

I'm sure glad I held on to it ...

Sho-Bud model #6139 single neck-blonde maple-rack and barrel tuning 3+1 added second knee later somewhere around 1975

My first pedal steel was a single neck Sho-Bud 3 X 2 that I bought in the 70's, and had Shot's boy put two more knee kicks on it. I really loved that guitar. I had a wife then who was very jealous of it and shamed me into selling it. Later, after a divorce I moved out of state, got married again and said I wished I could find another steel. A friend of mine had an MSA Classic U-12 in his attic and sold it to me cheap. It had been up there about twelve years and was still in tune! I kept it for about a year and then sold it and bought two single 10's with pad 3 X 4 steels later made 3 X 5. They were a real pain to keep in tune, and had real bad cabinet drop which the maker told me could not happen in his steels. I just got compensator rods and TrueTone pickups put in and they play and sound just fine. I'll be nice and won't tell the names of the steels. I'm saving now for a ZUM D-10.