The Steel Guitar Forum

I picked up a beautiful natural birdseye ShoBud Pro 2 Custom today that I got on eBay - I had previously vowed never to buy a used guitar this way. It came with a ShoBud volume pedal that is in mint condition complete with original AB pot. It has been stuck under a bed for 30+ years. The laquer is a real gold tint. Some of the metal parts just needed a polish and have reponding nicely. The photo's were not good, but I spoke to the owner on the phone to get some background into the guitar. It belonged to a young man in his mid 30's whose father owned the guitar. His dad played it a few times and sadly passed away. The guitar was then stored under a bed until finances dictated that the son needed to sell it. Apart from a musty smell inside the case, the guitar is in 9+ condition. I am going to change the pedals and levers set up tomorrow from Emmons to Day.

Now the problem bit. I thought it was a D10 but it turned out to be a D12. I am going to have to learn to play extended E9 and C6 after 40 years of playing 10 strings. The guitar is going to join my family of Pro 111 and LDG ShoBuds, so you may gather that I love them. I just need to get 2 white 12 string fret boards for my new baby and it will be complete. My next aquisition will be an Emmons push pull.

Daddy come home!!



What a beauty, Ken. Now that's truly a closet classic. And it's very rare, being a D12. What a find. Congrats!

Thanks Chris. I have to say it was a bargain price too. Yours too has a lovely golden tint to the laquer. Mine has a heavily speckled birdseye finish, and I have to say sounds wonderful.

Hi Ken: Looks like you got yourself a fine looking Sho-Bud, and a D-12 at that. You can NEVER have enough Sho-Buds in your music room! They are truly wonderful instruments and have a great sound! I just bought a nice Pro III Custom D-10 that should be here soon and have located a LDG sitting about 40 miles from my home that I hope to have in about a month. The white fret boards should look good but the black has class on that golden finish. Kind regards.....Marty Zak

What a find Ken...congratulations on the addition to your Sho-Bud collection! Get you some split-cases for it and you're set...Carl

Ken, congratulations on your superb find. It looks in immaculate condition considering it's age. Was the owner from England by any chance? because I met a guy who owned a D-12 Sho-Bud in Blonde many years ago at a club in South London somewhere. It turned out to be the same D-12 that was in the Sho-Bud shop before it moved to Denmark st in London. Time for gym workouts mate, I bet she's heavy

Micky "scars" Byrne United Kingdom

Here is mine, loaded with 10 pedals, and 5 knee levers on each neck:

Carl - I just sent payment to Kevin Hatton for split cases for my old Pro 111 Custom. In its flight case the thing weighs what feels like a ton and my poor old back no longer appreciates me carrying it too far. I will get split cases for the blonde D12 next year.

Micky
It did come from a guy who lived in Chessington. I reckon there is a connection with John Edmed's shop, and I'll send Ron Mawn some photo's to see if it rings a bell with him. It's not too heavy - much lighter than my Pro 111 in the flight case. I will be spending all day tomorrow giving it a thorough clean top and bottom and a good lubrication. Next time you see me I may be playing out with it if I have the guts to play 12's. It does have a very nice ShoBud tone which is above all the most important thing.

That's a beauty !!...I would have loved to find that bud !!....I play a universal 12, and that bad boy would fit very nicely in my studio !!... Good Luck with it !!....A great find for sure !!...Jim

Thank you James.

I have received an email about this guitar from a guy called Lew in England via eBay. eBay rules don't allow me to respond. He is known on the British steel forum as sho-man2. If anyone knows him could they get him to contact me direct at KenByng@aol.com. Thanks.

Just a little story about my eBay purchase. When I went to collect the ShoBud yesterday, the son of the original owner said that his dad had left some lap steels and 6 string guitar and could I value them for him. His lap steels were not worth a huge amount, but I was captivated by the 6 string guitar. It was a Gretsch Tennessean in original case - probably late 50' early 60's, complete with original Bigsby, pickups and machine heads. I could have cried. Someone had stripped back all the original finish on the back, front and neck, and had re-finished it with what looked like red varnish and a tar brush. The headstock logo had been removed and the fretboard had also been thickly laquered. The faux f-holes had also been removed. The son said "It was originally a dark tobacco brown colour". What a shame.

KB

Ken, you've hit it on the head. The club I played was a "railway" Country music club in South London, and that's not far from Chessington, so that ties in with the area. The guy's name was Michael Payne, and from my collection of chatting to him, was that he'd not been playing too long and I'd wondered whey he'd got tangled up with a D-12 so early in his steel career. I hope I'm not wrong and assuming that that particular guy has passed away, but it all seems to tie in.You said his son whom you got the guitar from is in his mid thirties...that makes even more sense as his dad who owned the guitar was about my age, and we're talking early 70's. I look forward to seeing you play a 12 stringer, no doubt you'll do it justice. Merry Christmas to you and all the boys in the band, you've given yourself a lovely present...all us Forumites should take note and do likewise

Micky "soon to be more scars" Byrne United Kingdom
www.mickybyrne.com
Carter and Sho-Bud Universals

Isn't it funny how life is ....There are folks out there that would have to go out and wait however long to custom order something like this , especially back in the day, and this gentleman stumbles over it, and wonders why he bought a D12 so early in his playing career !!!....and then to top it all off, it becomes an "under the bed" queen !!..
GREAT STORY !!....I love stories like this !!...I often wonder what it would be like to be the "fly on the steel" to where a lot of these pedal steels that go off into Pedal Steel Land travel to ...Jim

Micky - indeed his name was Michael Payne. His son is Michael too. Michael Snr must have played in a few Fullers pubs as there were some Fullers bar towels in the case. I am currently stripping out all the rods underneath to give the guitar a good clean, and try to get rid of the musty smell. As can be seen, the endplates need a good polishing, but they will come up well. This guitar is a keeper, definitely. The more I play it the more I love it.

Hallo Ken
What a lovely guitar,it's the thing we all dream
of finding. would love to see a photo of you playing
it in the "Show us Yours" thread when you've finished it.
All the best from a very envious ex-pat in Corfu.
Cheers !
Frank Bloomfield. Corfu. Greece

Phew!!! thanks goodness for that! So I "was" right. I obviously had a dodgy heart hence the transplant nearly 9 years ago, but glad my brain seems to be ok, being able to remember a name from over 30 years ago You can still contact Ron, but it seems thats the same steel I tried when the Sho-Bud shop was in Norbury South London before it moved to Denmark street in "Tin Pan Alley" I don't think John Edmed or Ron Mawn would have brought too many D-12's over. Lucky you Getting back to the Fuller's circuit in the 70's...what a laugh £20 for a band and £1 went for the so called hire of a P.A. system, that wasn't even there Lol...thank you Mr Ted Poulton. For our American friends £20 was approx $38 U.S. bear in mind it was the 70's

Mad Micky "scars" Byrne United Kingdom Planet Earth

Micky,
That wasn't too much less than a lot of dives that I played back then ....Sometimes you'ld even have to get a bit rowdy to get your $50 for the night , and that was for the entire band !!....We would have played for nothing !!...We had such a following that it was more like it was our own party , but our friends had to pay for drinks !!...There were so many places to play back then...They really were "The Good Ole Days " ....Jim

Totally agree with you James..."The Good Ole days" Like yourselves, us Brits would travel the Country for one night stands, but we had such a good time. Maybe it was youth on our sides, plus Country was Country, before the Line dance stuff came in and Pedal steel started dropping out of Country. We're going off subject now, but just had agree with you.Cheers

Micky "Scars" Byrne United Kingdom

Micky
What exactly do you mean "soon to be more " re - scars, nothing serious I/we hope !
Frank Bloomfield. Corfu. Greece

Ken Byng wrote:I just need to get 2 white 12 string fret boards for my new baby and it will be complete.

Don't do it! The black fretboards look great, and they're original.

b0b wrote:

Ken Byng wrote:I just need to get 2 white 12 string fret boards for my new baby and it will be complete.

Don't do it! The black fretboards look great, and they're original.

b0b - a number of guys have emailed me with exactly the same view that you have expressed, so I guess the guitar will be remaining original. I have to say that white fretboards do look nice on my other ShoBud, but then again that is dark brown.

I have just received an email from my friend Ron Mawn who sold this guitar to the late Mick Payne in the 1970's. Ron worked for the importer of ShoBud guitars in the UK at that time, and even spent some time at Mick's house showing him how to play it. The good thing about living in a small country like England is that most steel guitar history is easy to piece together. Mr Payne was apparently a novice player at best, but he obviously loved this guitar even if he never fully mastered the rudiments. I will try to do it justice for his memory.

Ken Byng wrote:...a number of guys have emailed me with exactly the same view that you have expressed, so I guess the guitar will be remaining original...

Hallellujah ! I was just about to jump to the keyboard when I read your later note. The current fretboards suit that instrument's color much better than white ones.

By the way, you have all us Sho-Bud enthusiasts drooling over that one. It's a great machine. For all the 35 years I lived in England I was never able to get my hands on a pedal steel. I guess they're more available nowadays than they were in the 60s. Or maybe it's just eBay, which allows us to find instruments that otherwise we would never have known were for sale.

Ken in your last sentence a couple or so back "I'll try and do it justice for his memory" of course you will mate. You're a good talented player on "both" necks.For the forumites who may not know, Sarah Jory was a pupil of yours so thats shows your kalibre. I know there are some younger players in U.K. now that are very good, but that's how young brains work.They seem to be quicker on the uptake. If you remember the days of us "old timers" in comparison, there weren't CD's in existance to learn from....no DVD tuition, no books, no colleges like Jeff Newman's...in fact nothing!! Remember we had to back the record up to learn a lick?? Hey...I recall only having one actual one to one lesson, from the late Gordon Huntley...that included a meal with wine, and I learned so much off the guy in a few hours.I still sometimes use an Augmented 13th chord he showed me to end a number....just to get suprised looks from another band member

Micky "nutty" Byrne.......Close to Wales England

Alan
I cannot work out why you could never get hold of a pedal steel when you lived in the UK. From around 1971-2, there was an importer of pedal steels by the name of Eric Snowball who brought in ZB's, ShoBuds and Emmons's. In the mid 70's, John Edmed imported ShoBuds on a grand scale. Maybe you were looking in the wrong place.

I need to congratulate you on the work you have done on the Fender Stringmaster. Fabulous workmanship. Do you get home to Brum at all? It must have changed out of all recognition since you emigrated.

Ken-Lucky You! To get a D12 yet, Sho-Bud like that. ...Congratulations...As b0b says keep the original black fingerboards....Here is my old Sho-Bud Pro 1 S10, that I converted to E6 with 6 pedals and 5 knee levers. All original. Love it...al.:)

Al - I just checked out your E6 tuning on your web site. It is fascinating and makes sense. Like you I used to use 3 finger picks when I was in my early 20's, but discarded one eventually. Watching Reece Anderson close up a few years later made me wish that I had stuck with it.

I have been thinking how to set up my additional strings on my D12. The E9 neck is straight forward with a G# on string 11 and a low E for string 12.

The C6 is slightly different. I will now be able to have a high G as my 2nd string with my normal D on the 1st string, but I am unsure where to put the other additional note. That will throw me completely as I don't want to go lower than C at the bottom of the tuning. I may just go with 11 strings on the C6th.

Micky - thanks for your kind words. Although I never had any lessons on pedal steel, I did have a mentor in the form of Kealoha Life (pronounced leafay) when I learned to play 6 string lap steel in my teens. He was an incredible player who pick blocked really cleanly and played some really ourageous things altering his tuning while still playing. Wayne Link gave him a pedal steel many years later but he never got to grips with it.