The Steel Guitar Forum

i'd love to pick this one up but the boss says no...
even if it needs work, not a bad price i would think...
http://cgi.ebay.com/BALDWIN-SHO-BUD-STE ... 7C294%3A50

it seems she doesn't share my passion for old stuff.

anyhoo, seems like a decent deal, thought some of yall might want to check it out.

A very refined and elegant boat anchor.

KP

You got it Ken. Not a bad price? Its only worth about $300.00.

you guys don't like the crossovers eh? i don't know much about them, although ive heard they're prone to mechanical issues.
on the other hand, lloyd green said that his x over was the best sounding bud he ever played...


clue me in on the issues with these...

What Mike said...

As someone who bought a brand new one back in the early 70's, I wouldn't give a bucket of spit for three of them. Mine would absolutely not stay in tune. Three songs and it was time to tune again. Three songs and tune....Chewed pull rods into like mad. Imagine being on the band stand and hear something hit the floor, look down and there lays part of a pull rod. Happened to me twice. Also if you had a pedal depressed and flipped the crossover lever.......a lap full of parts! I played mine for a little over a year then left it in Dallas one day. Lloyd is right tho', it had a very, very good sound.

Mike,
If you got into it for 300 to 500 bucks shipped you'd probably be ok. You would need to be very mechanically adept in order to rework it and make it into a playable guitar. There are a few mods that you can do to make it stay in tune and function more like it should have originally. Even then it would not be a suitable "Gig" guitar. If you don't want to do a lot of work on a guitar, let it pass!
Having said all this, when it's right, it's one of the best sounding Buds out there.
Cheers!
Benton

But does "Distributed by BALDWIN" necessarily mean Crossover? That decal doesn't say it and who could read anything from those pics of the undercarriage?

But does "Distributed by BALDWIN" necessarily mean Crossover?

The shift-lever on the rear apron near the
tenth-string tuning key means Crossover.
~Russ

You rock, Coop!

Coop, it looks like "lightly modified" in this case means even discarding the cast frame and replacing it with endplates like a Professional, and replacing the rest of the body as well. What remains of the original: the pegheads? Have you got any pix of one still using the Crossover frame, like perhaps an SD-10 conversion?

My crossover went missing when the band I was on tour with had ALL of our gear stolen outside of Philadelphia. I quickly replaced it (didn't have much time to scout around, we still had 6 weeks of show dates) with an early 70s Pro I that I got from Al Brisco. Best thing that ever happened to me. The crossover was a constant problem, I was under that thing after about every 3rd song, it was one gigantic problem after another. Sure, it looked great, but that's about it. I don't even think the tone of it was particularly amazing, if fact, I preferred the tone of my first steel, a blonde wood body Maverick. I guess you could say I'm not a fan of the crossovers.

Well, I have had a Crossover for years that's as bad as any of them mechanically, but I have to say that of the Sho-Buds I have owned or played, I prefer its tone by far. That's why I'd be interested to see what Coop can do just to the undercarriage, without disturbing anything else. Although the crossover idea is nice, I'd gladly give that up in favor of reliability!

Jack,
Good or bad, they are a part of our steel guitar history, and as such I feel some should be preserved. They weren't the best guitars, and the crossover feature certainly gave a lot of players grief. They were built during an era of experimentation, and learning at Sho-Bud, but as a result, most subsequent Sho-Bud models were better constructed.

I hesitate to post these, but here is a 1969 Crossover that I restored. I think it looks fairly decent, sounds absolutely wonderful and stays in tune.

I found John Coop to be a wealth of help and information, and just an all-round good guy. Not to mention he's "THE" source for some of these old Bud parts!
If any of you guys are ever in need of the type services John offers, I highly recommend him.















Cheers!
Benton

good stuff fellas...appreciate the info all the way around. my thinking was that you could simply not use the x over feature and then you'd have a nice old bud for a decent price. sounds like there's more to the story though...

benton, that's what im talking about! that's beautiful. i guess if i could get a hold of this x over for more like 500 it'd be a good candidate for a "radical make over". plus, perhaps a good learning experience for a rookie.

BA! That looks fabulous! I have an S-10 from the same era (wood wraparound), 6 and 2. It also sounds fantastic.

Benton, that looks just perfectly beautiful! It's nice to see someone giving some love and respect to one of these axes. Hopefully yours stays in gear as well as it looks; and if the barrels are in good shape, it should stay in tune as well as any other rack and barrel Bud (which can be quite well, to you unbelievers).

Nevertheless, ever since Coop tantalized us with a glimpse of his new approach to Crossover mechanicals (pic of a changer finger and a top view of a whole changer), I have been eager to see what he might have in store for underneath, other than prettying up (and it's mighty pretty indeed) what's there.

Mike,
That ebay X-over is about the prettiest one I've seen. The aprons and necks appear to be either Walnut or Rosewood. A bit brown for Rosewood, but it might just be the lighting. My Rosewood F-tip looks browner in the wrong light. Nice inlay strips on that guitar too! Because of the wood choice, I'm thinking it's a '67.

It would make a nice flower planter.