The Steel Guitar Forum

Is it true that sd-10 guitars are selling 2 to 1 to d-10's? I had a guy told me that no one wants to learn the c-6th anymore. He says that the rack and barrel Sho-Bud's aren't any good because the barrels come loose a lot while playing. He buys and sells guitars here and on e-bay. What's your guys opinion. Are d-10's especially rack and barrel sho-bud's going out. Just want to know. I have one for sale.

Jimmie, you need to never talk to this guy again,
Bobbe

Yes they are out of style but I am willing pay pay 25 cents on the dollar for any or all of them, I am willing to absorb the loss, maybe set up a museum...

tp

Tony, you are a wonderful guy!

My first SB Pro II had the rack and barrel mechanism and Doug Jernigan and I ,when I met him in Ruidoso NM, decided it suked. So I redid the changer fingers and converted it to the MSA nylon tuner nuts. Not braggin but I did this mod fully a year or better before the Pro III's came out with it as standard design Lynn Wooldridge from Roswell ,where I got my guitar and inspiration thinks Dave Musgrave saw it settin on Lynn's floor when he came thru and inspected it carefully........apparently the rest is history

I never had much luck with the rack and barrel system. Seems that I always had to touch up the pedal tunings on the gig. I don't need to do that with modern guitars.

As for C6th, I think most people think of it as an "advanced" tuning - something to learn after they learn E9th. I would expect S-10 sales to be considerably greater than D-10 sales. A D-10 player is more likely to be a serious, dedicated steel player. There are a lot more lead guitarists who dabble in steel as a second instrument, and they are likely to play an S-10.

I went from d-10 to sd-10
because of weight I do enjoy playing c6th
would I do the down size again??
NO i would keep my d-10 and buy a wheeled case
if I bought a new steel and could aford it
it would be a d-10 once you learn and play c6th
its hard to do without
do I do c6th licks on e9th ? yes but c6th is better to me just a thought mike

from the day i got hooked on steel i wanted a d10. cool sounds ..cool looks..finally got one...or two..or three. wouldn't have it any other way. i would be uncomfortable with less and am proud of it. lots of people don't care about that, and i, too, will gladly buy all their old d10's for a quarter apiece...as they carry their little lightweight, limited, practical work tool to their reasonable, practical, probably playing some other instrument also gig.

I've been done with C6 pedal steel for several years now; don't use it and don't need it. Can play all the color chords I need on E9. If you want to play western swing; take a lap steel as that's how real western swing is played in the first place. I don't like Jazz; that's not why I took up pedal steel.
Ricky

I looked at my set list. I play about half C6, fourth E9 and a fourth dobro.

C6th is dead ?? Well if thats the case please send all your D10's to my house .... cos I play as much C6th as I do E9th and could use some extra guitars, it will save me a fortune because I won't have to change strings all the time!

I can get some awesome race car sounds on C6th.

Yes, D-10's are going out.
Mine goes out several times a week.
- John

I think it depends on what kind of music you play. Like Ricky said, a lap steel can do a lot, and reduce your weight. I can't play either one good enough for my own satisfaction, and I SHOULD be only playing one tuning in order to progress faster. But I can't give up either neck. How many used single neck steels do you see for sale Vs. D10?

John, you took the pun right out of my mouth!

My D-10 is going out tonight, tomorrow night, Saturday night, and Sunday afternoon.

Gotta go to the post office now, I've got to put four orders for my new C6 course in the mail.

I owned a Professional for over 30 years, rack and barrel, never had a problem, when I had it converted to modern John Coop system my wife and daughter said now sell it, it no longer sounds as good as before, ask James Morehead, he switched back to rack and barrel, the sound is fantastic, and no problems.

ernie

Anybody who likes C6, let alone JAZZ oughta have their head examined!

I'm kinda with Ricky Davis on this one. Most of the gigs I get, I never NEED C6. I can get by without it. Nobody I play with would care, but they always think the double necks are cool ( I always wonder if in the future kids will look at pictures of guys with D-10s, and think they are gimmicks like Jimmy Page's double neck 6 string.) I don't feel the need to take every piece of cool gear I own to every gig, so I take a single neck most of the time.
I started on lap steel tuned C6. I can get the lap stuff on my single neck E9. Most all the stuff I heard as a kid, that inspired me to take up the steel was on E9.
Double necks are more comfortable, they look cool, but my back feels better when I leave it at home.
I aint no Herby, and I aint no Chalker, so I personally don't NEED a double, but the guitar I play at home is usually a double. C6 is fun, I think it would be sad if they were no longer somewhat the standard.

Like the Alabama song said "If youre going to play in Texas you got to have a fiddle in the band". IMHO, you also need a C6th, A6th etc., neck on your steel.

I am no Herby or Chalker either but in my playing, it's about 50/50. To me, especially swing, pop or jazz just don't sound the same when played on the E9th.

AND, I understand that opinions are like belly buttons, everybody has one. (I've been told that mine don't mean much).

Jimmie - was he trying to get you down on your price, or was he just explaining why he wasn't interested in your steel at all? If it's the former, that tells one story about his motives. If it's the latter, quite another. Hard to picture why a horse trader would waste their breath if it was the latter, but you never know. My opinions, of course.

I think old round-front Sho Buds with the rack and barrel system sound great. I don't think that 6th tuning playing (either a separate C6 neck or an E9/B6 universal tuning) is going out of style. But of course, many players are E9 only - that's been true for a while, I tend to doubt there's any major trend that way, but I don't have statistics to either back up or refute that.

With all that said - there seems to be NO lack of D-10 buyers on this forum. Some people have to have an S-10/12 or SD-10/12, but a lot still seem to insist on a D-10.

I think a lot of the decisions to buy a single neck pedal steel over a double neck has to do with $$$$, especially with newbies.
If I was just testing the water on pedal steel, I guess a single neck guitar would be my choice. After a while, if I really got into it, then I would probably want to give the double neck a try. However, most novices never get that far with this peculiar instrument, the pedal steel.

It is true that you can get a lot of swing licks on the E9th neck and you can get a lot of swing chords on a single 12. But, in my opinion, (and I stress...my opinion only), I don't think that the sound is quite the same. I will stick to my old D-10 Zum.

I'm with you Eddie. 99% of today's steel music is played on E9, so why would people who are playing that kind of music need, or want a C6 neck, or a double neck for that matter? Even though it's possible to get the same chords with reasonable similarity on the E9, I personally do not think it's anywhere near the same. The C6 tuning, and the pedals/levers that go with it, are quite unique and cannot be entirely duplicated. The gauges of the strings alone, make the C6 neck different. A U12 will give you a much better shot at it than strictly a 10 string E9. All My opinion only.

I agree with Ricky!