The Steel Guitar Forum

Tomorrow,Monday,9 July at 9:30 pm Central Time on the History Channel, a guy brings in a ShoBud.Hope he knows what it could be worth and not sell it for half it's value.

Pawn shop isn't on at 9:30 Pickers is !I see it is on at 10:00 pm. Ohio time !

It would be on Direct Tv at 10:30 your time

One time i was watching pawn stars and in one of the shots showing some of the customers i saw a gibson console grande setting on the counter but as far as i know they never featured it in any of their shows.

The pawn guys offered $1500 but the lady selling it didn't take it. Their guitar expert valued it at $2500-3000(I think that was his estimate,my brain won't retain).

The lady that brought the steel in turned down 1500 from the pawn store. It was a double ten with 8 and i only saw one knee lever. They never showed the puller end but it looked like a finger tip. It had a drawer pull on the peg head end. The first three pedals looked like they had been replaced or cut down and the fret boards had been replaced.The know very little about steel guitar appraiser appraised it at up to 2500.

Dave, if my old brain is working right, I believe the high end was $3,300. Anyway, maybe someone will tell the lady about the Forum?? The appraiser said, words to this effect anyway, "Most steel guitar pros will play a Sho-Bud"... I guess I'm the odd man out (Pro that is) even though I own/play a '77 LDG. Seriously, this steel appeared to be a Fingertip model which would be a great restoration project...cw

Well Lyle,at least the guitar guy admitted he didn't know too much about it. He obviously couldn't play it.

I didnt see a good shot either but i think it was a permanent could be wrong though.

the young guys didnt even know what it was and the old man said it was an instrument that was popular in country music many many years ago !!! Have we become obsolete ???????? At least he said it was the hardest of all instruments to play and took a real musician to play one, well there you go

Corey said... how come you always see old guys playing these? (or something like that).

The appraiser said Sho-Bud was the first professional pedal steel guitar... so much for Fender, Gibson, Bigsby, etc...

That guitar was a Madison made permanent, the first three pedals were from a later style guitar, but the underside looked fairly original. Not sure what the value would be, but I thought it looked like a fairly nice original sample.

I think the pawn shop made a fair offer at $1500. considering they need to sell at a profit.Generally,they offer about 50% of retail value and at that rate I don't know if it would be worth $3000.00.

Daniel, You used the term permanent. I am not familiar with that term.

obsolete !!! All they have to do is go into the hotels in Vegas when they have someone like Reba and they can see and hear a steel guitar . Along with other Country acts ! OLD !!!! What do they know ? Oh i think they did said they didn't know anything about the '' GREATEST '' instrument in music ! I still like Pawn Stars .

What Gary said, and additionally, in many current TV specials the pedal steel is dominate in the mix.

It's just that the youthful commentators don't know what a pedal steel sounds like, and thus don't recognize it enough to comment on it. To others, the impression is that the steel-guitar is old school, old country, and dead and gone.

The analogy of "beating a dead horse" comes to mind.

Lyle the shobud permanent is a model shobud built from 1957 to sometime in the late 1960s it was the first model ever built. It was a very popular model and many famous players played one. For example if you want to hear one look up Ray Price heart over mind or find the video on youtube of Jimmy Day playing please help me im falling the guitars being played are shobud permanents.

The analogy of "beating a dead horse" comes to mind.

Gene, you mean:

Thank you Daniel. I am still curious about the name permanent. Permanent magnet, for all time, there will never be another one etc.?

Lyle, permanent meaning the undercarriage pull rods were welded in place, and to make a change you had to undo the welded joint and then move the change and re-weld it in the new spot.

The permanent is better explained by the above post but it was basically setup permanently you can change the setup but it is very difficult they built them on into the late 1960s and maybe even a few in 1970 but it main run is usually considered to be 1957 to 1964 but there were several built after those years.

Permanent might explain my 1969 ZB Custom. Changes can be made but most are very difficult.

Semi-permanent.

Isn't vegas where they go at the end of the road....no that's branson....actually I played there 15 years ago.....

I thought bluegrass was all but dying...then it got kickstarted and look what happened. Pedal steel will come back too. A few kids will discover it and it will take off. Maybe in a new direction...