The Steel Guitar Forum

Here's another project completed for my friend Gary Lee. Gary, thankyou for your great patience, as quality takes time. Slowly catching up.

This guitar was literally a basket case 6148. It now has 3 floor pedals and 5 knees (one a vertical). I made all the undercarriage up to the changer except the barrels--they are stock Shobud. We also made stainless steel pullrods with stainless steel hex tuners. We refinished the cabinet and used water decals under the lacquer. We decided to stay with the original stock paint on the underside. "We" means my wife Tree and I. Tree(Teresa) does most of the polishing. Enjoy.

Wow. Beautiful work, James!

Hi James;
I have to 2nd what Jim said also !!
" Wow. Beautiful work, James! "

Great looking steel... Ron

Truly a beautiful work of art!! A lot of love and craftsmanship went into this.

A real beauty, James. What does the vertical knee lever do?

Hey now...congratulations on this guitar. Mighty handsome axe top to bottom. Classic!

Holy Frijoles!

Nice job on the restoration James, looks like it's ready to go for at least another 40 years!!

What pickup is that?

Amazing, James!

Awesome job James! I love it!

A BIG THANKS,to James Morehead for a awosome jod on MY blondie, Shes shines, and sounds as good as shes looks,She will be well caired for. Cant wait to take he out .Just one other thing to say, THANKS AGAIN JAMES.Gary Lee

Jay, That's a Truetone pickup.
Frank, The vertical does the "B's".
Thanx for the nice comments, fellas.
Gary, thanx for the kind words and great patience, and enjoy that baby!!

I would say nice "restoration" but I find it hard to believe it could have looked any better the day it was first made.
Absolutely stunning.

Absolutely amazing work by the Morehead's. Even notice the pedal cross shafts are mounted to the body and not the front apron... and yes once again....James MADE all these parts HIMSELF....No he does not have a CNC machine or shop for hire.....HE DID IT. That kind of craftsmanship and stickler to DETAIL...is why I Work with James Morehead. Sure I can get my parts from many many sources and probably a bazzillion times faster; but they will NOT be precision hand crafted and with the design I recommend and material I recommend and fit that I recommend. This is something me and John Coop have brainstormed for years(may he rest in piece now); but after his passing...James has taken on a task not many can and has the patience to do. It take a bazzillion hours to do this kind of work and with the huge amount of catch up he has to do because of the almost work ending injury a year or so ago; I can't believe he hasn't pulled his hair out in impatience and/or impatience from others.
I'm so proud of you James and Theresa Morehead for what ya'll have taken on as a passion and have made it into your LIFE.
Ricky

Ricky,
DITTO!

Great work as usual James! Hope all is well. We will have to catch up soon.

James, What a great job you did on that ShoBud. It looks absolutely beautiful.

James, you do some amazing work. Every project of yours is just flawless with that extra flair.
I would love to apprentice with you.

What a classic and a beautiful "Bristol" restoration. Excellent James!

All I can say is thankyou for such kindness, everyone. It's a labor of love.

Some more pics----------------------------------
I believe a clean changer allows a shobud to be stable and stay in tune, and return to correct pitch--it starts right here:




A couple pics of the RKR, and LKR and a little bit of the vertical(last pic):

A couple more pics:

Just wanted to say a BIG THANKS to the Moreheads, on a Great looking and sounding Sho Bud 6148, Shes SWEET and refureish to a very high Quality in craftman ship, I have had lots of comments on the outstanding Guitar. JAMES,AND THERESA,AWESOME JOB THANKS AGAIN GARY.

Yes indeed.......