The Steel Guitar Forum

I recently came across a Peavey student model that a customer of mine had, which looks like it was made by Sho-Bud. It really has a pretty darn good tone for a student model. I took it home, saying I would get it playable for her.

The biggest problem with it is that on its one knee lever, it has three pulls with return springs: 8th string down a half, 4th string down a half, and 2nd string down a half. It's pretty tough to engage the knee lever, and on this light guitar you end up moving the whole guitar sideways.

Is there any reason to keep all three pulls? Does anybody ever have these three on one lever? I was thinking of either taking off the second string pull or the 4th string pull. I've sat in on a few discussions about which of these options would leave the best two pulls on a single knee lever, so my main question is which way would make the lever easier to push?

It's really a cute little guitar, but it's almost unuseable the way it is. I wonder if it has a pro-level Sho-Bud single-coil pickup, because it sounds pretty sweet. The pedals, knee lever, fretboard, and maybe the single-coil pickup, all look like a regular Sho-Bud. The body is a rosewood style material of somekind.

Thanks in advance, for any information.

Jeff S.

It sounds like you have a newer Sho-Bud Maverick that someone put a Peavey label on. To the best of my knowledge, Peavey has never built a pedal steel.

I believe the standard change for the one knee lever was to lower 2&8 1/2 tone each.

When I had my Maverick and the Winnie Winston book, the knee was used to lower the 2nd (Eb to D) and the 8th (E to Eb).

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Emmons LeGrande - 8x4
Session 400 Ltd
Dan-Echo, E-Bow

Maybe it's just me, but the use of the Eb-D lever is so seldom in my playing, that if I only had two kneelevers, I would use one for raising the E strings and the other for lowering them.
Johan

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my bands CODand TSC


<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Johan Jansen on 31 October 2002 at 07:52 AM.]</p></FONT>

I would recommend adding a knee lever, and putting the 2nd string lower on that lever. It's a really good change. For anyone with basic machinist/mechanic skills, it's a pretty simple task.

Hello fellow Hoosier Jeff. This might open a can of "differences of opinions", but that's really what I'm trying to do so you can maybe get some ideas for the best setup of that one knee.
If it were me & assuming the pedals are Emmons setup (I remember all new Mavericks were), I would make the knee lever 4 & 8 RAISE (+1/2) because that gives you another set of major chords combined with the 'A' pedal 3 frets up from where you're parked, plus dominant chords, diminished chords, etc.
Now this might not be practical if you're using older teaching methods as on one knee gtrs. it's either 2 & 8 down a 1/2 or 4 & 8 down a 1/2. And to put 4 & 8 raise on a RKL might seem awkward at 1st as it lives best at LKL. But IMHO you'd get more music out of 4 & 8 raise, & a student could learn a lot of cool stuff right off the bat. Once again Jeff; just my 2 cents here. Desert island, only me & a Sho-Bud Maverick, I'd be finding a way to get 4 & 8 raise from the RKL.
Let's see what someone else might have to say...

Make the knee lever, as designed originally, lowering 2 and 8 one-half tone each.

If you need a high Eb, train your fingers to hit string 2 instead of string 4, like all the great steel players of the past did when they played guitars that could only do one change on a string. It's not hard, trust me .

The 2nd string lower Eb-D is a necessary change for a number of reasons and should be left on the guitar.

To have a lever on that guitar raise the 4 string 1/2 tone as has been suggested would require some sort of jury-rigged half-tone setup as the string is already being raised a whole tone by pedal 3. Of course, it COULD be done, but the 2 lowers are more necessary, IMHO.

Incidentally, the Maverick is mechanically as advanced as all Sho-Buds were prior to 1965, and many, many of our favorite recorded solos from the past were recorded on guitars with LESS capability than the Maverick.

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Herb's Steel Guitar Pages
Texas Steel Guitar Association

Oops, you're right, Herb. That was a 'permanent' more or less. Ok, I stand corrected.
I vote for Herb. Donny's idea is right on, too. I was assuming you wanted to work with what you had. Sorry

<SMALL>If you need a high Eb, train your fingers to hit string 2 instead of string 4, like all the great steel players of the past did when they played guitars that could only do one change on a string.</SMALL>

Herb, I forgot about that. That pretty much cinches it.

Thanks for the input everyone. Rex, somehow a lot of Hoosiers end up in Tennessee. I may end up there myself someday.

Well c'mon!