The Steel Guitar Forum

A little while ago I asked for opinions about the infamous rack and barrel changer. Now, I want to know about the fabled sho-bud crossover. The way I understand it, it was a rack and barrel with a crossover thrown in, and it was a bear to get to work right.

Well, anyone care to add their two cents?

My two cents.
I think it was a GREAT idea that had engineering problems. Instead of trying to resolve the problems, they discontinued the guitar. With I bought one when I had the chance.
The clearances were very sloppy, and it was noisy as hell. But the IDEA was great.
The best one I saw was a guy in Kansas City, MO-- took off three of the pedals and converted them to knee levers-- resulting in a 3 pedal 4 knee lever steel. It was quick to set up, and played wonderfully.

JW

The first Sho~Bud I ever bought back in '75
was an old Crossover. Sounded real nice, but
I had a dickens of a time trying to keep
it in tune. The rack & barrel on my
Professional stays in tune fine.

Yes when you have that many Barrels and then switching them to different pulls on each neck....is TuFF.
I like the idea of taking out the cross over and adding Knees and somehow make it a conventional two separate mechanism necks...and this is one fine sounding guitar and will play much better.
Tommy White always said that Lloyd Green's Crossover that was converted; was the best sound of all his guitars.
I can convert one for you....but you have to come up with the Knee lever assmemblies..ha and that's tuff in itself.
Ricky

The Crossover was very good cosmetically. They also sounded great. But lots of tuning problems. I have converted many over the years to S-10 I always convert to the newer type "Super Pro" changer and undercarriage. Ed Naylor Steel Guitar Works

Curly Chalker sure did some great sessions with his in the late 60s and early 70s with the likes of Carl Smith, Don Gibson, Stan Hitchcock, Dick Curless and a host of others.

I had a Crossover in 1975 and I liked it. It was heavy and loose action. Very easy to change pedal pulls, like the Professional. Sho-Bud should have kept it up, and made it 4 knees and 3 pedals. Thats enough for E9 and C6 most playing.....Happy Holidays...al

I still have my Sho-Bud crossover. I bought it from Ollie Strong around 1968 0r 1969. A beautiful sounding guitar and the wood is fantastic. Rosewood apron and necks, and birdseye maple body. I didn't have much trouble with tuning but the pedal action was a little loose. A few times I switched over and still had some pressure on a pedal, then all the pedals would disconnect and drop to the floor. I don't play it much anymore since I got my Emmons, but it's such a pretty steel I'll never sell it.
Merry Christmas John.

I think that you have to keep mechanical limitations in mind when you set up antique pedal steels. Don't try to push them beyond what was normal when they were made.

For example, look at how I set up my old Speedy West D-10. I deliberately avoided having multiple changes on any string, except for the B to C# which pulls the same distance on both pedals. Besides making the tuning very reliable, it also pushed my playing in the direction of vintage PSG licks which were very appropriate for the instrument.

I don't have a copedent chart from the Sho-Bud crossover I used to own, but my approach was similar. As long as you keep it simple, these are good instruments that stay in tune pretty well.

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<small><img align=right src="http://b0b.com/b0b.gif" width="64" height="64">Bobby Lee - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs
Sierra Session 12 (E9), Williams 400X (Emaj9, D6), Sierra Olympic 12 (F Diatonic), Sierra Laptop 8 (D13), Fender Stringmaster (E13, A6), Roland Handsonic

By the way, I think it's a crime to "convert" the changers in antique pedal steels. You are destroying history when you do that, Ed. Restore, don't destroy.

b0b-Think of all the old 37 Fords that are still around as "Hot Rods"In N Nashville there is a 71 Fleetwood Cadillac 4 dr that I converted to a coupe. [Cut out 31 inches}I also made a "Ranchero" out of a 60 T-Bird.A 55 Pontiac Safari became a "El Camino" I used to be a Car Dealer and Body Shop teacher. I also have restored old "Destroyed" Sho-Buds etc. that were basket cases and now are being used instead of lying in some garage corner.I tell people "Keep it Original" if possible.Otherwise enjoy your "Hot Rod" Guitar. ED

thanks to all who posted here, I appreciate your comments.

Bobby Lee,
"Amen!"

Dave

As far as me saying about Converting a Crossover(if it was implied towards me..which I doubt)...I was only speaking of...discontinuing the Cross over function and making pulls on the separtate necks/tunings in a conventional way.
Absolutly I agree about changing changers out and converting that way....down right NO NO and I always suggest against that.
I'm a believer in making a guitar work perfectly with the parts of that guitar and only adding parts that are for that particular guitar.
Ricky