Please tell me what I have

[Mark Boyt]

This 70's Fender was given to me by a friend's widow. I am learning the basics. Can anyone give me some more info about this guitar. The numbers stamped on the underside are 0231.

[Lane Gray]

Welcome to the pedal steel and the forum.
That's one of the Fenders made by Sho-Bud. Great guitar when it was made, and as long as the machinery still works smoothly, it still is.
To help learn the basics, I'd strongly recommend the Winnie Winston/Bill Keith book
http://www.steelguitarshopper.com/produ ... Keith.html

[Mark Boyt]

Thanks, learning this thing will be an adventure. I've played six strings for a long time, but this is like learning a new language.

[Alan Brookes]

I have the single-neck version of that guitar, and it's the one I play on a day-by-day basis in preference to the other pedal steels I have.

[Fred Layman]

I just learned something I hadn't known about this model Fender steel, i.e., that the Sho-Bud company turned out 4,000 (yes, 4,000) of them, most all of which were manufactured for sale in England

[Alan Brookes]

I don't know about that. I''m English, living in the U.S., and the only ones I've ever seen have been in the U.S. In fact pedal steel guitars have been all but impossible to buy in England, certainly when I was living there.

[Fred Layman]

I'll check out my source on this and get back with the report.

[Craig Baker]

At least Sho~Bud kept one of Leo Fender's genius inventions. The old Fender tuning wells. Easiest string change on the planet. His other genius invention was the changer that held the ball end of the string captive. I think a one-armed blind man could change a string on a Fender 400, 800 or 2000 without much difficulty,

But wait, we can't do that. . .

"We've Always Done It This Way"

Great looking guitar Mark. Hope you have a ton of success with it.

Merry Christmas All

Craig

[Geoff Noble]

I've been clearing out my attic and came across an old Fender catalog from the 1970's, I'm pretty sure it has this model in it.

There are pictures + description, I'll try and scan it tonight and post it up.

There's no mention of Sho-bud but they are selling as a Fender guitar so probably wouldn't mention it

There are also pics etc of a single neck Fender PS, a student model and pictures of all the stringmasters and other steels from that time and the amps.

If anyone is interested I'll scan all the steels and also post them up.

[Geoff Noble]

Here's the scans from the Fender catalogue 1976, looks like the same guitar?

Model - Artist dual 10

[Fred Layman]

Alan Brooks caught my numerical error above. Sho-Bud contracted to build 400 of these steels for Fender, not 4,000. Mia culpa.

[Malcolm McMaster]

I started out on Student model of this guitar, my good friend Dougie Stevenson, top Scottish steel/dobro player, uses this model the D10 Artist .

[Lane Gray]

Fred, I thought that the last time Sho-Bud production came up, the many thousands was accurate.
I think the error is the "built for distribution in England."
I think even 400 would have been enough to get noticed.

[Fred Layman]

Well, it turns out that my first number above of these steel guitars was correct -- Unbelievably, Sho-Bud built 4,400 of them for Fender.

[Lane Gray]

You weren't wrong. You were right twice. 4000 and 400.
Layman's Ledger balances!

[Mark Boyt]

Thanks guys, the E9 pedals need some adjustments, but the C6 set up works good. The friend I got it from was James (Jaime) Ryburn originally from Tulsa. I didn't know him then, but apparently back in the 50's-60's he was a child prodigy. Played in Brenda Lee's band for some time. I have had some lessons with Marty Muse here in Austin and look forward to learning how to operate this thing.

[Alan Brookes]

You're a very lucky man, Mark. Let's hope this is the impetus for a whole new interest for you, to which you will be drawn in for the rest of your life.