This guitar has been around the block.
Posted: 27 Jan 2015 10:13 am
Received via email:
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<i>Hello Bobby,
This is a somewhat long but very interesting story about a pedal steel guitar whose past has some great history as well as many segments yet undiscovered.
I have been a guitar player all of my life having played my first bar rooms at 14 years old back in the 1960's. I got an interest in pedal steel when I first heard songs like "Dire Wolf" by The Dead and "Teach Your Children" by CSNY. I got ahold of a Fender 400 and started to teach myself the PSG. I later bought a MSA classic 12 string, 10 pedal which I sold at a time when finances required that action. I always wanted another pedal steel.
In 1994 or 1995 a drummer that I knew called me and said he saw a pedal steel at a yard sale that looked pretty nasty but it was a double neck 10 string rod action guitar and might sell reasonably. I drove the 8 miles or so to the location and found an old pedal steel with about 20 deep butt burns which had been brush painted over but the guitar seemed to be really well designed and built. I had a conversation with the person running the yard sale who started with " I was just told it's a steel pedal guitar and those things can be worth a lot of money" . The sale guy said he bought at auction the contents of storage units that had been abandoned by the renter and approved by courts to dispose of to recoup unpaid rent. This particular lot was mostly furniture and stuff but this case was buried in there and until earlier that day didn't have a clue what it was. It was probably the drummer that told him what it was.
I bought the guitar for several hundred dollars and proceeded to refurbish it. I still had no idea what make this guitar was as it had no manufacture name anywhere on it or its case, just a B cut into each gearhead. The internet was still in its infancy so any research there was futile. The refurbish job came out well. The butt burns and brushed on blue paint all sanded out nicely and I put a light mahogany stain on it. The pedal rack was all bound up with black goo and something that looked like tequila sunrise. When I bought new strings for it the store owner Jim Sampson an old steel guitar player himself told me that my description sounded like it could be a Blanton which I had never heard of..
The guitar played and sounded real nice and I enjoyed many hours with it although I played only guitar in country bands at that time.
In 2001 I was diagnosed with cancer and after surgery, chemo and radiation I lost my spark and packed my musical equipment away. The steel went back into the case and into a closet where it sat for years.
Recently I have had the mind to get rid of all this stuff I've accumulated in my life and I've been selling things on ebay so one day my daughter wont get stuck with it. The extra money is also nice to supplement my social security.
About two weeks ago I thought about the pedal steel and dug it out of the closet. To my surprise the dust covered case clearly had some stenciling on it which had been sprayed over. For some reason the dust did not cling to the areas that had stenciled letters underneath. The letters spelled "WESTERN HEAD MUSIC CO.". Being inquisitive I googled those words thinking it may be a music store that was still in existence but was quite surprised that this was the name of Augie Meyers band in the early 1970's. This made sense as all of my equipment was stenciled with my bands name back then so when doing concert work, where there were multiple bands equipment on stage it was easy to tell what belonged to who.
I looked around the internet and found a way to drop Augie Meyers a line to see if these suspicions were true. I wasn't sure if Augie would return a message but to my surprise about an hour later there was a reply. Augie came back with "WOW, this IS interesting. He went on to explain he had a few steel players back then he he wasn't sure which one it belonged to. A few hours later Augie replied again saying that this guitar belonged to Jimmy Fuller and was lost due to a break-in at his home in 1978. He gave me a phone number to reach Jimmy which I did call. I has visions of the call being answered by the San Antonio Police Department but Jimmy did answer.
We talked for some time about this guitar, its history and how it disappeared. Jimmy said he bought this Blanton around 1971 and it was a used instrument at that time. Jimmy says he would like to get the guitar back and we are making arrangements for that to happen.
Since that conversation I have been wondering what else is in this guitars history and thought of some writing that I had found years ago when I had it disassembled for refurbishment. On the bottom of the lower neck plate/fretboard was the notation "TREADWELL AUG 66, Lower (referring to the neck position).
I often wondered if TREADWELL was a model designation or the person this guitar was originally built for. The only steeler with that name that I have been able to find is Sonny Treadwell a gospel steel guitar player. If Jerry reads this story he may be able to shed some light on this question. I know I will probably never know the history from 1978 thru 1994 but prior to 1971 Jerry may know.
Thanks for the time and I hope you enjoy the story.
Alan B.</i>
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End of email.
<hr>
<i>Hello Bobby,
This is a somewhat long but very interesting story about a pedal steel guitar whose past has some great history as well as many segments yet undiscovered.
I have been a guitar player all of my life having played my first bar rooms at 14 years old back in the 1960's. I got an interest in pedal steel when I first heard songs like "Dire Wolf" by The Dead and "Teach Your Children" by CSNY. I got ahold of a Fender 400 and started to teach myself the PSG. I later bought a MSA classic 12 string, 10 pedal which I sold at a time when finances required that action. I always wanted another pedal steel.
In 1994 or 1995 a drummer that I knew called me and said he saw a pedal steel at a yard sale that looked pretty nasty but it was a double neck 10 string rod action guitar and might sell reasonably. I drove the 8 miles or so to the location and found an old pedal steel with about 20 deep butt burns which had been brush painted over but the guitar seemed to be really well designed and built. I had a conversation with the person running the yard sale who started with " I was just told it's a steel pedal guitar and those things can be worth a lot of money" . The sale guy said he bought at auction the contents of storage units that had been abandoned by the renter and approved by courts to dispose of to recoup unpaid rent. This particular lot was mostly furniture and stuff but this case was buried in there and until earlier that day didn't have a clue what it was. It was probably the drummer that told him what it was.
I bought the guitar for several hundred dollars and proceeded to refurbish it. I still had no idea what make this guitar was as it had no manufacture name anywhere on it or its case, just a B cut into each gearhead. The internet was still in its infancy so any research there was futile. The refurbish job came out well. The butt burns and brushed on blue paint all sanded out nicely and I put a light mahogany stain on it. The pedal rack was all bound up with black goo and something that looked like tequila sunrise. When I bought new strings for it the store owner Jim Sampson an old steel guitar player himself told me that my description sounded like it could be a Blanton which I had never heard of..
The guitar played and sounded real nice and I enjoyed many hours with it although I played only guitar in country bands at that time.
In 2001 I was diagnosed with cancer and after surgery, chemo and radiation I lost my spark and packed my musical equipment away. The steel went back into the case and into a closet where it sat for years.
Recently I have had the mind to get rid of all this stuff I've accumulated in my life and I've been selling things on ebay so one day my daughter wont get stuck with it. The extra money is also nice to supplement my social security.
About two weeks ago I thought about the pedal steel and dug it out of the closet. To my surprise the dust covered case clearly had some stenciling on it which had been sprayed over. For some reason the dust did not cling to the areas that had stenciled letters underneath. The letters spelled "WESTERN HEAD MUSIC CO.". Being inquisitive I googled those words thinking it may be a music store that was still in existence but was quite surprised that this was the name of Augie Meyers band in the early 1970's. This made sense as all of my equipment was stenciled with my bands name back then so when doing concert work, where there were multiple bands equipment on stage it was easy to tell what belonged to who.
I looked around the internet and found a way to drop Augie Meyers a line to see if these suspicions were true. I wasn't sure if Augie would return a message but to my surprise about an hour later there was a reply. Augie came back with "WOW, this IS interesting. He went on to explain he had a few steel players back then he he wasn't sure which one it belonged to. A few hours later Augie replied again saying that this guitar belonged to Jimmy Fuller and was lost due to a break-in at his home in 1978. He gave me a phone number to reach Jimmy which I did call. I has visions of the call being answered by the San Antonio Police Department but Jimmy did answer.
We talked for some time about this guitar, its history and how it disappeared. Jimmy said he bought this Blanton around 1971 and it was a used instrument at that time. Jimmy says he would like to get the guitar back and we are making arrangements for that to happen.
Since that conversation I have been wondering what else is in this guitars history and thought of some writing that I had found years ago when I had it disassembled for refurbishment. On the bottom of the lower neck plate/fretboard was the notation "TREADWELL AUG 66, Lower (referring to the neck position).
I often wondered if TREADWELL was a model designation or the person this guitar was originally built for. The only steeler with that name that I have been able to find is Sonny Treadwell a gospel steel guitar player. If Jerry reads this story he may be able to shed some light on this question. I know I will probably never know the history from 1978 thru 1994 but prior to 1971 Jerry may know.
Thanks for the time and I hope you enjoy the story.
Alan B.</i>
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End of email.
