The Steel Guitar Forum

Back in the late 1970s, when I first started playing music for a living as a teenager (you could get lots of 6-nighters back then, and the drinking age was 18 in lots of places), one of the guys in one of the first country road bands I was with had a 3-pedal/1-lever PSG he made from a kit. He was also an artist, so he did a beautiful finish job on it.

It sounded as good as any other steel I'd heard. He said the kit cost him $125, and it came with all the hardware and electronics. That was back when I would see used ShoBud Mavericks and those "Little Buddy" steels for between $150 and $200 in pawn shops, so the kit price seemed a little steep to my cheapskate soul (the total I'd paid for my second-hand Gibson LP Deluxe goldtop and, also used, stock Fender Telecaster was less than $400).

He said he found the kit listed in a catalog he'd taken out of the trash at a small music store, but he didn't remember the name of the supplier.

I made an F-style mandolin and a mountain dulcimer from pre-cut kits last year, and they turned out a lot better than I expected. So now I'd like to try making a pedal steel from a kit, if there is such an animal.

Is there anyone, any retailer or importer, offering make-it-yourself pedal steel guitar kits?

I've been looking, but I might be googling the wrong keywords. Oh, I've seen the book and a couple of DVDs about building your own from scratch - and I watched a fascinating YouTube video where a guy fabricated a 10-string changer - but it seems far beyond my admittedly paltry wood- and metal-working skills to make a whole guitar.

Thanks!

The only popular kit I recall was made by a company called Market Rite. They made "Mark I" and "Mark II" models, but the quality of the parts were awfully cheap, far below the level of even a Carter Starter.

These days, you can still get a good used steel for probably less than what you'd pay for the individeal parts, so it would likely be a learning experience, but not one that saved you any money.

What Donny said.
Assuming you have a day job with regular paychecks, talk to your bank about diverting money from paycheck deposits to a savings account. If you can live with hiding $20/week from yourself, in a year you'll have enough for a NEW Stage One.

Yeah. Even way back then it made more sense to me to buy one already made by experts for a relative few dollars more than it cost to get a kit and make one.

And after owning so many different brands and quality levels of pedal steels over the years, I know I'll never be more than a dabbler when it comes to making one. (But then, as a guitar player who plays pedal steel more like a guitar player than a real steel specialist, there are those who think I'm a dabbler at playing them, too!)

I just want to see if I can do it.

Every once in awhile an unfinished PSG project comes up at eBay, but I've always been sniped at the last second and lost those I did bid on. I keep hoping a kit appears, but they never do.

Maybe someday.

You might check out Steelguitarbuilder.com. Butch in NC

Buy a basket case.
It's like a kit, but you have to take it apart to make it a kit...

I've not had much success with do-it-yourself kits...

I'm sorry kits aren't around anymore.
It'd be a great way to make you look forward to a real guitar.
I imagine Lane's right, a basket case will teach us more in reconstructing it.
They're more expensive than the old kits, but so is the sound.

The Market-Rite kits were kind of a crappier version of a ShoBud Maverick. When I first started playing I had a Maverick and used to assemble and tweak the kits for a local music store in Kalamazoo that then sold them on. I could get them to play pretty well but I can't imagine anyone would be satisfied with playing one for very long, especially after playing a pro model. Still, a cheap way to get into steel. I would think a modern builder could sell a kit of parts for something similar with a better build quality, but they'd probably have to spend a lot of time on the customer service phone...

... and the customer service phone doesn't exist much any more.
A whole new field of inquiry, help, and encouragement on the forum.

The thought occurs to me that you could buy a Carter Starter and dismantle it. If you put it back together that would be like building something from a kit, and it wouldn't cost much, all the parts would be there. Also the more Carter Starters that get dismantled the better place the world will be I think.

A student came by here the other day with a newer Carter Starter, and it seemed to be tighter all around then some I've seen, particularly the left moving levers were stopping firmly down in the center of the round-head screws in the body that have been used for stops, unlike many I've seen that would slip off one side or the other. It played pretty well, and interestingly had a noticeably louder acoustic volume than my Zum… hmm.