The Steel Guitar Forum

I have a Sho-Bud on loan for a wedding gig in June. It's an S-10 with 6 floor pedals and 3 knees. It has the gumby headstock and aluminum neck. Any help is appreciated, especially with tuning. Thanks! Jim

That's either a VERY broad question, or you're leaving a lot of stuff out.
If you mean "I have this guitar and I have free rein to set it up my way, what would you do?" I'd use standard E9th tuning (BDEF#G#BEG#D#F#) and I would have
P1 raising 4 and 8 to F
P2 = A pedal (5 and 10 to C#)
P3 = B pedal (3 and 6 to A)
P4 = C pedal (4 and 5 up a whole tone)
P5 unsure
P6 raise 1&2 to G# and E, respectively.
Whichever leg only has one lever, that lowers 4&8 to D#
The other leg, one lowers 6 to F# and raises 1 to G, and the other lowers 2 and 9 to C#

If you had another question in mind, it wasn't clear to me.

Thanks Lane. What I should have asked is how was the guitar originally set up from the factory and how was it intended to function. Jim

Is it the single/single (either rack and barrel or two-hole pullers), or some later version?
Given that they're not terribly high-dollar collectibles, original setup is less relevant than utility to the player (and if it's single-single, change is amazingly easy).

If it is on "loan", you probably shouldn't mess with it without the owner's permission. I wouldn't want anyone messing with my guitar if I loaned it to them.

How it left the factory is a good question. My best guess would be, the first 3 pedals are the basic A,B,C pedals. I would think that levers were the E's to F, E's to D#, and the 2nd string lower to D, and possibly to C# with a half stop. The last 3 pedals, ????

If I could set it up the way I wanted, I would probably go:

[tab]
1 2 3 4 5 6 K1 K2 K3

F#...G#
D#...E................................D/C#
G#...........A
E................F#.........F....D#
B.......C#.......C#
G#...........A..........(F#)
F#
E...........................F....D#
D
B.......C#
[/tab]

The F# on P6 would be played with your right foot, as long as you can also play the E to D# lever with it.

Actually, if I could change it, I would put G# to F# on string 6 and 1 to G# and 2 to E on a lever and not have the 2nd string changes, or maybe the 2nd string to D on pedal 6. That is only my preference though.

P5 - ??????????

I think if it is only 1 gig, I would just leave it as is.

Jim Harrison wrote:...It's an S-10 with 6 floor pedals and 3 knees. It has the gumby headstock and aluminum neck...

.
That's an odd combination, don't believe Sho~Bud ever made a production S-10 with an aluminum neck, but they made oddball customs so who knows. Is it actually an SD-10, perhaps a converted Pro III? You should post some pictures, it's always interesting to see what people have done with these things.

The guitar is on loan from a gentleman that recently inherited it. He doesnt play and our arrangement is that I will give him a few lessons in trade. I'm also buying him a case to replace the non-original poorly fitting case it's in now. He doesnt know about that.
I plan to use it as is, I was just curious about factory set up. I only need it to cover the Clarence White parts on 'You Ain't Going Nowhere'. So one song at the wedding gig and I'm good.
Here's some pictures as requested. Thanks for all of the input guys!
Best,
Jim H

It's an old 6140. That's not a Pro III neck though, they are a one piece job that wraps around the changer. This just looks like an aluminum version of the standard wood neck. Anyone know if Sho~Bud made custom aluminum necks before the Pro III? Perhaps it is homemade. If you're interested, you can estimate the manufacturing date from the serial number here: http://www.donblood.net/sho-bud-serial- ... dates.html

I cannot understand raising 9.
Were I going to play it, I still like my idea over Richard's. But I'm me, and I'm a goofball. With 6 pedals and only 3 knees, I'd rather have the E raises on the pedal outside of the A pedal.

With 6 pedals it would become a 10 string uni.

Two or three more levers would be on order.

If it had to be E9 Richard is not far of from what I would choose for a copedant.

More than enough hardware to set up as a very fine C6 machine... and I bet its tone would be awesome for C6. My pro 2 is awesome that way.

I cannot understand raising 9.

Look at the rods. I've never raised 9. Do you raise 9?

I wonder if this isnt already a Uni10

Very interesting guitar! Round front, wide pedals, and looks like rack and barrel pull rod ends.

The 6140 came stock with 6 pedals and one knee. Someone ought to know what the standard factory copedent was. I assume the extra three pedals originally covered E9 pulls that most of us have on knees nowadays.

Lane Gray wrote:Look at the rods. I've never raised 9. Do you raise 9?

Now I understand. Nope. Never have raised 9.

Ian Worley wrote:The 6140 came stock with 6 pedals and one knee. Someone ought to know what the standard factory copedent was. I assume the extra three pedals originally covered E9 pulls that most of us have on knees nowadays.

But, do we know if the guitar left the facory with one or three levers. If it was made with three, a standard factory setup for a stock guitar (6p,1k) would be irrelevant.

You are probably correct about the extra pedals being some knee lever changes on a 1 knee lever guitar.

Could this have left the factory as a 6&1 with a C6th tuning?

There are so many questions that come up as this appears to not have been a "standard" guitar from the factory, or it was and someone added the extra levers.

I had one, a '67. Pedals were more in the middle. Mine had two knees.

I have a 72 6140 built by Paul Franklin. It was originally a C6. It had 6 pedals and no knee levers. The 6139 had 3 pedals and 1 knee lever. I got 4 knee levers from John Coop and removed two pedals to make room.