The Steel Guitar Forum

I have been trying to identify this Bud that I bought off Ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7344274797

It looks sort of like a Pro 1 or Professional but it has 6 P/1K configuration. It has the hex tuners through the end plate. It's in great shape and sounds wonderful but needs a couple of pedal rod extenders and some minor mechanical adjustment. I think I did ok for $600 and I'm sure someone would tell me if it was otherwise.

That is a Single-10 Sho-bud made during the Baldwin Distributed Crossover D-10 era; in the very late 60's-1970-ish time.
It has a different changer mounting with wood wraparound neck; that was common for the crossover Sho-bud models; and the person originally ordering it; could choose how many pedals they wanted. The knee lever on yours was added and is not original to that Steel. They also came standard with a Tone and Volume knob with a Coil tap switch all on that ledge.
Right After that Model came the Professionals and single-10 Professionals. Pro-I's came even later than that.
Ricky

Ricky -

Thanks! I originally thought it might be a Crossover because of the 6/1 configuration, but, according to the history, the Crossovers all had the basket mechanism which mine doesn't. It does have the coil splitter and Vol/Tone pots (which need to be cleaned).

Would it make sense to replace 3 pedals with knee levers to make a 3/4?

Ted; the Crossovers were Double-10 with a mechanism to link the pedals and knee lever to play one neck at a time. The single-10 made during that era(like yours) is not a crossover; but has some design characteristics that are similar. They called the racks that pull the barrel tuners> "Baskets"...and yours certainly has racks. All Crossovers and single-10 and Professionals had Racks(Baskets).
Yes; it would make sense to make it a 3 pedal 4 knee lever E9 pedal steel.
Ricky

OK. Now I understand. It sure would be great if PDFs of some of the original manuals / documents were avaliable. Sounds like a market opportunity. Thanks for all your help. It looks like replacing 3 pedals with KLs is pretty straightforward.

Or, of course, I could just add the KLs and keep the pedals...

i bought a baldwin 6139 new in 1970. there was not one scrap of paper that came with it let alone a manual. i had to make a frantic call to a friend to get it set up for me. it was very frustrating. i bought another one in '74. same thing. was there ever a manual? MANUAL? YOU DON"T NEED NO STINKING MANUAL!!!

I'm pretty sure mine's a 6139, but I thought the Baldwins had the Baldwin name on the right front. I downloaded some ShoBud manuals off the Carter site but they are for the bell crank undercarriage with the nylon tuners and not the barrel/hex tuners. I guess I can figure it out with the help of Bobbe's maintenance video, but it's not for the fainthearted.

my 70 had the baldwin name on the front and the wraparound wood neck. it listed for $700. i got it for $550. that was six weeks pay for me back then.<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Gary Spaeth on 04 September 2005 at 08:06 AM.]</p></FONT>

There's a bit of help at Carter's website/this URL:
http://www.steelguitarinfo.com/downloads/OwnersManuals/index.html

The first of the two is probably more relevant to your Sho-Bud. I have the use of a similar 6139 and I downloaded both S-B files, brief as they are.