The Steel Guitar Forum

So, it looks like I may be getting this ShoBud from a friend. All I know right now is "Early 70's......I think all the parts are there.....6 pedals..original pickups and Grover tuners......it worked before storage, although someone had messed with the electronics"

They're going to send my more pics, including the undercarriage, soon.

Any idea, if it's worth fixing, who I should send it to? Is there anybody within driving distance of me, here in Philly? (If not, that's ok, too).

Thoughts?

Thanks!

Ricky Davis is the Sho-Bud guy to contact. He is a forum member and you can contact him by a PM. J.R.

It looks pretty thrashed, but that's an interesting specimen. It appears to be Crossover model, but with the cast changer tailpiece and neck arrangement from the next-generation Professional model. I will speculate that it is a very late Crossover, one of the last, so the serial number would likely be somewhere in the low 8000s, built late 1970 or very early '71 when the first Professional was released. Serial # for the very last Crossover would have been ~8109.

I wouldn't spend too much restoring this one. Crossovers are of limited value, even in pristine condition. More pics would be interesting though if you're able to share.

Thanks. Still waiting for more pics.

Is there any chance it's NOT a "crossover". Did some reading, and if that's what it is, I probably don't want to get involved.

If you look at the rear apron at the point where it disappears under the foam packing on either side you can see the points where it flares out. Just do a Google search, there are lots of pics of Crossover rear aprons around. The crossover lever crank on the left side, mid-keyhead, the selector switches in the apron on the right, those items are in the exposed metal frame. The pedal rack is also standard Crossover, six pedals in the middle vs. the standard eight for the Professional.

The standard issue Crossover had wrap-around wood necks that enclosed the changer pillow blocks, that's the one thing that's different here, but Sho-Bud was known to mix and match parts at those points in time where their designs were changing, so not surprising.

It would be interesting to see the rest of the guitar, you never know what kind of mods different owners may have done over the last 50 years. Does it have any knee levers? If all the parts are there it could easily be converted to a standard D10 as long as you can source a couple of pedals. A very heavy D10. Adding knee levers if it has none could get expensive too relative to the value of the guitar.

The later model Crossovers had the individual racks like the Professional, there would be 12 or 13 of them. Enough to make a workable setup with some finagling, but if you're not going to do the work yourself it would likely cost more than the guitar is worth to get it into a more modern configuration.

What is the serial number? It is stamped into the edge of the endplate and the wood right beside it. that will tell us the month and year it was built.

If it's an older one it's never going to satisfy a modern player without a complete undercarriage change. If newer, it can be configured to a modern 3 and 4 on the front neck. Pictures and that serial number are gonna go a long way for folks to assess it. Most people hate Crossovers. I am not one of them. I think they can fill an interesting niche between pedals and non-pedal guitar. I have one of, or the, prototype for the Crossover. It's a pain in the a$$, but has its own thing that I love and respect.

Ian is right on the money, literally and figuratively.

Absolutely and positively (no pun intended) Ricky Davis! Although he does live in Austin TX. A pretty far cry from Philly. You would probably want to ship it to him.

Certainly reach out to Ricky but also ask him about investment $$ vs street value . He knows.

Restoring Vintage Instruments can become a rabbit hole very quickly !

Ricky has some magic and in-depth knowledge of Sho-Bus...you will not be disappointed but astounded at how your “old” steel will look. Speaking from experience...Good luck, Carl

Yeah don't wanna burst any patting on the back bubbles(and thanks guys); but I normally NEVER take on "Crossovers" as a norm. Coop did; but he would end up rebuilding it(changer and all mechanics...and 1 to 2 thousand dollar project) and so why?? ha.. But I'm VERY curious why this one has the metal changer Tailpiece Ian mentioned as that already is UNLIKE Crossovers...so I;m Interested to see underneath and everything there is to be had with this box-o-stuff, and I can give you a yah or nah if worth doing anything to it.
Ricky

Ok....finally got a couple more pics. Any more thoughts?

Jim Fogarty wrote:Ok....finally got a couple more pics. Any more thoughts?

Run!

Looks pretty thrashed on the underside too, it seems to have a few cartons worth of cigarette tar caked onto the undercarriage, maybe some rust too? The Crossover era serial numbers went from 7001 to ~8109, so 7549 is older, probably ~'68-'69ish. It also appears to have the older style ganged racks. The '70s style changer housing visible in the earlier pic may have been a mod someone did later, or maybe this was a prototype. Hard to tell what the two aluminum lever thingies do, there's an extra bit of linkage on the E9 side that seems to be part of that. In any case it's going to need a lot of TLC, but as-is it would definitely work well as a boat anchor. If nothing else, it still has a lot of valuable parts if you wanted to dismantle it and clean them up.

Yes I agree with everything Ian said.....yikes.
Ricky

The 2 lever thingies, I believe, are knee levers. Those are the kind that pivoted in an arc right and left.
Look toward the middle of the E9 lower return springs, and you can see a rod going from the lever to a cross shaft. First time I saw those, was on Ernie Hager's guitar.

Ernie Hagar's guitar might be a clue. There is a picture in Winnie Winston's book of Ernie. We know he played a ShoBud crossover and it looks like a Professional style of changer block on it. Here is a pic of the crossover I had here in the UK 40 years ago. It has the standard comb for the fingers mounted on an aluminium block. This guitar had quite a dull tone with not much sustain. Perhaps Ricky can shed some light because this must be about the time when they were developing a guitar for Lloyd Green.

I read a long time ago that beside the ordinary Crossover, there were Crossovers DeLuxe, with polished aluminium and the aluminium tailpiece.

David Langdon wrote:...Here is a pic of the crossover I had here in the UK 40 years ago...

Interesting! Do you remember the serial# of yours David? Were your knee levers the horizontal style like those in Jim's pic, and did you add them yourself?

I did a search the other day and couldn't find any other examples with the aluminum tailpiece, but apparently there were at least three including yours and Ernie Hagar's. Here is the pic of Ernie from Winnie's book, based on the inlay style and the black painted end plate it definitely looks to be a Crossover:

Like most crossovers mine had one knee lever. If you look at the pic of Ernie's guitar it is a professional style finger housing. Mine was a separate comb like the wood neck ones but reversed around and screwed to the aluminium block. No idea of the serial no.

Thanks all. I obviously decided to pass. Would anyone have any interest in it for parts or rebuilding? It was offered to me for $200, so maybe there's enough in parts there for someone more knowledgable than me.

Let me know, and I can put you in contact.

Hey Jim,
I’ll take it if they can ship to Michigan. If you send me info via PM I’ll contact them direct.
Thanks,
Rick

David; yes like Marco referred to; they did start making a Crossover more "deluxe" in last year of the Baldwin endorsement; with the Aluminum Casted Tailpiece and well pretty much what they started making "The Professional". This last year of the "Baldwin" was the Sho~bud Lloyd Green got when he turned his "Lightening Bolt" Fingertip in he had from 1966-1970...and this Crossover Deluxe was the one he was carting around to 3 sessions a day all over nashville and asked Shot if they can take the back neck and mechanics OFF; to make it lighter and nobody wanted to hear the C6 neck anyway; at this time. So that was what Lloyd Played for those years before they finally "MADE HIM THE LDG" in May 1973. Lloyd told me he really like the sound of that big heavy "Baldwin" Sho~bud..ha....
Ricky

I'm no Ricky Davis, but I guess I'm a junior expert, having rebuilt one Crossover basket case recently. I had to cobble or scrounge a few parts, but I got it put back together and looking very nice. I chose to sell it because I found it uncomfortable to play, but I enjoyed the experience. If it's still available at that price, I'd be interested.

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