The Steel Guitar Forum

Can I say "Flock It"?
Guess thats alright if we are talking about the underside of the steel guitar.

With some helpful advise from Mike Scaggs I decided to do the underside of this re-build in Bright Red Flocking.
He let me know the best place to get the material, some youtube links as well as a few tips. For anyone who don't know, he is one of the best at restoring steels.


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The guitar was originally done in that weird speckled undercoat that looked like a cheap kitchen appliance and would have showed the places where all that C6th neck stuff had been. I expect the flocking will not only look much better, but may help dampen some of the rack noise too.

I will use a Wallace Truetone split pickup and add a red fake leather pad about 5" wide X 12" long for an armrest to cover the hole where the C6th changer came through. Will be set up with 4&4.

Good to be getting back to this project after a 5 year delay.
It needs a couple more coats of lacquer which I'll have to hold up on until I can get back home.
My good friend Denny died two months ago so I sent his Black & Purple steel to Tommy Huff for him to finish up for himself

The one with the British racing green finish will be the last one to get done.

Back in the 1960's, I done some flocking in shop class at school. The flocking fiber used back then was wool fiber. The dang moths would find it and lay eggs when the worm phase hatched they would eat the flocking right down to the glue.

You may want to put a grooved tray where the head stock was for picks and bar, Or a drink holder.
Looking Great on the rebuild.

That 'Bud would look nice flocked in red, Andy. Like this one:

Flock It is amazing

Jack Hanson wrote:That 'Bud would look nice flocked in red, Andy. Like this one:

Jusr what I'm looking to get. I'm also gonna glean up all the pull racks and paint them silver too.

I re-flock just about every pedal steel I rebuild.
Usually by the time I get them they have been modified in one way of another and have a bunch of holes underneath.
Re-flocking can cover up a multitude of sins!
Erv

At the beginning some years ago I started out with my buddy, Denny to turn two old and almost worthless Sho~Bud D-10's into four SD-10's.
The project got delayed when I got stuck in a wheel chair for a year needing back surgery. Thats why this took so long to get back to it.

This is the thread to how that project went....
https://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=247825

Erv Niehaus wrote:I re-flock just about every pedal steel I rebuild.
Usually by the time I get them they have been modified in one way of another and have a bunch of holes underneath.
Re-flocking can cover up a multitude of sins!
Erv

So true Erv. I do same thing everytime I rebuild one. It’s easy to do and not expensive and really looks nice. Last guitar I worked on, had to take a putty knife and actually scrap old flocking off because think it was being sprayed with WD-40 and old flocking was just a gummy mess, lol. Looked great when I finished.

Henry,
I always plug the old screw holes before I re-flock it.
Erv

Does flocking affect the tone/sustain of the guitar?

Not that I can tell.
Erv

Super classy looking. I'd probably end up drilling more holes in it, knowing me...

Do some people put lights in the undercarriage, like ground effects on a car? I thought I saw a Johnny Cox video where he had that. Apologies for being off-topic...

Andrew Goulet wrote:Super classy looking. I'd probably end up drilling more holes in it, knowing me...

Do some people put lights in the undercarriage, like ground effects on a car? I thought I saw a Johnny Cox video where he had that. Apologies for being off-topic...

MSA will add cool underside lighting. They also have illuminated fretboards that would be nice in a dark club. Check out their web site...

b0b wrote:Does flocking affect the tone/sustain of the guitar?

Hi Bob,
I was wondering the same thing myself?
For me, No way to tell because I only got the steel in beat up condition.
Think I plugged it in once to see that the pickups worked.
That was 5 or 6 years ago so I only remember that both worked.
The steel was not in operating shape and I did nothing but tear it down.

I hope it improves the tone or at least does not hurt it. I do hope it cuts down on some of that famous Sho~Bud rack & barrel noise.
My other concern is that as time goes by will the flocking compress and the underside parts loosen up a bit?
My guess is if so many guys like Mike, Erv, Henery and other pros have used it that they would not have done so if there were negatives.
Merry Christmas to you and your family.
Andy

Andrew Goulet wrote:Super classy looking. I'd probably end up drilling more holes in it, knowing me...

Do some people put lights in the undercarriage, like ground effects on a car? I thought I saw a Johnny Cox video where he had that. Apologies for being off-topic...

If you happen to have an extra fifteen grand or so burning a hole in your pocket, you could spring for a Ric 331:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxj8MeM8z60

Jack Hanson wrote:

Andrew Goulet wrote:Super classy looking. I'd probably end up drilling more holes in it, knowing me...

Do some people put lights in the undercarriage, like ground effects on a car? I thought I saw a Johnny Cox video where he had that. Apologies for being off-topic...

If you happen to have an extra fifteen grand or so burning a hole in your pocket, you could spring for a Ric 331:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxj8MeM8z60

Hi Jack,
I really wanted one of those in 1968/69 but I've outgrown that now.
Never stop being amazed what people will pay these days for some of those so called vintage guitars....
In 68 the music shops couldn't hardly give away aa Fender with a paisley finish.
Now they are expensive collectors items.

Got it done. Now the flocking is finished but I'll let it dry for another 24 hours before I shake out the excess flocking.
Not the perfect job but it looks a lot better than it did before and I learned a few things along the way.

Andy DePaule wrote:

Jack Hanson wrote:

Andrew Goulet wrote:Super classy looking. I'd probably end up drilling more holes in it, knowing me...

Do some people put lights in the undercarriage, like ground effects on a car? I thought I saw a Johnny Cox video where he had that. Apologies for being off-topic...

If you happen to have an extra fifteen grand or so burning a hole in your pocket, you could spring for a Ric 331:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxj8MeM8z60

Hi Jack,
I really wanted one of those in 1968/69 but I've outgrown that now.
Never stop being amazed what people will pay these days for some of those so called vintage guitars....
In 68 the music shops couldn't hardly give away aa Fender with a paisley finish.
Now they are expensive collectors items.

Fifteen grand for a 331 lightshow seems pretty reasonable compared to some others....

Fifteen grand for a 331 lightshow seems pretty reasonable compared to some others....
[/quote]

Whats is reasonable is something I guess is up to the person cutting loose with the cash?
I've built guitars for a living most of my working life since 1969. I just can't imagine that any of these guitars are equal in value to 8 or 10 modern sedans with the thousands of close tolerance parts and engineering required to make them run as well as they do.

Seeing that 1959 Sunburst Les Paul for over $269,000 reminded me of my friend and band mate, Johnny Guitar. He had one just like that and the same year in very nice condition. He often said it was worth a lot. Last May he died of a massive infection at 51 years of age. This happened in Saigon. The next day two close friends went to collect his things to send to his family in Australia. The Les Paul had gone missing in that 24 hours. Must have been his new girl friend or possibly his landlord. Even the police had also been in his room for a while investigating the death. No one seems to know who took it, but someone did.

Reminder: this section of the forum is for discussions about pedal steel.

b0b wrote:Reminder: this section of the forum is for discussions about pedal steel.

Hi Bob,
Guess that did get a little off track! I'll try to stay on the subject.
Vintage guitar prices just seem so odd to me, but I'm not really a collector, though I do enjoy getting an older steel up and running.
Andy

Andy, I just examined the pictures of your rebuild and have to say it's stunning work. What an incredible amount of time and care to convert the clunker to a masterpiece. Your work and attention to details is unmatched. Beautiful job and such eye candy. I would be reluctant to take it out of the house.

Oh, oops...sorry b0b - ditto what Andy said.

And Andy, ditto what Larry said! She looks beautiful, as your other restorations have. I recall a blue darlin’ of sorts that you did in the recent past. I would expect more inlay from you though.
That birdseye that Sho Bud was able to get a hold of back in the day is pretty special...

Thanks Larry, but truth be told there are a lot of guys far better than me.
I just love to tinker around.