The Steel Guitar Forum

After the sad news that Rusty Young has passed away, I've seen lots of photos being posted.

I have an abiding memory of Rusty being linked with ZBs and, indeed, there are pictures showing him with one. There are more photos showing him with his Sho-Bud, though - can anyone tell me when he played either brand?

In '72, he was still featured in ZB's brochures.

I saw them perform perhaps 4 times around 72-75. He was playing a Sho-Bud on each of those shows.

He was also playing a Melobar slide when I saw Poco in Offenbach.
Maybe in '78.

Me as well, when I saw Rusty he was playing Sho Buds but there are countless photos with him playing S10 Carters.

I saw him several times playing both ZBs and Sho-Buds. Don't positively remember which was first though. I think it was ZB first. Rusty and Jerry Garcia are the primary reasons I chose ZB as my first PSG.

He must have switched from ZB to Shobud sometime in late 72 or early 73.

Yep, 72:

“ The Fender 1000 double neck was Rusty's first pedal steel. He played it until 1964 when he made an endorsement arrangement with ZB which lasted until early in 1972 when he switched to Sho-Bud. The change from ZB shocked Rusty's fans, and probably even the ZB people. "I went to Sho-Bud," he explains, "because ZB hadn't changed or, improved. Tom Brumley was the president for a while, but he was a musician and couldn't get into the business part of it. The new owners are interested in steel, but are carpet business people, and care primarily about things like costs and such. They'd try to cut corners by using the cheapest keys and things. The strings were hard to get to when they needed changing, and here I was one of their endorsers but they wouldn't listen to me when I offered suggestions on things like that. And because I travelled, all over the world, my instrument would get beat up, but the people couldn't understand it, and they'd hassle me all the time about it."

A Denver friend, Don Edwards, runs Guitar City there, and turned Rusty on to a Sho-Bud Professional. "Don is like my mentor," the guitarist says, "and when he said he'd found a model I might like I went right in and tried it. It has Grover keys, the best pedal changer system I've played, and I can change tuning in an hour instead of having to send away for parts."

Here’s the full article:
https://www.calsharp.com/rusty.html

My band used Rusty a couple of times as a sub for Allyn Love...

He was playing a keyless BMI steel at that time(maybe'90?)...

A wonderful cat...and what else can be said about his playing?

A game changer...

SH

I love that picture Fish but a guy has gotta do what a guy has gotta do to keep the show going. That is just a COOL picture. J.R.

Thanks, everyone - interesting responses.

J R Rose wrote:I love that picture Fish but a guy has gotta do what a guy has gotta do to keep the show going. That is just a COOL picture. J.R.

I don’t understand how it is even possible to do what he’s doing in that pic. The caption should be “If M.C. Escher were a photographer for Rolling Stone”.

I finally understood what you meant, Fred

Fred Treece wrote: I don’t understand how it is even possible to do what he’s doing in that pic. The caption should be “If M.C. Escher were a photographer for Rolling Stone”.

I was scratching my head over this too. I guess he de-clutched the back legs on his guitar? Also from his switches it looks like Rusty’s got both necks ON with the 12k coil tap, which might be why he’s got his head twisted away from the amp like that!

Rusty's last steel was an (unbadged) Carter S10

He brought it into Scotty's music for an overhaul prior to one of Poco's last tours - and was gracious to autograph all of my Poco LP's

He influenced a lot of Players

Dave Zirbel wrote:Yep, 72:

“ A Denver friend, Don Edwards, runs Guitar City there, and turned Rusty on to a Sho-Bud Professional. "Don is like my mentor," the guitarist says, "and when he said he'd found a model I might like I went right in and tried it. It has Grover keys, the best pedal changer system I've played, and I can change tuning in an hour instead of having to send away for parts."

Here’s the full article:
https://www.calsharp.com/rusty.html

Dave, wasn't Don Edwards the builder of the Edwards Lightbeam volume pedal? Used to play through one till I discovered it was sucking out all my highs and switched to Goodrich, then Hilton, now both Hilton and Telonics. Just curious!

I don’t know, John.✌️

John McClung wrote:

Dave Zirbel wrote:Yep, 72:

“ A Denver friend, Don Edwards, runs Guitar City there, and turned Rusty on to a Sho-Bud Professional. "Don is like my mentor," the guitarist says, "and when he said he'd found a model I might like I went right in and tried it. It has Grover keys, the best pedal changer system I've played, and I can change tuning in an hour instead of having to send away for parts."

Here’s the full article:
https://www.calsharp.com/rusty.html

Dave, wasn't Don Edwards the builder of the Edwards Lightbeam volume pedal? Used to play through one till I discovered it was sucking out all my highs and switched to Goodrich, then Hilton, now both Hilton and Telonics. Just curious!

I'm not positive, but I think so. I had one too and got rid of it for the same reason. But back in the 70's or 80's, it was state of the art.

The Bear indeed!

I'm new here.. my name is Sara Young. I just got the Bear recently. Very cool instrument. Love seeing my Dad playing it in the black and white pics online.

Richard Sinkler wrote:

John McClung wrote:

Dave Zirbel wrote:Yep, 72:

“ A Denver friend, Don Edwards, runs Guitar City there, and turned Rusty on to a Sho-Bud Professional. "Don is like my mentor," the guitarist says, "and when he said he'd found a model I might like I went right in and tried it. It has Grover keys, the best pedal changer system I've played, and I can change tuning in an hour instead of having to send away for parts."

Here’s the full article:
https://www.calsharp.com/rusty.html

Dave, wasn't Don Edwards the builder of the Edwards Lightbeam volume pedal? Used to play through one till I discovered it was sucking out all my highs and switched to Goodrich, then Hilton, now both Hilton and Telonics. Just curious!

I'm not positive, but I think so. I had one too and got rid of it for the same reason. But back in the 70's or 80's, it was state of the art.

He did indeed. Don sold me my first pro-level steel, an MSA D-10 Classic which I still have, and I took lessons there from Mike Russo, who followed Ronnie Miller into the steel teacher slot.My first VP was an Edwards Light Beam and over the years followed it with four more, one of them a rare(but unfortunately non-working) volume-and-tone model.

Rusty did teach at Guitar City but was long gone by the time I studied there. His name, though, was still on the door of the teaching room.

Sara Young wrote:I'm new here.. my name is Sara Young. I just got the Bear recently. Very cool instrument. Love seeing my Dad playing it in the black and white pics online.

Hi Sara. Welcome. We're all big fans of your Dad here, but I guess you already know that.

Jerry Overstreet wrote:

Sara Young wrote:I'm new here.. my name is Sara Young. I just got the Bear recently. Very cool instrument. Love seeing my Dad playing it in the black and white pics online.

Hi Sara. Welcome. We're all big fans of your Dad here, but I guess you already know that.

Thank you! I'm a big fan of my Dad too . I'm happy to be surrounded by those that loved him as well!

Does anyone have pictures of the Carters he played? I'm a big fan of the S10 Carters!