Barn Find Steel Guitar!

[TR Kelley]

Hello folks, this is my first post - i have an S10 pedal steel that was abandoned in my barn 20 years ago. So finders keepers, i finally decided to check it out. I'm a professional bassist (fretless!) but other than playing in a few country bands with pedal steel players, i know pretty much nothing. I'm an accomplished noob on lap steel.

I am not interested in any purported dollar value of this machine, i actually more interested in fixing it's broken cabinet and playing it if possible. Any info appreciated.



. My main question,How would you figure out if it was an E9 or C6, and if it's one can you change it to the other? I'm more interested in C6 but hey a free steel, i'm not going to complain.

3 pedals, 1 lever. I put sewing machine oil on everything metal thing that moves, and now things DO move. strings are on but floppy, etc. no tone bar.

[Chris Brooks]

Pretty sure it was made to be an E9. It has the 3 pedals of an E9.

I have never heard of the company. What does the front say? In fact TR, how about a couple of more shots of the instrument: front, sides, top? Close-up of the changer?

Some of the gang here will probably chime in and tell us about the axe.

Playing wise, it's fairly limited: 1 more knee lever would bring it up to minimum. But heck if it gets you playing steel, that's good!

How do the pedals and levers feel? Any lumps in the action as far as you can tell?

[john buffington]

Looks like a "Little Buddy"!

[TR Kelley]

More pics - no visible branding or ornamentation. seems inexpensively made.
Tuning machine strips are discontinuous and the peg-heads don't match as a set. two different types.






I have not been able to test the pedals and lever because the one of the guitars legs that the lower pedal mechanism attaches to has been ripped out of the cabinet, socket and all; I can mechanically fix this, but not tonight.

[Ivan Funk]

Yeah a Little Buddy with a bullet hole in the end plate.

Looks like a fun project.

[Frank Freniere]

Looks like a "Little Buddy"!

My very first steel!

[Terry Winter]

Yep had one years ago ..... Little Buddy.

[Tommy Mc]

More pics - no visible branding or ornamentation. seems inexpensively made.

I have not been able to test the pedals and lever because the one of the guitars legs that the lower pedal mechanism attaches to has been ripped out of the cabinet, socket and all; I can mechanically fix this, but not tonight.

Yes, it's a "Little Buddy" with E9 tuning. I owned one briefly when I was learning to play. It was pretty low quality, even for a starter steel. It doesn't surprise me that the endplate/leg mount is torn out. One of the biggest annoyances with mine was the instability (wobble) of the legs. Not sure how you plan to fix the pot-metal endplate, but you might look at ways to beef it up. My solution was to remount the pedals to a much wider board...maybe 10" or so, and attach to each leg with 2 bolt/wingnuts. I was working in a Formica shop at the time, and was able to match the laminate fairly close. It still looked funky, but did stabilize the legs a but.

One feature that looks like has been (thankfully) removed from yours is a built in volume pedal. It worked like your other 3 pedals, only on the right leg. No loss, as it was very awkward to use and gets in the way if you want to use a real one.

Anyway, my advice is have fun with the restoration if you can do it on the cheap. The instrument would have very little value, even if it was pristine.

[Jack Hanson]

If those things are indeed as bad as everyone seems to agree they are, that may seemingly explain why somebody shot it and abandoned it in a barn.

[Bobby D. Jones]

When I seen the hole in the end plate, And the broken cast metal. I said to myself that is a bullet hole. Brought back memories of investigating vandal shootings as a wildlife officer for years.

My next thought was, What was the reason for the gun shot.

Was the owner/player mad at the guitar and shot it. Because he couldn't find the lick he was looking for.

Was the player messing with some ones sweetie, And the jealous one shot at the player.

Or if the owner was sitting at the guitar playing it, And so engrossed with the guitar. He wouldn't take the garbage out, And his wife or girl friend got mad and shot the guitar.

[Dave Mudgett]

Just doing a search on the phone number 313-388-1488 reveals quite a bit of information, including a link to the owner's manual

https://www.steelguitar.com/manuals/Lit ... Manual.pdf

a reverb.com sale several years ago

https://reverb.com/item/1095478-little- ... 80-s-black

Then doing a google search for little buddy pedal steel - https://www.google.com/search?q=little+ ... edal+steel - will reveal a lot more, including older forum threads and a youtube video (just audio with a photo of the guitar) of Bob Tuttle playing The Healing Hands of Time on a Little Buddy - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2myECgt5fb4

So --- just in case anybody says a Little Buddy isn't worth the time to fix - they should listen to Bob play one.

[Frank Freniere]

Looks like a "Little Buddy"!

My very first steel!

Oh and one other thing: my Buddy had ash tray tuners, not a fancy key head.