The Steel Guitar Forum

Edited again to say it has now sold.
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Edited to announce that I have decided to sell this 1949 Bigsby Vol/Tone Pedal.

Donation will be made to the Forum if a Forumite buys it.

It can be seen on eBay at the following link:

1949 Bigsby Pedal on eBay

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I have a Bigsby volume/tone pedal I bought from Paul in 1949. It served me well for about 15 years, but I haven’t used it for almost 40 years. I had the volume pot replaced by Paul in 1954 and again in 1959. It still has Paul’s notes on the manufacture date and the two dates when he replaced the pot all written on the inside of the bottom plate and barely legible because of age. Although it has a lot of sentimental value to me, I have been thinking about selling it. I'm posting this under "No Peddlers" as the profile of the pedal is a little higher than most pedal players like. Can anyone give me a tip about what kind of price I should put on it?

Thanks,

Roy
<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Roy Ayres on 25 April 2003 at 03:46 AM.]</p></FONT><FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Roy Ayres on 04 May 2003 at 11:37 PM.]</p></FONT>

$10.000.00 only because it belonged to YOU.

Otherwise $350.00. Maybe more $450.00 do I hear $500.00?? Roy needs the money for a hairpiece. <FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Jody Carver on 05 April 2003 at 07:12 PM.]</p></FONT>

A shoppe in Nashville, I believe it is, has just such a pedal of Paul's listed at $10,000 complete with show case and personal notes and photo's.

It was left to a friend of mine in Paul's Will.

Ebay has offered several this past year in the $300 + range.

You're right, Ray ... $10,000 at Gruhn Guitars. (Scroll down from the picture of George Gruhn and his lizard to check it out.) That money would buy a lot of Frying Pans and B-7s, wouldn't it?<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Russ Young on 06 April 2003 at 08:08 AM.]</p></FONT>

Roy
If It were me who owned that Bigsby pedal,I
for one wouldn't sell it.The orgin alone makes it worth more than you can imagine.

If you do want to sell it. Let someone.......

"Make You An Offer You Cant Refuse"

Michael Corleone.

Jody:

For an old ugly guy, you appear very smart. I'll think on it for a couple of weeks then decide whether to keep it or let someone else enjoy it. I have a lot of good memories associated with that pedal, so there is an incentive to keep it. On the other hand, when I expire it would probably wind up packed away or in some estate sale. If I decide to sell it, I'll probably do what you suggested.

Your handsome buddy,

Roy

Jody and Roy... what ever the pedals worth..

You two are Priceless LOL!

David:

If by "priceless" you mean "of no value" I take it you are referring to Jody. On the other hand, if you mean "beyond value" then thanks for the compliment.

<SMALL>I have a lot of good memories associated with that pedal, so there is an incentive to keep it. On the other hand, when I expire it would probably wind up packed away or in some estate sale.</SMALL>

When you expire, it won't matter. For now, the memories, I suspect, will last longer and be more valuable than $300. When I "check out" there's going to be a helluva garage sale. Ite missa est.

Roy
Please dont sell it,if nothing else its a part of your career that we all remember. Keep it.

Chas, I pray that you dont check out for many
years this world needs people like Roy and
yourself.

I have to admit I get "misty" when I see threads about those great days of Bigsby and Fender and all that
PA and LF contributed to all of us.

Thats why I post things that are of interest to me. If I see Joaquin's name and Noel's name I find it difficult to resist.

Didnt mean to take all of your time with my
"jibber jabber"

Goodbye my friends. Im Ridin Down The Canyon
to Watch The Sun Go Down, a picture that no artist "er" could paint..meanwhile its going to snow again tomorrow,,"ugh". Be well

Jody, Me Priceless? I dont think so,I work cheap .

Ooops.....I wanted to ADD a comment to this post about Jody being related to Michael Corleone.....gezzz. Didn't mean to create a whole new thing here....Jody is more than capable hizzownself to do that....

I'm still your biggest fan.....(44" waist)!!

Roy and Jody / Jody and Roy
Burns and Allen ( so who's Gracie... LOL
Heads o' tails you allz comes out funny. Eh Rochester?

Your permits may have expired,
but you're both big ticket items around here.

And now another installment of the continuing story of the Bickersons :
Uncle Jody won't let cousin Roy play in trafic, so he puts pedals on his steel and rides off looking for Sol Hoopii and the best new tuning... What's a mother to do?

Brought to you live on Radio WPSG by Fender, Bigsby and Ma Rainy's Mole Skin Cookies with extra lard injection. Um Um good!<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by David L. Donald on 07 April 2003 at 03:22 PM.]</p></FONT>

David
My ticket is bigger than Roy's,he has a tiny
ticket Shhhhhhh

Richard,,a 44 waist?? my automobile cover fits your waist....Slim Fast and call me in
the morning. <FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Jody Carver on 07 April 2003 at 05:45 PM.]</p></FONT>

I imagine you have multiple tickets...

For cross parking a '52 Desoto in front of the
Gray Panthers Squaredance Jamboree.
And one or two for doing powerslides across the lawn!

Thanks to all of you for your suggestions on whether to keep the 1949 Bigsby Vol/tone pedal or sell it, and on what it may be worth if I do decide to sell it.

I have had several email inquiries expressing an interest in it, but for the moment I have decided to keep it.

I plugged it in this weekend for the fist time in 40 years and found that it didn’t even work! All it did was make a loud roaring sound – the same way it sounds when there is a direct short like the tip of a phone plug touching ground. I visually checked it over carefully and couldn’t find anything wrong with the wiring. I’m going to go ahead and replace the capacitors and re-check it. The capacitor on the tone control is one of the old paper capacitors, and I suspect that it has dried out over the 40 years during which I had it packed away. If that doesn’t clear it up, I will either replace the pots or take it to a good technician for a diagnosis. Whatever the case, I will not modify it in any way except for capacitors and potentiometers, so it will remain exactly as Paul Bigsby built it 54 years ago.

If in the future I decide to sell it, I will be sure to post on the Forum again before doing anything like putting it on Ebay.

Again, thanks to all of you for your interest and advice. (Ain’t this Forum a blessing to folks like me?)

BTW, Jody, you will be happy to know that the pedal I am actively using is a Fender.

Priceless means a museum piece.
Roy, just turn the Bigs VP to the
Bickerson Twins Steel Museum in OKC
what you got to go in there Jody ?
BTW: how are the sales on your new steels comin along ?

------------------
Steel what?

Crow Bear:

Our "Ohs-hit" line of steel guitar accessories isn't going too well. I did get one plain white envelope with $1,000.00 in small unmarked bills with an order for our SG bench with broken glass and razor wire. But when I tried to deposit the money, the bank told me all of the bills were counterfeit. Danged crook. Tried to bamboozle me. Ya just can't trust anybody nowadays.

Well that's what you get for holdin' a steel bar Roy
your Brother and you should have stayed on the Farm and learnt regular guitar and fiddle
rather than play that fancy stuff and go to the big cities
the Soggy Bottom Boys beat ya'to it
have you thought of
settin' your steel shop up at the Museum ?
i'm sure the Curator would be glad to have you 2 around
(groups tour, real purty visitors, repossesion man, etc...
Keep yer Goodies Roy or make sure they're goin to the right place
try Swiss francs instead of that funny money
when i doubt check out w: Sotheby's


<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by CrowBear Schmitt on 16 April 2003 at 02:13 PM.]</p></FONT>

CrowBear:

I may be guilty of pulling my own thread off topic, but I gotta respond since you mentioned my "brother." You were probably joking, but I don't think I ever posted the fact that my brother was, in fact, a steel man too. His name was Robert Vearl Ayres, and I think he went by "Vearl.". He played for awhile with Hank Snow and later with Jimmy Dickens. He passed away about 21 years ago from a brain tumor. He was a much better steel man than me; played a real wild style something like Slim Idaho.

Roy please accept my apologies if i have caused you any grief.

CrowBear:

I didn't mean to imply any grief. It's just that your referring to Jody as my brother reminded me to post about my real brother. Besides, Vearl was handsome like the rest of the Ayres clan -- not lake that old ugly Carver guy.

I think the pedal should go to the museum eventually...
with Jody and Roy bronzed and set next to it! Fingers pointed of course.

Ps. Roy, it was nice to hear about Vearl too.<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by David L. Donald on 17 April 2003 at 04:20 AM.]</p></FONT>

Roy, did your brother have the opportunity to record? If so, may we have a small discography of what to listen to. Did you get to play/record together as pros? It would be a rare and interesting chance to listen to brothers on steel. What steels did he play mostly? Sorry to hear he's not still around.

Ron:

Thanks for asking about my brother. I'll be pleased to answer your question, but as the subject is off topic -- and Vearl deserves a thread of his own -- I'll start a new thread later tonight under "Our Extended Family." Look for my answer there. Who knows, maybe someone out there will remember him, even though his music career was short.

Roy

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