Sho Bud LDG with 2-Hole-Pullers and 2+2 Changer

Dave Mudgett · From: Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee

I ran across this last weekend. 3+4, basically Emmons setup with E-lowers on LKR, and I assume from the features mid-70s. I haven't had a chance to work with this particular undercarriage variant before, but it's the best Bud I've had my hands on by far. Tuning is really stable (Hey, Bob Carlucci - I think this is the Bud mechanism you want), it's dead easy to work on, and it plays and sounds great. Although there are obviously some significant differences, it reminds me of my Franklin in several ways. I'm gonna gig this Saturday night, first time I haven't used a Zum or Franklin in several years, but I have to try this.

Lighting isn't great, but you can see what's going on. Here's the link to the folder and then a few of the shots. I did some basic cleaning and setup, but it was in fairly good shape for not having been played in quite a while:

http://acs.ist.psu.edu/mudgett/photos/ldg/

mike nolan · From: Forest Hills, NY USA

I had one from this era for a while. I don't know why I sold it, cause it was a really great sounding guitar. Mine did have wide pedals though, otherwise identical.

Ward Orsinger · From: Runge Texas

A very special guitar there sir, mine is similar except for the swaged metal rod ends, and brass barrel tuners onboard. Happy playing , I admire your posts.

Chris Lucker · From: Los Angeles, California USA

Just as mike said above, I had one of these in blonde D10 with wide pedals and I wish I kept it. My favorite Sho-Bud.
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Chris Lucker
Red Bellies, Bigsbys and a lot of other guitars.

Tom Wolverton · From: Carpinteria, CA

If it was a few years earlier, it would have barrels and wide pedals (round front). Jim Palenscar had one in his shop a while back. It was a fantastic 'bud. I would have bought it if I had the ding-ding ($). It was a faded green LDG. Great tone and played like a dream. These are all nice.
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Ricky Davis · From: Bertram, Texas USA

There were several mechanical changes through the inception of the LDG(1973) and the last LDG's built in the 80's when sho~bud shut down.
All not equal in any way.
Ward your's is a D-10 and the one I sold you is from Dicky Overbey....and is nothing like this one pictured....as yours is MUCH MUCH better mechanically set up. Or is the one I sold you the one from Lloyd Maines?? can't remember bro sorry...OLD-timers disease..ha.
narrow slick pedals mean mid-70's. Wide pedals mean 74'-'75ish. round front green tint on texture underneath mean barrel tuning and single/single and 1973 first year(Like mine and Lloyd Green). "SP" under the "LDG" means special paint and Paul Franklin Sr. custom made those per order. And BTW Paul Franklin Sr. Designed most all mechanics and important parts of the shobuds all through the 70's...Not anyone else designed...sure they made the parts...but per his design.
Paul Sr. was/is so far beyond any steel guitar designer; they all looked upon him as GOD...except Ed Fulawka and Leonard Stadler..pretty much did their own thing.
Ricky
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Ricky Davis
Email Ricky: sshawaiian2362@gmail.com

Dave Mudgett · From: Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee

Yeah, I know this is different from barrels-behind-two-hole pullers with the swaged metal rod ends. But I'll tell ya' - I really like this steel. Those 2-hole pullers are rock-solid. I way prefer this to rack/barrel or later Super-Pro style designs, of which I have had a couple of each. I assume the changer has chromed pot-metal fingers - the strings are held in via slots instead of pins. But they're showing absolutely no wear, and I know this guitar was played plenty over the course of its life.

I just did enough setup on this so I could gig it this weekend. The action on the A and B pedals was so light I could hardly play it - I need a bit of resistance, so I moved some of the rods to the upper hole in the two-hole puller and shortened the throw, that nailed it perfectly. The other issues were that the 9th string D=>C# rod was missing, so I improvised a rod; this necessitated resetting D#=>D=>C# on string 2, which has a nice, solid feel-stop at D; and I had to put my G#=>F# lower on string 6, which went in with absolutely no problems. But I still need to give this a full going over when I have more time - the stuff I didn't touch needs a good cleaning and straightening, and some of the pulls aren't the way I prefer them. But the guitar still plays and sounds real good.

Besides the pot metal changer fingers, there are a few things that might be worth tweaking. For example, the way the levers attach to the body seems weak. But, by and large, I wouldn't change much on this guitar.

Jon Light · From: Saugerties, NY

This has all the features of my 12 string Pro 1 (except I also have wide pedals).
Being a 'fixator', I sort of can only concentrate on one guitar at a time and after a couple of years of exclusively playing the Bud I've gone back to the Fessenden. But knock on wood, I don't intend to let mine get away.

That's a greener Green than you tend to see. Remarkably unfaded!

Lane Gray · From: Topeka, KS

Gorgeous axe.
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2 pedal steels, a lapStrat, and an 8-string Dobro (and 3 ukes)
More amps than guitars, and not many effects

Jim Palmer · From: fredericton, nb

I have a 77 blonde pro-1 with the pot metal fingers but I would like to change them to Alunium (sp?)Doe's anyone make these?

Mike Wheeler · From: Delaware, Ohio, USA

Jim, contact forum member James Morehead. He has what you need.
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Mike

Ronnie Boettcher · From: Brunswick Ohio, USA

Dave, you have an exact twin of mine. I bought mine in 1977, new, and it was made in January of 1977. I still play mine every week, and it is like the energizer bunny. Just keeps going. Hope you get many miles on it. Good luck, Ronnie
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Sho-Bud LDG, Martin D28, Ome trilogy 5 string banjo, Ibanez 4-string bass, dobro, fiddle, and a tubal cain. Life Member of AFM local 142

Bob Carlucci · From: Candor, New York, USA

Very Nice Dave,and yes thats the undercarriage I want!.. I just don't see many double raise/lower with 2 hole pullers in the single frame s 10 out there, although I am sure they made a few somewhere along the line.. I had that set up in a ProIII, and it was the most stable Bud I have owned, and played so beautifully. I honestly believe you don't find many Buds with this undercarriage for sale simply because guys don't sell them.they really work well...
I do recall I had to modify a few changer fingers so they would get full tone lowers.
Removed some material to get more pull.
It was along time ago, but I remember some guys back then had trouble getting the 2nd string to pull down a full tone with than changer.
Other than that, it was the best "mechanical' Bud I ever owned..
Your LDG is a beauty!... bob
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Dave Mudgett · From: Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee

Bob, I had absolutely no problem getting either string 6 (.020 plain) or string 2 (.015 plain) to make the whole-tone drop. I could get them to lower even than further that by lengthening the throw by backing off the set-screw - there was still more room at the changer end to drop further. Not sure if it would drop a .021/.022 wound 6th string a whole tone, but it might with a real long throw. I may try that - I like the sound of a wound 6th, and it does help with cabinet drop, which is not huge on this guitar, but is noticeable enough that I have to compromise a bit tuning the 6th string - I open-tune it a hair sharp of JI. I should look around to see if someone makes a wound .021/.022 with a bit larger-than-typical core diameter - the larger the core, the easier it is to do the drop.

The only limitation I see in this changer is that there are only 2 up and 2 down, but I guess you could use barrels to get additional changes if you needed to, n'est ce pas? Myself, I'm OK with what this guitar does right now. I sort of miss the B=>Bb lever, but even if I added a vertical lever for that, both lower holes are available on both strings 5 and 10. So this changer limitation isn't any type of issue for me.

I used this steel at my gig last night. I thought it sounded good in the mix, especially considering that it was a bit chaotic due to adding a fiddle and an upright piano (which was slightly out-of-tune from being moved) to do a pile of Commander Cody tunes. This guitar has a nice, natural presence. This original pickup, wound to 14.0 KOhm on the dot, doesn't really need anything - it works fine straight into an old Fender amp or the NV 112/400, but I used my Freeloader into a Sho Bud volume pedal. I wound up using a ca. 20-year-old '63 Vibroverb reissue amp last night, with a pair of Jensen C10Q speakers - nice glassy tone, and no problem hearing me. This is one of the early reissues, about the only Fender reissue amp I've ever really been happy with, and the C10Q (10") speakers work fine for E9, to me at least.

Ronnie - Lord willin' and the creeks don't rise, I plan to put some miles on this one. I believe this is the Bud I will keep. I honestly thought I was done buying pedal steels (and I really need to stop it), but something about this guitar spoke to me.

Jon Light · From: Saugerties, NY

I needed to remove some wood in order to get a full step raise on string 1, F#>G#. Just couldn't quite get there, otherwise.

Ronnie Boettcher · From: Brunswick Ohio, USA

Dave, I am glad you like that LDG. I don"t think I will ever need a different one. And one time in 76, or early 77, I was in Nashville recording at RCA, and Lloyd Green was on steel for us. After talking to him, he recommended me buying the LDG. Went home and ordered the one I have. Still love it.
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Sho-Bud LDG, Martin D28, Ome trilogy 5 string banjo, Ibanez 4-string bass, dobro, fiddle, and a tubal cain. Life Member of AFM local 142

Frank Parish · From: Nashville,Tn. USA

I had a Pro II, my first D-10 with the 2/2 changer and it was so worn out it would break strings like crazy. I was told it was a 74 with the round body and narrow pedals. Green and faded so bad I refinished it to black and you could still see the birdseye. I wish I'd have kept it so I could rebuild it with new better made fingers but those old pot metal guitars had great tone. That one had great tone in spite of breaking strings like crazy haha!

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