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Topic: There's a new 'Bud in town... |
Dave Grafe
From:
Hudson River Valley NY
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Posted 31 Oct 2013 3:16 pm |
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Thanks to the ready support and generosity of my local steelers, this Friday's show at the Landmark will be the stage debut of my newly resuscitated ShoBud Super Pro.
This guitar was a sad case when Bob Muller traded it for my Pro I a little over a month ago; real pretty on top but an awful mess underneath, and sticky-greasy-horrid to touch. After a complete tear-down and cleaning there were a few parts missing, so Doug Jones came up with a box of spare parts, Lynn Stafford came up ball links and new rubber feet for the well-seasoned legs of Eric West's old "knife-handle" Professional. Bob had the legs left over from that restoration project, and I made them fully functional with parts from some surplus mic stands.
Since I brought it home I've been in the shop working on it every free moment. I've been traveling a lot for television work lately, so I've been taking the guitar body and case on the road, working out rods and tuning and timing and so forth in my hotel room during off hours. I had to swap a few changers around due to rivet wear, but all of the original parts have proven fully functional, and the knew levers and all but one of the mounting brackets are hunky milled alloy replacements.
It came with a George L E66 on the E9 neck, which sounds big and smooth, far better than I had hoped. Only the top changer cover was carved out to accept the larger pickup, and the ShoBud pickup that came with the back neck was broken, so Bob gave me the pickup from my old Pro I for it. It's tuned, it's timed, it's stable, and just plain yummy!
So I'm bringing it out to play, but it's not quite finished, as there are Sperzel's yet to be replaced - thus it's a 10 string E9 and and 8 string C6 at the moment, and a few tuners are brutally stiff, but it plays and sounds so absolutely scrumptious that I can't bear to leave it at home any longer 
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Ken Campbell
From:
Ferndale, Montana
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Posted 31 Oct 2013 5:06 pm Wow
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| Sweet! |
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Bob Muller
From:
Oregon, USA
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Posted 31 Oct 2013 10:23 pm
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| Dave, looks like you are doing a great job with the old Super Pro. So the guitar still has life left in it, hope it turns out to be a great player for you for many years to come. Hope to get out and see you playing it live here in the near future. Looks like it's returned to good hands again. |
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Richard Sinkler
From:
aka: Rusty Strings -- Missoula, Montana
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Posted 1 Nov 2013 9:33 am
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The Super-Pro is a great guitar. I hated mine only because the knee lever brackets on the LKL would break because of the angle that my knee hit the lever. Earlier Bud undercarriages had the LKL cross bar at an angle that I am sure was to counteract that problem. I got rid of mine when there was no internet in my life, and I was not aware that people were making solid aluminum replacements. I really wish I could have that guitar back. It sounded great, but because of hum problems, I bought a couple of Lawrence 710's from Tommy White to put on it. Still sounded like a Bud, but no hum in the clubs.
Enjoy the guitar. It looks great.
_________________
Carter D10 8p/8k, Dekley S10 3p/4k C6 setup,Regal RD40 Dobro, Recording King Professional Dobro, NV400, NV112,Ibanez Gio guitar, Epiphone SG Special (open D slide guitar) . Playing for 55 years and still counting. |
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Dave Grafe
From:
Hudson River Valley NY
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Posted 1 Nov 2013 9:15 pm
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...so we had a real fine time, Bob and Kathy came down to help celebrate the rebirth and boy howdy what a fine sounding guitar this has turned out to be. Which leads me to the question of the hour: Who said a George L E66 is a bad match for a Shobud guitar? What is that about anyway? All I can speak to is that this particular guitar is tonally flawless with the E66 set slightly on the low side under the E9 neck, and I've got witnesses who will testify that it's not just my imagination or wishful thinking...
Last edited by Dave Grafe on 10 Nov 2013 10:19 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Scott Hay
From:
Portland, OR / Yucca Valley, CA USA
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Posted 1 Nov 2013 10:44 pm
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| Awesome Dave, look forward to hearing you play it! |
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Bob Muller
From:
Oregon, USA
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Posted 1 Nov 2013 10:55 pm
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I went down to the landmark tonight to see Dave playing his new old Sho-Bud, boy that thing sounds great!! We truly enjoyed the evening, and the band who put out some mighty good music. Clearly the old Bud ended up in the right hands, a great combination of player and guitar. The guitar also features the legs from the old "Eric West" guitar, and a pickup from Dave's old single neck on the C6 neck. Now that's a lot of history in one guitar!
Last edited by Bob Muller on 2 Nov 2013 10:58 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Tony Glassman
From:
The Great Northwest
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Posted 2 Nov 2013 7:27 am
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| Dave, is that guitar coming to the PDX jam? |
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chris ivey
From:
california (deceased)
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Posted 2 Nov 2013 9:14 am
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nice looking steel. maybe it sounds good cause of the seasoning of the metal in erics old legs.
that volume pedal would annoy me, though. |
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Kenneth Kotsay
From:
Davie/Ft Lauderdale, Florida
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Posted 2 Nov 2013 11:32 am
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Any photos of the new under carriage??
KEN |
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Dave Grafe
From:
Hudson River Valley NY
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Posted 3 Nov 2013 10:10 pm
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| Yep, Chris, I've yet to install a bracket for my "real" VP, so am making do for the time being with a backup. The old EB does sound good, but I know you are right about secret being in the legs... |
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Dave Grafe
From:
Hudson River Valley NY
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Posted 4 Nov 2013 9:10 am
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I'm definitely intending to bring it out to the December gathering, Tony, maybe I'll have the rest of the tuners on it by then  |
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Stu Schulman
From:
Ulster Park New Yawk (deceased)
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Posted 8 Nov 2013 7:01 am
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Dave,Wish I could hear you play it?
_________________
Steeltronics Z-pickup,Desert Rose S-10 4+5,Desert Rose Keyless S-10 3+5... Mullen G2 S-10 3+5,Telonics 206 pickups,Telonics volume pedal.,Blanton SD -10,Emmons GS_10...Zirctone bar,Bill Groner Bar...any amp that isn't broken.Steel Seat.Com seats...Licking paint chips off of Chinese Toys since 1952. |
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Larry Bressington
From:
Nebraska
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Posted 9 Nov 2013 6:54 am
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That's beautiful work Davo... I think an E66 sound great in a Bud, I ran em for years, classic sound!
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A.K.A Chappy. |
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Dave Grafe
From:
Hudson River Valley NY
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Posted 10 Nov 2013 11:39 am
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Got to find a gig in AK Stu, I'd bring it up in a heartbeat
Here's one photo of the nether workings, as best as my phone can capture it, I'll find my real camera here someday...
Note that I have kept one pot-metal knee bracket on RKL, where it takes the least stress. We made a boat-load of knee paddles and other fiddledeebits while we were at it, I will bring some to the December pow-wow as well... |
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