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Daniel J. Cormier
MCI D-10 , Peavey Sessions 500 & 400 Limited ,Nashville 400
http://www.cajunsteelguitar.com email at djcormier@cox-internet.com

I own a Cougar SD-10 (model 1095) which I think is like the one Mr. Cormier has on his web site. Its certainly not an Emmons, or a Mullen, but it is quite serviceable. It stays in tune, the mechanics are pretty good, and mine had all the standard changes on it (Bob Shilling copedant). Its pretty easy to work on, and sounds decent with the stock pickup... probably better with a higher quality pickup. The stock pickup that came with mine was wound to 17k, and was quite 'hot'.

The model I have has painted end plates, I guess to keep down the cost. I would bet that they could be taken off and polished if one wanted to make it look a little more refined.

One downside, on mine at least is the legs, which have a less than perfect adjustment mechanism, causing them to occasionally slip. Not a show stopper, just an annoyance.

The other problem I have with mine is that the changer fingers are made out of very soft aluminum that required me to polish out the string grooves everytime I changed strings.

I bought mine as my first pedal steel, and I feel I got what I paid for. Since I bought my Mullen, it is collecting dust, but I learned a lot with that instrument.

Oh, Freeman also made some higher end models, I think he called them the 'Elite" models. They were very nice looking guitars though. As far as I know from his website, he only made E9 guitars.

Freeman Cowgar was a very nice gentleman to do business with, and its certainly a loss to the steel guitar community that he has passed away.

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Bill