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building your own pedal steel (Page 2)
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The Steel Guitar Forum
Pedal Steel Archive
building your own pedal steel (Page 2)
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| This topic is 2 pages long: 1 2 This topic was originally posted in this forum: Pedal Steel |
| Author | Topic: building your own pedal steel |
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sal saunders New Member Posts: 4 |
posted 28 October 2000 03:29 AM
I've been trying for almost a year now to find information and parts for building pedal steels and after all that time searching hundreds of websites and calling other manufacturers here's what I found; ONE book on the subject and ONE company in Ohio that CLAIMED to offer kits and parts, neither of which amounted to anything. I find it odd that there is so much information out there on the subject of electric and acoustic guitar building and repair and so many suppliers of lutherie tools and hardware for those instruments yet so little information about the pedal steel. I know many of the major steel guitar manufacturers out there don't even make their own hardware, which means somewhere there's a company machining these parts. Can anyone help me track down a reliable source for the main components, changers, keyheads, endplates, etc? Thanks, Sal |
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B Cole unregistered Posts: 4 |
posted 28 October 2000 05:11 AM
Have fun what you have to do is try the diffrent builders for the one's who will part with there parts try Jerry fessenden and if you email me I have some people who build parts |
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Tony Palmer Member Posts: 1022 |
posted 28 October 2000 05:18 AM
Someone was set up wth a booth at St. Louis this year selling all kinds of parts. I don't remember who it was, but you can email Scotty to find out. |
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Jim Smith Member Posts: 6399 |
posted 28 October 2000 08:42 AM
That was Ed Naylor selling parts, mainly replacement Sho-Bud parts and some generic. I'm pretty sure Jerry Fessenden will sell his parts as well. ------------------ |
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Joe Delaronde Member Posts: 901 |
posted 28 October 2000 08:53 AM
Sal Your post reads "building your own steel guitar". If you are looking for parts to assemble a steel, the post should read, "Putting together your own steel guitar". Anyone can buy all the parts for a steel guitar and assemble it, but the cost might be more than buying a new steel. Now, building your own steel guitar is a different thing. I build my own steel guitars as a hobby, and fabricate all the parts, including the pickups. I enjoy it, but it is very time consuming. You can probably purchase parts from different dealers and put together a Frankenstien steel (for Halloween), which would probably work great, but you can't call it your own, and making the parts compatable is another challeng. Good luck on your venture. I'm interested on how you make out...........Joe |
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B Cole unregistered Posts: 901 |
posted 28 October 2000 08:54 AM
And Dave Parker will make almost any part you want |
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Bobby Bowman Member Posts: 1271 |
posted 28 October 2000 09:34 AM
Sal, You get you some drawing paper and pencils. Make some sketches of your ideas for all the different parts you think you will need. Then draw all of these parts together to see if they are fitting together and look like they may work together,,,, make any adjustments from there. If you have the correct computer program, you can do it on your computer. After you get it on paper (or screen) you go to a machinest and y'all figure out the metal needed to make these parts. He can usually give you a pretty close estimate at that time of the cost involved in machineing. Then you have to figure the vendor items and where to buy them. Somewhere in there you will need to plan the cabinet for all of this to fit on and either make it your self or find a cabinet maker to do it for you. Every single thing should be planned out ahead of time, including screws, threads and hundreds of other little things or you're in for some major problems and headaches. It's probably a mistake to try and get parts from different builders (if they will even sell them to you) because there is no set standard for all of these different parts. You'd be better off and save yourself a lot of money and grief just to buy a guitar all ready built by a reputable and respected builder. I guess what I'm trying to say here is if you don't have the facilities, machinery, tools and knowhow already, it's a long, hard and expensive row to plow. It can surely be done as a "hobby project", but I wouldn't say it's to most sane thing to do.  I'll try and be glad to help you as much as I can. Just want to warn you,,,,it's not as simple as it first seems. BB ------------------ Sal, [This message was edited by Bobby Bowman on 28 October 2000 at 10:08 AM.] |
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B Cole unregistered Posts: 1271 |
posted 28 October 2000 11:22 AM
Sal you listen to Bobby he has been there and done that all of it |
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sal saunders New Member Posts: 4 |
posted 28 October 2000 11:27 AM
First off I'd like to thank everyone who replied. That's more help than I got anywhere else all year. I'm finally starting to think there's hope for my little project after all. I guess I should clarify exactly what my intentions are though. I didn't want to be too lengthy with my initial message but now that we've got the ball rolling,....I've got a little woodworking shop with the tools and machinery needed to build solid-body six-string electric guitars, which I've been doing as a hobby for about ten years. So I've got some basic lutherie and machining skills. I feel pretty confident that alot of the simpler parts, as well as the cabinet, I can make myself, however I don't think I'm ready to make everything and some of this stuff will have to be purchased. My initial thought was to use my Sho Bud as a guide to help me build mine and then, if it turned out OK, sell the Sho Bud. I don't know, I'm still kinda new to the pedal steel but I think I'm up for the challenge, at least once anyway. Thanks again to everyone who replied. It's nice to know that there's somewhere I can go for help. Sal |
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Bobby Lee Sysop Posts: 14849 |
posted 28 October 2000 07:10 PM
Sal, I would suggest building a simple push-pull guitar like a Sho-Bud Maverick for your first project. Staying with a very simple changer design (one piece fingers) at first will allow you to concentrate on the guitar's overall design. Just a thought. |
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Bruce Hamilton Member Posts: 186 |
posted 28 October 2000 07:55 PM
This may be a little off the topic but I have been kicking this idea around for the past few weeks. I think it would a great idea if a builder would offer a course where you could watch and take notes while a guitar is being built from the ground up. I would go not to steal trade secrets but to learn how the guitar is supposed to be put together. I suppose the market would be somewhat limited but I know I would be interested. |
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sal saunders New Member Posts: 4 |
posted 29 October 2000 08:40 PM
Bruce, I'm with ya. I know the MIMF, (Musical Instrument Makers Forum), offers online courses in how to build all sorts of other instruments. It's not cheap but if this idea would be applied to the pedal steel I'd probably pay for it. And thanks, Bobby Lee, that's probably the most sensible way to approach this project. Sal |
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