That FAKE PEDAL BLASTER steel guitar looks a lot like the Nashville Ltd at a pawn shop in Rossville Boulevard in Chattanooga. The legs look the same. the pedal board, yes the same, the cabinet the same, except this one is red mica. The pick up looks identical!!

What kind of fretboard has yours? Is it also fake. Could you give us an uinderneath view so that we can compare. There is a big difference in price. Has yours gold plated bell cranks and are they square or round. I think that Ed said that the many thousands of Nashville Ltds that he built all have square bell cranks. WE need more info!!!! or are

Not a picture of that hangie down thing in the front.

Yes Henry, I'd be intrested in seeing hers, but I'm not to sure she'd feel the same about seeing mine.

Now we have off-color sex innuendos in this thread, and a person's character being slammed over and over again in what seems to be a "jump on the bandwagon" mentality.

I hate even writing anything, becuase I am aware of the many Forum posts in the past about Ed and many alleged bad transactions....and that activity has been reason for b0b to remove Ed from the Vendor List. I can't speak to those problem transactions as I have not had one or know anyone that has had one, and I can only hope that in any cases where someone ordered parts or a guitar from Ed, they received their items and/or a refund. But here's what I do know.

Ed got me started on pedal steel. When I was just out of college and had very little money, he was the ONLY person that was reaching out to the beginners....and aside from the Carter company with their Starter, he still is. He told me he could refurbish an old Sho-Bud Maverick for me so that I could learn on it....$300.

The guitar wasn't pretty, but it had a modern changer (no coat hangers underneath) and was configured to a 2/2 setup, which has been discussed before on this Forum as being much preferred over the old 3/1 beginner setup. And my $300 not only bought me a guitar....Ed included a NEW Bespeco volume pedal, picks, bars, instruction materials and an in-person lesson. Plus, he told me that if I ever wanted to upgrade, he'd give me the $300 back for the Maverick.

Name ANYONE ELSE who will do that for you.

I can't speak to his Nashville LTD guitars. But he has been upfront in all my dealings with him in the past, and I know whenever I would call him about used gear, he would never claim the instruments to be something they weren't. If I am not mistaken, when he has a Sho-Bud for sale, he usually(?) updates the changer and perhaps a few other items underneath.....but he always TELLS YOU THAT. So, either you want a Sho-Bud thats been modded/hacked/updated/whatever or you don't. Your choice. My guess is that the Nashville LTD does use parts that are common to other guitars, since Ed's shop is probably the biggest steel guitar parts warehouse I have ever seen. Seriously....if you need a part and he DOESN'T have it, I'd be shocked (he even had Dekley pedals!). So, as long as the parts are new and unused, why not use them in his guitar? He's not building these guitars on a production scale, and he's certainly not selling them at a cost near any of the other builders...so why all this trash-talking? And again....this is speculation on my part that he is using parts common to other guitars....he very well may have his own, unique guitar parts.

I have seen a couple of Nashville LTDs in person, including one that was being sold at Arthur's music here in Indy earlier this year. It looked fantastic and played great. I have to believe it was one that Ed built, because it had the Nashville LTD logo and I recall a local instructor telling me he knew the elderly gentlemen that had sold it to Arthur's and believed it to be a recently built guitar.

I do wish Ed would post a nice picture of one of his Nashville LTD's as the one on his website is very grainy. However, his reasons are his own...perhaps he does not own a digital camera or a scanner...

In any event, I am playing pedal steel today because Ed bent over backwards to get me started in the right direction. I know I'm not the only one....and as long as he's around, I'm sure there are many more future steelers who will get their start via Ed. So, if you want to help keep interest in the steel growing, then let's try to not destroy the business of the guy who's been so active in trying to perpetuate interest in the steel.

Mr. Bobbe Seymour, just print 300 of these and you will have your F.A.K.E. $6,000.00. Please deliver the steel before Christmas.

Thank You,
Gary

[This message was edited by Gary Watkins on 15 December 2004 at 07:30 PM.]

quote:

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a person's character being slammed over and over again in what seems to be a "jump on the bandwagon" mentality.

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I'm with you, But it is the forum.
I can also say that I have learned something from this thread...
Q. How do you spot a fake.
A. See who's on the forum.

All this being said....certainly you are not suggesting that the Nashville LTD's built prior to your involvement are fakes, are you? That seems to be implied by your statement that "older LTD's have etc. etc. while newer one like I use now have etc. etc."

Older LTD's built by Gary Rittenberry would not be fakes. They are legitimate Nashville LTDs that were built prior to your purchase of the company.

Please correct me if I misunderstood your post.

Got it!