I recently purchased some videos, 5 to be exact, of old 50's Opry stars. The videos are taken from episodes of TV shows at the time. Several of the famous players are highlighted such as Jimmy Day, Don Helms and even Mr. Emmons. One thing I noticed was that if the steel guitarist wasn't playing a 2, 3, or 4 neck Bigsby pedal steel guitar, they were of course playing the non-pedal models of the time. Some of these players though are using pedal changes. One individual had a quad stringmaster and the second neck was rigged with pedals. This seemed to be a trend. It was more than likely cheaper to modify your current steel, which was probably half a life savings to begin with, than wait for a custom built pedal steel. I am interested in your thoughts on the subject of non-pedals converted to pedals of some form. Would these have any value today? Do you own one or have played one? Just general thoughts.

Thanx
Tim Jones )~Fender 1000 and NOTHING else~(

[This message was edited by Tim Jones on 15 March 2006 at 11:45 PM.]

What has been almost forgotten is that Gibson built a 8 string 6 pedal Electra-Harp in 1942 with a Multi-Kord type changer and it was Played by Alvino Rey, Paul Martin, on the west coast,And a few others.

It was a solid birdseye maple cabinet all the way to the floor and very stable. A picture of it in an ADV is on my Website.

T. McCarty pres. of Gibson told me they made only about 12 of them before WWII, then that model was disconinued after the war.

I was lucky enough to get one used after my discharge from the Army in 1945. I played it for almost 20 Years.

They played full chords and modern big band style, like the C6 playing of today....al

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My Website..... www.cmedic.net/~almarcus/

quote:

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I am interested in your thoughts on the subject of non-pedals converted to pedals of some form. Would these have any value today?

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You think Stringmasters are high priced? You should have seen what this one was valued at on the Reeves estate inventory list. I did not pay that price. Not even close and I won't say what I did pay for it so don't ask BUT, you could buy TWO brand new MSA Milleneums loaded to the gills and still not reach the value that the JR estate had on this guitar. So in this particular case, the alteration didn't hurt the value at all.

Rick

[This message was edited by Rick Garrett on 16 March 2006 at 03:28 PM.]

I dont thoink it is a Bigsby; although on a laterTex Ritter Ranch Parrty DVD Ive seen Marion Hall behind a Bigsby.

He was wonderful -- I was trying to learn to play Atkins/Travis and he played "The Bells of St. Mary" and just shut me down!!

I'm sure he doesn't remember me, but I sure remember him!

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Rick Jolley

(Rick Zahniser/Rickey Zahn)
Dekley S10 3/3, Session400LTD
http://belizenorth.com

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Don't matter who's in Austin (or anywhere else) Ralph Mooney is still the king!!!

It retailed in 1942 for $450. Wholesaled for $225.00. But I had to have it.

Alvino Rey, and Paul Martin on the west coast had one and were playing some very nice chord style melody. So that was the direction I wanted to go in.

Those were very stable pedal steels and workd very good, Beautiful wood,but heavy on a big cabinet, no case, of course. I could get every chord in the book on it.

It did have a Multi-Kord type changer head. I don't know who had the Patent. They had a disagreement on that.

Gibson Pres:T.MCarty said only about 15 were made. So they were available in 1942, but I couldnt afford it then.

They stopped building them during the War and never built them again. Later they came out with the new model with the wires coming out of the left leg, I didn't like that one, so kept my Used 1942 model for several years.
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My Website..... www.cmedic.net/~almarcus/

[This message was edited by Al Marcus on 26 November 2006 at 07:23 PM.]