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Author
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Topic: Memories Of The Old Sho~Bud Retail Store
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JOHN COOP
Member From: YORKTOWN, IND. USA
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posted 29 June 2006 10:42 PM
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Do you remember your first trip to the old Sho~Bud retail store on lower Broadway in Nashville? I sure do. As soon as I walked through the door I heard Lloyd Green playing Sleepwalk over the PA system. Shot standing there in one of his "old jumpsuits" with that "chaw" in his jaw! Ha! There was a red Pro III in the window. This was 1975. Jack Boles and Harry were working the counters. I sure do miss that place!!! Coop |
Mickey McGee
Member From: Arizona, USA
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posted 29 June 2006 11:00 PM
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I don't remember much of anything from 1975. |
Billy Carr
Member From: Seminary, Mississippi USA
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posted 30 June 2006 12:40 AM
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I never did make it to the Sho-bud store on Broadway but I do remember listening the "Sho-Bud Showcase" on Saturday nights! |
clive swindell
Member From: Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, UK
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posted 30 June 2006 01:18 AM
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Where exactly was the store in relation to the Ryman, Legends & Tootsies? |
Tony Prior
Member From: Charlotte NC
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posted 30 June 2006 02:05 AM
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I too recall going to the Sho Bud store . I met David Jackson there and he took me upstairs I believe to where they were working on some Instruments. He let me sit beind a few that were in for some reason and play them for a while.Oddly though, there were NO steels in the main showroom of the store the very few times I was there. The store I believe was located right around the same storefront area as Tootsies,to the best of my knowledge. Sure wish I could recall where the photo's are. t |
Jack Stoner
Sysop From: Inverness, Florida
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posted 30 June 2006 03:42 AM
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My first visit was late 1969 when George Lewis was the store manager. I bought one of the original 1 volume Sho-Bud instructional manuals while I was there. The next time I visited (about 6 months later) George and Hal Rugg were there and they showed me how to palm block. |
Roger Crawford
Member From: Locust Grove, GA USA
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posted 30 June 2006 04:36 AM
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I can't remember the time frame, but when we went upstairs, I saw a body in the scrap pile with JET on it. At the time I was still playing drums, and didn't realize it was Julian's. Wish I had paid closer attention! |
Rick Johnson
Member From: Wheelwright, Ky USA
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posted 30 June 2006 04:46 AM
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I would love to see some old pics
of the old Sho~Bud store.
Come on guys, give em up.Rick
www.rickjohnsoncabs.com |
Jack Dougherty
Member From: Spring Hill, Florida, USA
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posted 30 June 2006 04:58 AM
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I was there in the early seventies.Fun times back then.
You never knew who would walk in the door. Spent a lot of time in the back room where all the (refreshments) were. On a Friday or Saturday night there would be a stream of bodies coming through the back door of Shots from the Opry between acts to enjoy a cool beverage. Yup... Fun times!!! I don't remember any dull times there.
Shot was(as I recall) a great prankster. So you had to be on guard around him. To me, that was the golden age of the steel and music in Nashville. Yup guys and gals.....fun times in deed!!J
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Michael Douchette
Member From: Gallatin, TN
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posted 30 June 2006 05:06 AM
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Man... ol' Jack on the phone, tryin' to book an act... going upstairs to let A.J. work on my guitars back then... what a great place.------------------
Mikey D... |
Fred Justice
Member From: Globe Arizona, Copper Capital Of The World
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posted 30 June 2006 05:27 AM
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I sure do remember the old Sho~Bud Store.
1972 was the last time I was there, went in there looking for work and Jack got on the phone and got me a job with Loretta's brother, Jay Lee Webb, we ended up right back in the same general area where I came from, Illinois and Indiana.
I have to agree, those were some real good times back then.------------------
Fred Justice,
Fred's Music www.fredjusticemusic.com
Rains Steel Guitars
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Jerry Van Hoose
Member From:
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posted 30 June 2006 05:28 AM
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I first visited the Sho Bud store on broadway in 1975 to have a knee lever added to my guitar. Jim Webb took me upstairs where Shot was working on a banjo which was mounted on a 4 ft. stand with pedals. Did anyone else ever see that contraption? I stayed all afternoon, alternating between Sho Bud & Tootsies until my guitar was ready.
[This message was edited by Jerry Van Hoose on 30 June 2006 at 09:40 AM.] |
David Doggett
Member From: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
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posted 30 June 2006 07:00 AM
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Around 1974 I was living near Centennial Park a block from the original Station Inn. A steeler named Charlie Gore took me over to Bobbe Seymour's house, and I traded a metal Dobro to him for a Maverick. Then we went down to Sho-Bud to get a second knee lever put on. Sho-Bud was almost next door to Tootsie's, and across the street from Ernest Tub's. They took us upstairs to the workshop. There was a big pot of venison stew from one of Shot's hunting trips, and they offered us some while the knee lever was added (raised the Es to F); and Shot (in a jump suit) and others were in and out getting some of that stew. At some point I bought from Sho-Bud a used blackface Super Reverb that had a mismatched JBL 15" speaker in it. I bought it on lay away, so it sat there in the store for awhile. When I came to make the final payment it had a hole in the speaker cone. Jack looked at it a started cussin' about "those kids." They reconed it, but it was an 8 ohm speaker in a 2 ohm amp. So it had very little clean headroom. I sold the Maverick a couple of years ago, but I still have that speaker in a Marrs cabinet with a matching buddy. Almost every time I went in to Sho-Bud to get strings or something, there was some great steeler playing the heck out of a Sho-Bud - Jimmy Day, or some up and coming young gun (wish I remembered who they were).  ------------------
Student of the Steel: Zum uni, Fender tube amps, squareneck and roundneck resos, tenor sax, keyboards |
Mike Sweeney
Member From: Nashville,TN,USA
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posted 30 June 2006 07:06 AM
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Clive, Sho~Bud was located at the location where Robert's Western World is now. 416 Broadway. |
Roger Rettig
Member From: NAPLES, FL
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posted 30 June 2006 07:33 AM
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Mike... So where was George Gruhn's old store - can you remember? It was right around there, too.Roger |
Jack Stoner
Sysop From: Inverness, Florida
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posted 30 June 2006 07:57 AM
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Gruhn's original store was just down the block from where it is onthe corner now. I haven't been in the new store but the back of the store may even be where the old original store was. Carl, the amp and speaker reconing tech, was across the street from the original Gruhn store. I took over the amp tech job at Little Roy Wiggin's music store (and Grammer/Emmons) when Carl opened his own shop. Bob Browning also worked at Little Roy Wiggin's store and had worked at Sho-Bud previously. |
Bobby Caldwell
Member From: St. Louis, Missouri, USA
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posted 30 June 2006 07:58 AM
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Sho-Bud was a great store. Right across the street was Linebaugh's where you could play the pin ball machine and get a bowl of chilli. And lets not forget Demon's Den on the corner. Alot of great pickin' happened in that place. I miss the street from back in those days and the people who made it so interesting. Bobby |
Leslie Elliott
Member From: Madison, Tennessee USA
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posted 30 June 2006 08:17 AM
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I remember some of it!!!! (Lord, I'm sorry 'bout that).....What wonderful memories. Leslie worked for Shot 20 years,...she has stories that would curl what hair I have left. But they're good'O!!
Ron[This message was edited by Leslie Elliott on 30 June 2006 at 08:18 AM.] |
Ron Elliott
Member From: Madison, Tennessee, USA
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posted 30 June 2006 08:20 AM
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that was actually my post.....sorry Honey !
Ron |
Sonny Priddy
Member From: Elizabethtown, Kentucky, USA
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posted 30 June 2006 08:23 AM
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From 1968 or 69 Up Untile It Closed I Was There Some Tines 2 or 3 times A Weel with Harry . Shot and a Girl Named Kathey. I Loved That Place And All Of Them That Worked There. SONNY.------------------
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Steve Dodson
Member From: Sparta, Tennessee, USA
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posted 30 June 2006 08:53 AM
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Did anyone ever remember seeing a little Maverick sitting upstairs by Harrys work bench with all the knee levers on it. I never did stop and count them. I was just starting out playing at the time.I had a D-10 Pro II with 2 knees on it. So one day when I was in there, I asked Harry about all the knees on that little guitar. And said something to the effect of I wish mine had that many levers on it. And Harry with a big smile said No you don't. |
Al Marcus
Member From: Cedar Springs,MI USA
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posted 30 June 2006 11:04 AM
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Ahhh Memories of the old Sho-Bud store.I was there in 1967, talked to George Lewis, bought a set of strings for C6. Went next door to Tootsies, looked around. Went to RCA and talked to Chet and Bob. They told me all the steel sessions were sewed up by a couple of you know who's. So I left Nashville but enjoyed the trip....al ------------------
My Website..... www.cmedic.net/~almarcus/
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Herb Steiner
Member From: Cedar Valley, Travis County TX
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posted 30 June 2006 11:34 AM
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Oh yeah, I remember Kathy! Strikingly beautiful girl... and a trained opera singer. Jack was running the cash register in those days, occasionally Harry. This is around '72.
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Herb's Steel Guitar Pages
Texas Steel Guitar Association |
Chick Donner
Member From: North Ridgeville, OH USA
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posted 30 June 2006 11:51 AM
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I first went in 69, and spent what seemed like years upstairs, mostly with Harry Jackson and Duane Marrs. . . sometimew working on or updating my ZB or helping out on oth4r brands, mostly ShoBuds. But, like BE said on the tribute to {Picken' On] Shot album, you didn't have to play a ShoBud to get help there. I too don't remember ever seeing a steel in the downstairs display floor . . . only upstairs. And for Jack [Stoner], wasn't Carl Hudgins shop in the building that's now the parking lot behind Gruehn's? Or just a little more "up the hill," where the Opry's new "front entrance" is? I seem to remember it was across 4th Ave. S. from the ORIGINAL Honey Club, which Lenny Miller bought and moved to the (SW) corner of 4th and BW, and renamed it the Deemen's Den. |
JOHN COOP
Member From: YORKTOWN, IND. USA
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posted 30 June 2006 12:55 PM
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Anybody remember seeing that wood carving that hung on the wall? I have it as well as ashtrays,lighters,books of matches,ink pins, mailing labels, and a sticker that was on the front door. Coop |
Frank Parish
Member From: Nashville,Tn. USA
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posted 30 June 2006 03:44 PM
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I've got an old Sho-Bud lighter and a pack of them matches too. I opened my first bar in 82 just down from Sho-Bud and was playing a Pro-I at the time so you know I was in there. Harry put on a new fretboard for me and when I got the Pro-II they moved some knee levers around for me too. I bought my first Chorus pedal from Shot and still have it. It was A J Nelson, Shot, and Harry I remember there then. I don't remember her name but that might have been Leslie. Was that you back then around 82-85 Leslie? Shot moved out and they turned it into a whiskey store for a while and then it became Roberts Western world. You see it all the time on TV commercials. The old Sho-Bud guitar is still out there under the Roberts sign. Johnny Cox has the old plastic one that hung on the back wall in the alley. I thought about that sign when they moved and he beat me to it. I never knew where it went until I seen it at his house.[This message was edited by Frank Parish on 30 June 2006 at 03:46 PM.] |
Sonny Priddy
Member From: Elizabethtown, Kentucky, USA
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posted 30 June 2006 07:03 PM
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The Girl I Knew was Kathey Anderson. She Was There In 1981 To--- Then She worked For Bobbie seymour A While. Good Singer. SONNY.------------------
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Jack Stoner
Sysop From: Inverness, Florida
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posted 01 July 2006 03:34 AM
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Chick, I remember Carl's shop being across the street from Gruhn's original store. He may have moved it later. |
Farris Currie
Member From: Ona, Florida, USA
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posted 01 July 2006 07:00 AM
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This brings back so much memories!!!First met HARRY JACKSON in 1970,had a PROFESSION D-10 built. Best steel i had ever played. Got the bug to trade, and been sorry ever since!!!!
I tryed to find the guitar a few yrs. ago.and finally found the family that bought it. Finally did and the man was dead,I ask where is the steel??? come to find out it burned in a bar fire!!!! Harry had me another D-10 built in 78, it was a pro2 never really liked that one.the sqare front i didn't care for!!! HARRY took me upstairs 2 times i was there,man my eyes seen all that birdseye lumber WOW. Lots of old steels sitting upstairs. I remember seeing one with banjo string on for the 3rd.
I said wow must of been a real string breaker. and the sho-bud show case, sit up most every sat.night till way hours of the morning listening to it. THOSE WERE THE DAYS
farris |
Alan Kendall
Member From: North Miami, Florida, USA
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posted 01 July 2006 02:49 PM
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I was in Nashville playing guitar for the Bee Gee's around 75 /76.I'd recently bought a single neck Sho Bud in Miami ,so I took it over to Sho Bud to have it checked out.I'm sorry to say I can't remember the the name of the guy who took me over there, but we went up stairs and there was Shot Jackson winding a pickup.I couldn't believe my eyes.Everyone was really friendly, and several steel players stopped by while I was there. After a few beers,a couple of the guys showed me how to chew "chaw",and all they kept saying was "whatever you do, don't swallow the juice,you must spit it out" I was so excited to be there, I forgot I was supposed to be at sound check,and I was late ."No problem" said one of my new found friends "we'll get you there."So they shoved me and my steel (still set up)in the back of a pickup truck and drove me over to the gig.
I'm sorry that I can't remember anyone's name ( I could hardly remember my own in those days)but I have often wondered who those guy's were, and if they are forum memebers.Hey maybe one of them was you John?
Alan.
[This message was edited by Alan Kendall on 03 July 2006 at 09:23 AM.] |
John Bechtel
Member From: Nashville, Tennessee,U.S.A.
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posted 01 July 2006 10:43 PM
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I bought my first Sho-Bud in ’57, but; didn't get to move to Nashville until ’67! (although I did visit in ’60 for a few days, but; everyone was out of town!) After I moved in ’67, I was pretty much a regular daily fixture around the Sho-Bud store up until about the end of ’79. One day I was sitting in the showroom across from Curly Chalker who was tuning his guitar and having a problem hearing the Low-A string on his C6-neck. He turned the key and then asked me: “Is that in tune?” And I wondered, why in the world he was asking me! In the years that I hung around all the guys (gals) at the store and upstairs, I also did a lot of trading of instruments. I think they built about 12 or 13 for me in all! (Including a 4-neck 10-string that Shot and Jim Webb built.) _ _ _ _ If I remember the location correctly, Carl's speaker reconing shop was part way up 4th. Ave. No. but; on the East side of the street, across from the new Ryman entrance! My first ‘home’ in Nashville was the ROSS Hotel! They had a room where you could leave your unneeded belongings when you left town for a road~gig. Then when you returned, you just picked up your belongings N/C and they assigned you a new room! Those were realy the good 'ole days when people trusted each other! I really miss those days, although I do live under slightly better conditions todayˇ ho~ho! It was pretty easy to pick up work by hanging at Linebaugh's Resturant too! My first job, when I moved here came from Linebaugh's. I arrived here, all the way from Pa.; on a Tue. and left on Fri. for a (3)-wk. gig! (All the way back through Pa. and on up to Boston, MA!) I got used to traveling in a hurry! The only thing I didn't like in Boston was that the Hotel Laundry starched my shorts! Where has all the elasticity gone?
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“Big John”
a.k.a. {Keoni Nui}
Current Equipment
[This message was edited by John Bechtel on 01 July 2006 at 10:49 PM.] |
Jody Sanders
Member From: Magnolia,Texas
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posted 01 July 2006 10:53 PM
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I stopped in my last time in 1975 during the CMA awards and the Opry's 50th Birthday Celebration. Loyd Green was there and I litterly bumped in to Ron Elliott going uot the door as he was coming in. Jody. |
Roger Shackelton
Member From: Everett, Wa.
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posted 02 July 2006 02:07 AM
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I went to Sho-Bud on Broadway on my first trip to Nashville in 1969. I believe I spoke to Jack Boles behind the counter and he invited me to go to the loft work shop upstairs. I hung around and visited with Duane for awhile. I visited the Sho-Bud store on a few trips to Nashville in the early 1970s also. On one visit George Edwards was working with Duane. I met a very skinny Jerry Brightman at Sho-Bud one time. He was having Duane work on his guitar.
I was there talking to Duane on a saturday afternoon in the early 1970s,when Sonny Burnett brought Weldon's guitar to have all the E-9th pedals moved to the far right, as Weldon had a motorcycle accident and had a minor injury to his left leg. Weldon had to play the Opry that night.
I saw the S-10 Sho-Bud Keyless proto-type guitars that Hal & Weldon were using on the Opry one time. How many of them were built?
I had the pleasure of meeting Speedy West in Nashville in the early 70s across from Sho-Bud at Roy Wiggin's music store. He was playing his Marlen built Speedy West Guitar and Phil Baugh was playing guitar. Kayton Roberts was there too.
I had a good time on all my trips to Nashville. |
John McGann
Member From: Boston, Massachusetts, USA
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posted 02 July 2006 08:49 AM
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quote:
The only thing I didn't like in Boston was that the Hotel Laundry starched my shorts!
Sounds like a lot of Boston, actually |
Mickey Lawson
Member From: Cleveland, Tennessee, USA
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posted 02 July 2006 02:19 PM
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Don't remember the year. I went in to have an Emmons pickup rewound. Someone was playing dobro downstairs. Shot Jackson said, let's go upstairs to rewinding machine. Wooden stairway was on the left, in the front storeroom. Upstairs was in some disarray, with bodies of steel guitars laying around. One pedal steel had 20 or more strings, wow. Shot threaded up the pickup wire and started to rewind the pickup. I went downstairs and looked at instructional magazines, while the pickup was being wound. Didn't take long, and I paid and left. Still remember it clearly. |
KENNY KRUPNICK
Member From: Grove City,Ohio
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posted 02 July 2006 07:38 PM
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I'd like to see pics of those golden days when Sho~Bud was there on Broadway. Roberts occupies that store,and there are some Sho~Bud memoribilia in there. |
Skip Edwards
Member From: LA,CA
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posted 02 July 2006 11:24 PM
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I went there a few times in the '70's. The first time was in 1972 and ran into Jerry Brightman trying out a new Professional upstairs on the top floor. I went there a few other times and they were always willing to let me rummage around in the parts bins upstairs and grab a few parts for my 6139.
The last time I was there was in 1981, and I came pretty close to buying a very cool orange birdseye S12. This gtr was unusual in that had the "fluted" endplates like the SuperPro II's had, and I've never seen another single neck like it since.
I remember the Sho-Bud store as being a pretty cool hang, and I wish I'd been able to have gone there more often.BTW... there's a scene in the Burt Reynolds movie "WW and the Dixie Dancekings" that was shot in the showroom.[This message was edited by Skip Edwards on 02 July 2006 at 11:30 PM.] |
Mike Sweeney
Member From: Nashville,TN,USA
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posted 03 July 2006 08:30 AM
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I'm gonna be working in that building this evening. I always have a feeling that Shot's looking after us steel players in there still yet.
A very cool vibe for sure.Mike[This message was edited by Mike Sweeney on 03 July 2006 at 08:30 AM.] |
Mike Lovell
Member From: Garland, Texas, USA
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posted 03 July 2006 08:45 AM
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Another who strolled into the the Sho-Bud store was Eric Clapton. He bought several Strats. Gave away a couple and used the rest to assemble his Blackie which he used through the 70's and early 80's. |
Kenny Davis
Member From: Great State of Oklahoma
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posted 03 July 2006 08:37 PM
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My family went to Nashville for vacation in '72 or'73, and Broadway was the focus for me as a young steel player. I met "Little" Roy Wiggins at his store. If I remember correctly, he had a bandstand towards the front of his store, and a lot of Grammer guitars.I got to meet Shot and David, and Shot got us Opry tickets! Back then, they were like gold! I'm trying to find the pictures taken upstairs...Me playing a blue 12 string single, Shot standing behind me with his hand on my shoulder while I sat at a red Professional, and the "Big E" keyless. No steel guitar purchase that day, but my brother recieved a fiddle after some slick salesmanship from David. I've got the pictures of Tootsies, ET's, and Roy Wiggins, but I can't seem to find the all-important Sho~Bud pics! I did find this one:  [This message was edited by Kenny Davis on 03 July 2006 at 09:09 PM.] |
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