New to PSG, looking to buy one, is this a good deal?

[Stew Crookes]

A steel like that, at this price, could be a decent (and possibly even fun) project for an experienced steel player.

For a beginner though, taking a chance on something like this would be a complete gamble unless you were prepared to part it out, or unload a lemon onto the next buyer if it turns out to be a pile of junk (something you wouldn't know until later).

Best bet for a beginner, in my estimation, is a used steel from an 'undervalued' brand, that you can resell for what you paid. There's still some well priced Dekleys, BMIs, Ruslers, and even MSAs out there. There was a cool purple Justice in the classifieds recently for less than 2k, and some BMI's for around 1600 I think?

Would you rather possibly lose $400 and waste weeks of your life struggling with an unplayable steel, or temporarily park $1500-$2000 in a quality pro steel that you can just resell for the same amount if you ever need to? The way I see it, the $400 steel has the possibility of being the more expensive option in the big picture

[Lane Gray]

With some knowledge and a bit of a machine shop, a pull-release guitar can be a fully loaded guitar, you just have to be clever to make a stupid machine do clever things.
Didn't Loessberg play a Perm?

[Matthew Houston]

Ok- put a good deal of work into it, and I have it playing nice. It is definitely a mess haha. What I cannot get over is how good this guitar sounds- these pickups sound phenomenal. The Emmons(?) single coil sounds really fat up by the neck, the BL in the bridge has a great growl to it, and the in between setting sounds a lot like an old Fender. For $400, I am very happy with this guitar. I still think it would have been a bad buy for a beginner- I spent about a day and a half in the shop trying to get it to play nice. Only big downside is that the Maverick changer is INCREDIBLY limiting. If this had a better changer, it would be a killer guitar.

I'm glad you're getting some good sounds out of it, and I'm glad I didn't take on this project as a beginner! I'd be very keen to hear how those pickups sound if you ever get to recording with this thing.

Thanks for the updates!

[Bruce Derr]

That neck pickup looks like the one found in the Fender/Sho-Bud Artist and student models made 1975-76. That could be where the bellcranks and cross shafts came from as well. They look like the same type. The changer doesn't look like either Maverick or Fender/Sho-Bud. It looks like a more traditional pull-release changer. It appears to have more pull options than a Maverick changer, which only has one hook-hole on each finger.

[J D Sauser]

I am so glad to hear that she sounds good!

The changer and really, anything you want to, can be swapped since it's not a original time piece. Changers can be found here and on ebay. Even a triple raise / double lower ALL pull in a machinists hands, could be a major upgrade.


Good luck!... J-D.

[Jack Tekiela]

That comment about the pickup was an eye-opener. This guy is definitely a rehoused Fender/Sho-Bud Student. You can see the keyhead route still. What's weird is that its an SD10, and I don't think they ever did a Fender/Bud SD-10. I would love to be corrected. This guitar is really a rabbit hole.

[Michael Lee Allen]

There were only three models of Fender steels made by Sho-Bud and only two finish options...
Student Single 10, S10 with 3+1, black only.
Artist Single 10, S10 with 3+4, black or mahogany.
Artist Dual 10, D10 with 8+4, black or mahogany.
Fender price lists show NO other options AT ALL, only the two finish choices. Anything different is aftermarket.
MLA

[Jerry Overstreet]

No expert here, but I don't see anything on the guitar that says Sho~Bud or Fender Artist except for the pickup. Artists had Super Pro mechanics and hex cross shafts.

I defer to the experts as I'm not too familiar with Mavs, but did they have round shafts? Also the cross shaft hangers and the bell cranks look like something different. For sure the end plates and pedals are not from either one.

I dunno what you got, but I hope you get it working and playing decent. That's all that really matters. Those pickups are sort of scarce, particularly the chrome BL, so if all else fails, you could sell that for a couple hunnert bucks easy.

[Bobby D. Jones]

From the pictures. The changer is a strange one. Its not a pull and release changer. There is no tuning screws, On back of the changer.
The fingers and pull bars are pulled back against the body of the guitar or an unseen stop bar, By string tension, For tuning open. The raise pulls are pulled by pull rods to bell cranks with nylon tuning nuts. It would take some figuring and work, to install lower pulls.
The key head end, The end plate is home made with some rough welding on the right flange to hold the body. And the rear leg threads and block needs some attention.
Good Luck on the project.