Steel Guitar News

Hello fellow players,

Let�s talk about the life of certain components on a steel guitar.  You know what I mean.  Parts that need to be replaced more often than others do.  Strings need to be replaced because they go dead, corrode or just plain break.  Volume pots wear out and get noisy much quicker than any of us would like for them to do.

Now we come to a part that really doesn�t wear out and should last forever, but because of being abused, they don�t last very long.  This is the nylon tuner on an all pull system guitar.  The nylon should rarely ever be tweeked.  I�ve seen guitars that were practically new, but the nylons have been turned, bent, stripped to the point of being worthless.

The bad thing here is most people don�t even know how to put a new one on.  The nylon should last years and years and years.  It should never wear out, but can possibly become damaged by players that don�t understand how they work or why.  If there is a tiny washer installed between the nylon and the hole it goes through on the changer, it should be very hard to damage unless you�re trying to tune the guitar with a pair of pliers instead of a three sixteenths socket type wrench. 

Then we have fretboards.  For some strange reason, some people like to run tape down the edge of them and write down the chords at each fret.  That�s like a piano player taking a magic marker and writing down the names of the notes on the keys.  Pretty ridiculous.  And then even worse, I have seen guitars that have the name of the chords at different frets written right on the finish of the guitar beside the neck.  Tell me this doesn�t devalue the worth of the guitar.

I�ve had guys say that they have the rollers worn out on their guitars.  I have covered this roller subject before.  This is something that is very near and dear to my heart.  Rollers do not wear out.  It would take 150 years of continuous playing to get a roller to show any wear.

Yes, I have seen old Sho-Buds with the hole in the middle of the roller turning oval instead of being round.  I thought that was wear in the beginning, however I have since realized that the guitars were resting on the rollers and strings in the case and this is what beat the holes oblong, not wear.

On many Sho-Bud steel guitars built in the seventies, eighties and nineties the zinc fingers or roller cam in the changer will wear quickly because of the lowering finger that activates the changer will actually saw into it when played.  This is one of the bigger points of wear on the late Sho-Bud guitars.  I can fix these permanently without too much trouble or money.  So if you have an old Sho-Bud you can send it to me and we can take care of it for you.

Springs on a steel guitar � Emmons push pulls, LeGrandes or any steel guitar will technically last forever.  They will only go bad if pulled, pushed, moved around and generally mistreated.  I�ve had people many times over the years want to order new springs for their Emmons push pull lowering fingers.  This is pretty ridiculous because the tension on these strings can be easily adjusted and the spring should never be in a situation where it is worn to the point that it needs to be replaced.

This may be a long letter, but read it again and think about it.

Interesting observations I have for you today.  Remember Paris Hilton, Lindsey Lohan or O.J. Simpson?  These are very famous people that seem to get away with murder for no other reason than that they are extremely famous.  

Other people that have ended up having to pay for their dastardly deeds long after they should�ve paid up, are famous political leaders like Stalin, Osama Bin Laden, Khadafy and Hitler himself, people that used their fame to sustain their life because of people that should have helped end these lives sooner didn�t do it because they feared the fame and power that these people had.

We even have idiots in our own news at this time, like Representative Anthony Weiner, Blagojevich, Senator John Edwards and others.  I�m not saying these last ones should be shot, however it�s obvious that they have made some very poor decisions after we made some very poor decisions and elected them to be leaders for us.

In our own little world of country music, there are true idiots of entertainers out there, along with some good talent and very wonderful people.  Over the years I have been following the careers of a few that I just cannot understand the stupidity of.  

There are still people out there that say these are some of the greatest singers that have ever been in country music, which in itself is a stupid thing to say, but they do have followers that still like to publicly state how wonderful they are and how incredible they must be to be so famous.

Many of these famous celebrity country music singers treat their bands, record companies and everybody around them so badly that they are operating on the fringe of the law and way beyond the fringe of decency.  But of course, outside of reality, the fans will never know about it and if they do, they�d never believe that their idol, the singer, could ever do anything wrong.  

This is a real shame to follow a true psychopathic idiot blindly just because he makes records you like.  Most people don�t believe and realize that this singer that they like so much doesn�t even make his own records.  That task is accomplished by hard work from record companies, producers, writers and most of all promoters.

And how about the musicians that back these guys up?  Would you believe that most people on the street still actually believe that the guys on the records actually work full time for the star himself?  Everybody else does the work and the star gets the credit.

Well just remember, Bernie Madoff was rich and very famous too, but I hardly think that he�s a brilliant anything to be looked up to.

There�s a little restaurant here in Hendersonville that I stop in to get my coffee every morning on the way to work.  The owner manager of this little restaurant loves to hire the most beautiful young girls that he can hire to wait tables.  While talking to one of these girls a few years ago, she confided in me that she was wanting to be a country music singer.  

I said, �Well what makes you think you can make it when so many others can�t?�

She said, �Well, we have enough money behind us to get me famous.�

I said, �I�ve heard that a lot in this town and have known some that actually made it from Hendersonville.�

It wasn�t too long until I turned on the TV one day and there she was.  The rest is history.  I still don�t know if Taylor Swift is a really good singer or if it was just money and luck that made her famous and well known.  

But have you ever noticed it�s the famous person that always wins an argument?  Like the next door neighbor I had in Dallas that swore that Shot Jackson was the greatest steel guitar player in the world.  I said, �Well do you think he�s better than Maurice Anderson or Tom Morrell?�

He said, �Why of course he is.  Shot Jackson is in Nashville and Maurice Anderson just works in a music store downtown Dallas.�  The guy looked at me and said, �Shot Jackson�s a lot more famous than anybody we have in Dallas.  So he must be better.�

Which reminds me of a touch of sparing that a person and I had on the steel guitar forum last week.  She not only doesn�t play steel guitar, but because she�s in a musical family, loves to argue with anything intelligent anyone says.  She made the statement that blankety blank famous country music singer had to be great because of what he�s done with his singing career.

Anybody know who Amy Winehouse is?  Ever think of those entertainers that died because of drugs?  Do you think they were brilliant?  A few of them were talented, but as far as making the right decisions in life, they obviously didn�t.  But in the world of public opinion, the famous guy always seems to win out.  If this wasn�t true, there are many Hollywood stars that would be behind bars today that aren�t.

By the way, did you hear that The Judds are breaking up forever, again?

Check out our monthly specials at  http://www.steelguitar.net/monthlyspecials.html and we�ll try to save you a lot of money.

Your buddy,
Bobbe
www.steelguitar.net
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