Hi guys and gals,
It’s astounding going through a 23 year old steel guitar magazine how things have changed in the world of steel guitar in that time. Some of the biggest names then, are only just barely known today and many products that were touted as being the greatest steel guitar aids and items ever, never got to first base with the players. Some amps and steel guitars that we advertised extremely heavily in 1980 did not stand the test of time.
This shows me that as new products and items come out, according to history, most of them won’t have much of a history. Peavey products have stood the test of time with the exception of the Session 500. Emmons products have more than stood the test of time. Sho-Bud guitars are worth 4 times what they were then and even though the product stood the test of time, Sho-Bud the company didn’t after being bought by Fred Gretsch. Two guitar companies which were advertised extremely heavily are totally gone now and history has shown that they should be.
It seems that history can be wonderful window on the future if you study it. These wonderful old magazines contain a delightful plethora of historical facts about players and types of music. A very accurate history of western swing, complete with pictures and interviews of the musicians who shaped the music. These great articles serve to keep the history straight and as I personally know and you may know, there are some people who purposely want to distort, bend and rewrite history. The facts don’t matter to some of these people but the facts are available in these old magazines. Accurate history is a hard thing to hide. There are many great articles on players such as Tom Brumley, Hank Penny, Ralph Mooney, Paul Franklin, Winnie Winston, Tom Bradshaw, DeWitt Scott, Don Helms, Lloyd Green, Bobby Black, Curly Chalker, Bobby Koefer, Bud Issacs, Speedy West and others both remembered and forgotten.
I never realized at the time what these magazines would be worth to future generations as a record of steel guitar, it’s players and the types of music that it starred in. If you want to know the facts on Hank Thompson, Spade Cooley, Bill Wimberly, Tex Williams or the history of the Town Hall Party, it’s there for the reading.
The name of the magazine is “Steel Guitarist”. It was the finest steel guitar magazine that was ever published with many of the articles being written by the greatest players in the industry. Just the articles and pictures by Buddy Emmons are worth more than the price of the magazine alone. These still brand new copies, unopened and in their original mailer are available for $5.99 each or free with every purchase over $30. These are as informative as they are collectible. I have a limited quantity of 5 different issues which I’m happy to be able to share with you. These magazines came to me through Tom Bradshaw, I wish to thank him for his magnificent effort to preserve steel guitar history. I’m sure several of you bought these magazines when they came out 23 years ago and may have lost them along the way. Here’s your chance to replenish your collection.
I’m not making these magazines available to anyone outside of my mailing list so email me personally at sales@steelguitar.net … after all, there’s no reason for being on my mailing list if you don’t get something special every now and then and this is something special.
These are the issues I have copies of:
January 1979
May 1979
January 1980
May 1980
May 1981 – a special double issue (Volumes 6 & 7)
Your buddy,
Bobbe
P.S. The sale page for mailing list members is www.steelguitar.net/sale.html so get your Christmas gifts while there’s still time.
P.P.S. The mailing list program has been substituting strange characters for letters and dropping some words altogether. We are working to solve this problem. In the meantime, enjoy the mistakes because some of the substitutions are pretty funny.
