At the start of the Sho-Bud Company in the late 1950's, Shot Jackson and Buddy Emmons built the pedal steels in Shots garage in Madison TN. From this time until Buddy Emmons went to work for Ernest Tubb in 1957, Buddy did some of the wood cabinet building and finishing. During this time, the only choice as far as the finish was concerned was the choice of wood and lacquered colors. These first pedal steels were built with all wood cabinets and no knee levers. Hardwood birdseye maple was chosen to be used from the beginning because of its beauty and strength. The Bigsby steels were also made with a maple cabinet. During this early period, wood for the guitars was ordered from the Craftsman Wood Company in Chicago, IL. Their catalog had a variety of fine woods to choose from. Ebony, which is a very beautiful hard wood was also available but was extremely expensive and very hard to work with. For those reasons, they decided not to use it. Buddy Emmons later recalled that Shot didn't even want people to know that ebony was available.

Later on, but before the Professional Series, a wood called purple heart, an imported hardwood, was made available. Some cabinets were built using that as well as the standard maple. A separate wooden insert or neck between the changer and keyhead was used on the Sho-Buds because of tuning problems that Buddy was having with his Bigsby. Buddy felt that the separate neck would greatly reduce the tuning problem.

The cabinet dimensions were designed around a 25 inch scale with a strip of decorative inlay around the edges to accent the body and give it a slimmer looking appearance. A few of the first pedal steels had a decorative routed out shape at both ends of the steel. This routing was stopped shortly after the first few steels were built. Duane Marrs, a long time Sho-Bud employee, mentioned that Sho-Bud would use stains many times bought from the local Sherwin-Williams paint store. Oil base pigment and dye stains were used. Some stains were mixed special for certain or custom colors.

Basically, the guitars were stained with the dyes to show the grain of the maple. The solid colors, such as black was a solid pigment stain. According to A.J. Nelson, a long time Sho-Bud employee, Sho-Bud also bought stains from Lily Paints, Memphis TN. Lily was the manufacture of the dye stains. Another stain brand was Artistain, which Gretsch used. Also, Sho-Bud used a Sherwin-Williams brand lacquer. Duane Marrs mentioned that the stains and lacquer used on the Sho-Buds were generally available at the local Sherwin-Williams or other paint stores in the area.

After the stain had dried, lacquer was sprayed on the wood. A minimum of 5 coats of lacquer was applied. Generally though 6 to 7 coats was sprayed. The procedure of spraying the lacquer was standard for the most part. The guitar body would be first sprayed with 2 to 3 coats, with light sanding of 600 to 800 grit paper between the coats. Then the decals would be applied over these coats of lacquer. Some people believe that the Sho-Bud decals were silk-screened on. But this is not true. According to Duane Marrs and A.J. Nelson, the decals used at Sho-Bud were a water base. The decal was on decal paper and then dipped in water for a brief time. Then the decal would be applied by sliding it off of the paper on to the guitar body. This process with the water based decals was used throughout the history of Sho-Bud. After all of the water had dried and evaporated, the lacquer spraying would continue . The decals did not react well with the lacquer, and if too much lacquer was applied over the decal at one time, then the decal would bubble and wither. Therefore a very light tac-coat of lacquer was sprayed over the decals once and then let dry.(one need not light tac-coat the entire guitar at this point-just the decals to seal them.) Several more light tac-coats of lacquer was sprayed just once over the decal with each coat allowed to dry before another tac-coat was sprayed. In this way, the decal and lacquer would bond to each other with out a reaction. A.J. Nelson recalls that at times they would have trouble with the decals and lacquer and that many decals were destroyed as too much lacquer would be applied to the decals at one time. After there were several light tack-coats over the decals, then the guitar body could be sprayed normal.

Normally, after spraying lacquer it is recommended to let each coat of lacquer dry for 24 hours or more. But since Sho-Bud had quite a number of orders and they were more or less an assembly line, once the lacquer had set up enough that it was dry to the touch, then the guitar body would be sprayed again. They didn't sand between each coat as they were building up the coats of lacquer. When usually 6 or 7 coats were on, the guitar body would be sanded smooth with 600 to 800 grit sand paper.

After this, the guitar body would be taken to a buffing wheel as soon as the lacquer had hardened up enough. Applying the fret board to the neck was done after the changer, keyhead, and neck were fastened on.

Most all the Sho-Buds after the first several were made by Shot and Buddy were 24 inch scale. That's the measurement from the top center of the changer fingers to the top center of the roller nuts. The 12 fret of the fretboard goes exactly one half the distance, or 12 inches. Sho-Bud used a paper that was glued double-sided to glue the fretboard to the neck. You would peal one side of the glue paper off and then attach the glue paper to the fretboard. Then pealing the other side of the paper to expose the glue, you would attach the fretboard to the neck, with the 12th fret being halfway between the bridge changer fingers and the roller nuts. A.J. Nelson does not recall where Shot Jackson bought this double-sided glue paper or what the manufacture name of it was.