Hacking the Gibson, Part 1

So I've been looking for a project to work on lately. And I've been looking to get an 8-string steel guitar to learn. Maybe even a pedal steel. I found something on Craigslist last week that satisfies these needs. I didn't really know what it was, other than the fact that it had 8 strings and 4 pedals. So I bought it for $50 and decided to figure it all out later. Here is what I got:

I have it now and I still barely know anything about it. Its a Gibson Electra-harp, probably from the 1950s. Its my understanding that Gibson started making pedal steels around 1939 up until WWII. After the war they started making them again but in a different style due to patent problems with Kalima (the other maker of pedal steels at the time). So this is a post-war Gibson. Eight strings, four pedals. A single-coil pickup. This doesn't really have a model number. Its kind of a hodge-podge of parts and materials.

This is the changer mechanism in the condition I received it. Not so great. Missing a lot of bolts and it doesn't really work. The posts that the string go on are busted. I'll post more on this thing in the future and I hope to figure out how it works and maybe even make it work again some day.

These are the tuners and they look in excellent shape. Its a cast brass base with 4 pairs of tuners attached to it. You can see the pickup in this picture too. Its missing the cover that would have been over it originally. You can also see that the bridge at this end (and the other end too) is missing. I'll need to fabricate something there because I doubt I'll ever find an original one without buying an entire second guitar.

So my plan is to restore this thing. I'm not really concerned with trying to do a real vintage restoration. I'm sort of trying to make it work again but not afraid to modernize it either. Gibson pedal steels are cool but not really popular or worth a ton. I want to make this thing useful, and that may result in turning it into a lap steel and disabling the pedal mechanism. My plan is to rebuild it as a working lap steel but to leave the whole changer mechanism attached so I can start rebuilding that after. If that doesn't happen, I'll at least have a pretty good quality lap steel. Expect more soon! I've already disassembled the whole thing and started taking the finish off...I'll have pictures soon.