BELTON, TX — Bud Harger, 82, of Belton, has decided to donate his one of a kind Romero steel guitar to the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C.
When Bud was 17 in 1955, he was already an accomplished steel guitar player in southern Louisiana. That's when he heard a sound coming out of Nashville that was unlike anything the local musicians were playing at the time. It was a unique sound created by a pedal, which was a rare thing to see on a steel guitar.
That's when he met a violin maker named Harold Romero.
The two decided to build a brand-new steel guitar that incorporated a pedal and allow Bud to play the way the boys in Nashville were playing.
“1955, I was 17-years-old. Harold was about 27-years-old and he was a maker of violins and mandolins, and he was quite a craftsman. But he had never built a steel guitar before. So, we set about building a new guitar and three months later, we came up with the guitar that’s now going into the Smithsonian institute,” said Harger.
Bud continued to play the guitar on stage until late 1959 when he graduated college and began his career as an accountant.
The guitar sat in his attic until he posted a photo of it in a steel guitar forum and sparked the interest of a musician in Austin.
After coming from Austin and viewing Bud’s guitar, the man reached out to a friend at the Smithsonian who contacted Bud and ask if he would like to donate it to the museum.
“What makes it unique is that it’s just part of the evolution. It’s part of the struggle that the steel players were going through, trying to figure out how to do this. It was the only pedal steel guitar in Baton Rouge at the middle 50s and late 50s,” said Harger.
The guitar is now in the museum and will be on display for the public periodically from now on.
“The placement of this guitar in the Smithsonian will recognize Harold for his contribution to the business. We're glad it’s going to be there, it’s a fitting end to the life of this guitar,” said Harger.
