Ervin “Junior” Turek
This is the story
of a player, known by friends and family as “Junior”, and his Williams SD-10 Serial #31.
Junior was a well-known, long-time player in Rochester, Minnesota who played tons and tons of gigs.
I was contacted by the family of Ervin Turek in January of 2021.
He had passed away already and his widow was starting to let go of some of his belongings. If I was interested, his seat and everything in it was included with his Williams.
I was more than interested.
I had only seen a couple pictures but I was already hook, line and sinker on it anyways.
I met his son and daughter-in-law halfway on a cold Minnesota night. It was too cold to set it up and talk much in person.
His son told me about how he was his dad's roadie and it was his job to set the steel up. Two of the nicest people I’ve ever met.
So I put the steel and seat in my car and headed home.
I set it up right away and was astounded that it was still in tune.
It had been sitting for quite a while I was told. So I made a quick video of a couple licks and sent it off to them.
Letting them know it was already doing well
and being taken care of.
Not long after that, I took it to Bill Rudolph himself.
I didn’t do anything to it. I wanted him to check it out first.
It was number 31 he ever built.
Back when he even wound his own pickups. He wasn’t sure of the date but figured around the early 80s.
So Bill asked what the previous owner's name was and any other info on it. I told him about who I got it from.
At this time I didn’t know Ervin was known as Junior.
I told him everything I knew before we even took it out and set it up. Then it all came together. He said...
"This is Junior’s guitar. So this means Junior’s gone”?
Then we just stood there quietly for a bit while staring at the steel.
Then he went on to say Junior was one of the nicest guys ever and a great player. He was mainly around the Rochester area.
Bill built this in the early days. It was originally a D-10 Then changed over to an SD-10 at one point.
We got to chatting and cruised down memory lane while checking it out. He mentioned I should’ve cleaned it up first but I didn’t want to do anything before he saw it.
I left it in his care.
Bill went through it and added a vertical knee lever among all sorts of other repairs and adjustments.
When I went to pick it up, it played like butter.
He said it was up to me to make it shine again. So I got right to it.
I'm known to show up with a different steel at a gig now and again depending on what I’m working on.
The first gig I took it to I had one friend who came up excitedly at the end of the night and say, “You should only play that one from now on”.
Then another came up and she said, “Why don’t you just play that one every time? It sounds better than the other ones you always bring. Plus it looks cooler!”
I chuckled but she wasn’t joking around.
She wanted an answer. “I just got it!” I told her.
Just haven’t come to terms with moving it to a new home.
I’ve grown very attached. So I send pictures from time to time when I have it set up and back out there on stage.
