Thomas Lewis Bradshaw (born February 14, 1935) is an American steel guitarist, journalist, music historian and businessman and who is known for his contributions to the pedagogy of steel guitar. He is a member of the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame (2006).[1] Bradshaw is noted for creating what is now an international standard for describing how a steel guitar is configured, and coined the name "copedent" to describe it.[2] NPR music writer Jesse Jarnow called Bradshaw "perhaps the world's leading authority on the instrument".[3] Bradshaw played and repaired steel guitars and sold parts and accessories for the instruments for nearly a half-century.[3] He was editor and publisher of Steel Guitarist magazine and was a columnist and writer for Guitar Player Magazine for many years, interviewing elite players and documenting steel guitar's evolution. His plaque in the Hall of Fame reads in part, " He was steel's foremost journalist of his time"[4]