Jerry Blanton

Duane Reese · Post by **Duane Reese** » 26 Mar 2008 8:46 pm

Danny Letz wrote:Do any of you have pictures of the underside?

That's the best part:

Turning that knurled screw on the top of the puller raises the leverage, and that's how the pulls are tuned; this is why there's no tuning windows, and the pulls are always timed as a result.

Roger Shackelton · Post by **Roger Shackelton** » 26 Mar 2008 8:54 pm

DUANE, you are 100 percent correct about the BLANTON pulling system. The ease of pushing the pedals has to be experienced to be believed, even with 4 pulls on a pedal. These guitars stay in tune very well and seldom need tweaking.

Roger

Duane Reese · Post by **Duane Reese** » 26 Mar 2008 10:45 pm

Oh yeah the pedals are have a consistent elasticity that's like nothing else - you're right Roger, it has to be felt to be believed.

David Hartley · Post by **David Hartley** » 26 Mar 2008 11:18 pm

Was you the tommy touring with Mo Bandy in the UK in the 70's. I was playing steel with country shack UK and we backed Roy Drusky and Dotsie? email mr.davidhartley@btinternet.co.uk

Ernest Cawby · Post by **Ernest Cawby** » 27 Mar 2008 5:53 am

HOW'S THIS

ernie

Forrest Culpepper · Post by **Forrest Culpepper** » 27 Mar 2008 6:05 pm

Man...I'm glad you guys started this thread. It's always great to see old friends like Jerry.

It was the late 60's & I was seriously looking at getting Jerry to build me a double neck. Really liked a lot of the features he had on his guitars. The chrome look was really "in" back then & heck, who cared about the weight of the thing anyways!

Well, I ended up buying something called an Emmons. Jerry heard about it & one night Moe and all of us were playing at a place called Shady Acres in New Braunfels when Jerry & several other pickers showed up to "inspect" the Emmons. I guess I was the only one in the San Antonio area with one back then.
Of course, the first thing he wanted to do was look "under the hood". I don't know what he saw, but he just started shaking his head & grinning from ear to ear & mumbling something under his breath. To this day I don't know what he saw in the undercarriage of that Emmons or what was going through his mind. But it sure was funny watching him look over things that night! I didn't know it then, but these were "the great days" in the steel guitar business & I believe Jerry was a great innovator & contributor to that movement. I can tell you that it was always fun talking "shop" with Jerry, even though most of the time I didn't understand half of what he was talking about!

Jerry could build anything. I had him make me a 1" stainless steel bar one time (I still use this to this day). I heard Buddy Emmons was using something similar to this with mercury inside for the weight & "rollability" which gave him great sustain & fast momentum when moving from one position to the other up & down the neck of the guitar. Well, I couldn't get mercury, so Jerry suggested using lead instead (and yeah, I'm still living!). It turned out that lead worked just fine. I imagine Jerry would have "stuffed" just about anything into that bar if I would have asked him to do it! He was always experimenting with something & it was always fun going over to his shop to see what was "cooking".

Some of the other guys that I believe had Blantons back then were Don Bierstead & David Farenthold (sorry for the spelling guys).

Stu Schulman · Post by **Stu Schulman** » 27 Mar 2008 6:25 pm

Forrest good one!One time I had a problem with one of my tuners being run in a little too far so I called Jerry,As I was looking at my guitar upside down in the case Jerry was trying to talk me thru letting the rod get some slack...finally he asked what I was looking at I told him that it looked like an aerial view of Pittsburgh,Then he asked if I had to work that night I told him no and I grabbed my good friend Josh Dubin and we drove down from Austin,Jerry fixed the problem in about two seconds and then took us to this great little diner where everyone who worked there knew Jerry,He never let us pay for anything.Well this turned into about a once a month thing Me and Josh would go to San Antone to hang with Jerry whether my guitar needed a tune up or not,He would also show us the lick of the week,We felt like were with Royalty.

Randy Gilliam · Post by **Randy Gilliam** » 27 Mar 2008 11:36 pm

Mike Ester · Post by **Mike Ester** » 28 Mar 2008 6:26 am

Forrest Culpepper wrote:Some of the other guys that I believe had Blantons back then were Don Bierstead & David Farenthold (sorry for the spelling guys).

Don is still playing his.

Jerry Hayes · Post by **Jerry Hayes** » 28 Mar 2008 7:31 am

Around '71 or '72 I was looking for a single neck 10 string that I could get serious on. I had a Fender 400 which was pretty limited so I went to Blackie Taylor's Music Store which was in Hawaiian Gardens, California at the time. I looked at MSA, ShoBud, & Emmons as well as a Fender 800 which I was considering but the string spacing was too wide I thought. Blackie pointed me to an S-10 Blanton with 4 floor pedals and no knee levers. It was black with very pretty polished end plates and set up in an E9th tuning. I sat down to it and couldn't believe the difference in the pedal action from the others I'd tried. We made a deal with Blackie saying he'd fashion two knee levers for me. We added one lever to lower the E's and one to lower the 2nd and 9th strings. I played it for a few months and felt I was missing something on the bottom so Blackie and I converted it to an eleven string by adding a low E string. He fashioned the parts to do it and we put a 12 string pickup on it that would cover all the strings. I played it for two or three years until I traded it for a 1958 Volkswagen. I sure wish I had that guitar back. When the old guy I traded with died, I checked with his son later to see if the guitar was for sale but he didn't know what had happened to it. If anyone ever sees an eleven string Blanton with four on the floor and two knees, let me know, I'd probably be interested in getting it back..........JH in Va./

Roger Shackelton · Post by **Roger Shackelton** » 28 Mar 2008 7:33 am

Are there any S-12U Blantons out there?

Roger

Duane Reese · Post by **Duane Reese** » 28 Mar 2008 12:34 pm

Thank you much Randy - actually Gordon Borland hooked me up with that number too. So far I only get the answering machine, but I'll try him again today.

Randy, why do you keep spelling my name with a double "n"???

It's alright though.

Randy Gilliam · Post by **Randy Gilliam** » 28 Mar 2008 1:34 pm

Duanne I Just Dont Know. Jerry Is Buildind a House out in west Texas His Cell Wont Work When He Comes To Boerne He Will Call You . Your Pal Randy

Duane Reese · Post by **Duane Reese** » 28 Mar 2008 2:01 pm

Ahh... I left him one message but failed to leave my number so I'll go ahead and do that.

Incidentally Mike and Ranndy

, I just got off the phone with Jerry Wallace (who has the pickups for that thing) and got an update, but I'll put those details over in that thread going about this in pedal steel.

Jason Longoria · Post by **Jason Longoria** » 28 Mar 2008 7:32 pm

Jerry Hayes wrote:Around '71 or '72 I was looking for a single neck 10 string that I could get serious on. I had a Fender 400 which was pretty limited so I went to Blackie Taylor's Music Store which was in Hawaiian Gardens, California at the time. I looked at MSA, ShoBud, & Emmons as well as a Fender 800 which I was considering but the string spacing was too wide I thought. Blackie pointed me to an S-10 Blanton with 4 floor pedals and no knee levers. It was black with very pretty polished end plates and set up in an E9th tuning. I sat down to it and couldn't believe the difference in the pedal action from the others I'd tried. We made a deal with Blackie saying he'd fashion two knee levers for me. We added one lever to lower the E's and one to lower the 2nd and 9th strings. I played it for a few months and felt I was missing something on the bottom so Blackie and I converted it to an eleven string by adding a low E string. He fashioned the parts to do it and we put a 12 string pickup on it that would cover all the strings. I played it for two or three years until I traded it for a 1958 Volkswagen. I sure wish I had that guitar back. When the old guy I traded with died, I checked with his son later to see if the guitar was for sale but he didn't know what had happened to it. If anyone ever sees an eleven string Blanton with four on the floor and two knees, let me know, I'd probably be interested in getting it back..........JH in Va./

Thats a FFFF'N cool story !!!

Jason Longoria · Post by **Jason Longoria** » 28 Mar 2008 7:35 pm

Randy Gilliam wrote:Duanne I Just Dont Know. Jerry Is Buildind a House out in west Texas His Cell Wont Work When He Comes To Boerne He Will Call You . Your Pal Randy

Jerry leaving Leon Springs? I grew up in Leon Springs, me and Jerry had a long talk about Leon Springs Cafe, I used to work there, Jerry used to go a lot ... that place had some cool bands come through back then

Randy Gilliam · Post by **Randy Gilliam** » 28 Mar 2008 10:55 pm

Jason The boy Has to Go to town to get Supplies Once In a While. Wandy

Mike Ester · Post by **Mike Ester** » 29 Mar 2008 6:00 am

Roger Shackelton wrote:Are there any S-12U Blantons out there?

Not that I'm aware of. But that would have been an interesting axe.

Herb Steiner · Post by **Herb Steiner** » 29 Mar 2008 7:39 am

Jerry is definitely one of the eccentric geniuses of steel guitar. Did y'all know he's been a songwriter also? Back in the '60's Willie Nelson recorded a song of Jerry's that got some airplay called "San Antonio."

Last time I saw Jerry, I was with the Bandoleros and he and George came out to a Bush gig at the Cabaret in Bandera. We started talking and he told me he was excited about building a steel guitar entirely out of oak. I allowed as how it was an unusual wood choice but that I'd seen a Miller Custom made of oak. He said "yeah, but not oak pedals, bellcranks, crossbars, changer fingers... everything!"

Oak changer rods?

Maybe he was thinking about fiddle-style friction pegs instead of geared tuning machines?

I'm not totally sure if he was putting me on or not... but I think that he might have been having sport with me!

Stu Schulman · Post by **Stu Schulman** » 29 Mar 2008 9:04 am

Herb,You might have been the butt of the Oak!

Gordon Borland · Post by **Gordon Borland** » 30 Mar 2008 12:10 am

Stu thats funny I don't care who ya are!!!!

I hope we get some more pictures of Blanton guitars!
Al where are you????

Forrest Culpepper · Post by **Forrest Culpepper** » 30 Mar 2008 5:58 am

Well, Herb, you're right. Oak or mesquite would be ideal and when it got out of tune you could throw it on the ole B-BQ pit or use it to heat your home (you can tell I'm into this "Green-build" thing & recycling).

And, Stu, the changers wouldn't freeze up there in Alaska...you could even take it with you ice fishing!

What great innovation!!!

And,yeah....where is Al???

Tommy....loan him one of your computers when he comes out to CherryRidge

Bob Parins · Post by **Bob Parins** » 28 Jun 2009 10:03 pm

Great pictures in this thread!

Hey Stu- Did you find some Blanton pics for us?

Justin G, I'd love to see your blanton guitars if you have any pictures.

Bent Romnes · Post by **Bent Romnes** » 29 Jun 2009 3:44 am

Yep..this thread deserves reviving. Her ewe have a genius who dared to build a pulling system totally out of the ordinary. Must be true what some people said that Jerry Blanton is a genius.

I can only wish that I could come up with something as clever as that.

Roger Shackelton · Post by **Roger Shackelton** » 29 Jun 2009 7:22 am

Bent, I will have to agree that Jerry Blanton is a genius. His pulling system is unconventional and unique, but it works so wonderfully well. He had the intuition to step outside the box as it were, to come up with a different type of mechanism for a steel guitar pulling system.

ROGER

The Steel Guitar Forum

Jerry Blanton

TOMMY DETAMORE...

HI

Jerry Blanton

Spelling

Re: Spelling

Town

Funny