Fender PS210 Serial #

Bob Estes · Post by **Bob Estes** » 6 Mar 2007 8:46 pm

I have a Fender PS210. There is a number stamped in
the end plate of 123302. Is this the serial number
or a part number?
Hope a Ps210 owner can help.

Thanks,
Bob

basilh · Post by **basilh** » 7 Mar 2007 1:48 am

The serial number is3 digits and from 001 to 014
There were only 15 made (Including the prototype) and nothing like that amount survives now.

Here's where it's located ~:-

basilh · Post by **basilh** » 7 Mar 2007 1:52 am

A link to more PS-210 info :-

http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum5/HTML/012905.html

Bob Estes · Post by **Bob Estes** » 7 Mar 2007 6:29 am

basil, thank you for the quick reply. My ps210 has
PS 6 in the location you pointed out.
i just did'nt know where to look.
thanks again,
Bob

Mike Perlowin · Post by **Mike Perlowin** » 7 Mar 2007 10:30 am

Just out of curiosity, what does the guitar weigh?

I heard somewhere that it was around 65 pounds.

Bob Estes · Post by **Bob Estes** » 7 Mar 2007 11:32 am

Mike, I have not weighed the guitar, but it is very
heavy. More than an old man with a bad back would
want to lift very often. Maybe some of the other
owners have weighed one and could tell us.

basilh · Post by **basilh** » 7 Mar 2007 4:34 pm

The brochure says 65lbs INCLUDING THE CASE :-
Brochure

The owners manual:-
Manual

The Guitar as we know it!! :-

basilh · Post by **basilh** » 25 Feb 2008 4:30 am

I'll have it with me tonight at the Bluebirds Club..

More here :-
http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopi ... 7&start=25

basilh · Post by **basilh** » 5 May 2011 12:39 am

This is what mine sounded like yesterday (4th May) when I recorded this tune.
Click HERE

Tony Glassman · Post by **Tony Glassman** » 5 May 2011 6:58 am

basilh wrote:This is what mine sounded like yesterday (4th May) when I recorded this tune.
Click HERE

sounds great.......nice pickin' too

chris ivey · Post by **chris ivey** » 5 May 2011 9:33 am

yeah..that was nice. i guess you're not just a pretty face!

Bent Romnes · Post by **Bent Romnes** » 5 May 2011 6:18 pm

Great pickin' Basil. Great sound outa that Fender.

Chris Lucker · Post by **Chris Lucker** » 6 May 2011 10:51 am

[quote="basilh"]
There were only 15 made (Including the prototype) and nothing like that amount survives now./quote]

That is a curious proclamation. What are you basing that on?

basilh · Post by **basilh** » 6 May 2011 12:50 pm

Chris Lucker wrote:
basilh wrote: There were only 15 made (Including the prototype) and nothing like that amount survives now.
That is a curious proclamation. What are you basing that on?

Common knowledge..and information disseminated by the designer. Also there's nothing curious about known facts, unless your one of those who don't know.

A search of THIS forum will uncover multiple posts regarding the limited number of them made. AFAIK there is none with a serial number above 14. It never went into production.

http://www.gfimusicalproducts.com/Artic ... rticle.htm

http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum9/HTML/003724.html
http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum5/HTML/009156.html
http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/FenderPS210/
http://youtu.be/vo_2gz_3Yi0
http://youtu.be/0fFLibc7eBY
http://youtu.be/5AaVt4gE1A8
http://youtu.be/q3BHepNy-NE

And so on..

http://www.evertize.com/sutphin/vintage.htm

Paul Redmond
Member

From: Illinois, USA
posted 31 July 2006 07:25 PM I bought serial #11 from Gene Fields while in Knoxville TN in 1988. He told me at the time that it was the last NEW (as yet unsold) PS210 of the 15 "production" models made before the "plug was Pulled on the project. Mine has 5FP, 4KL . . not uncommon, but it does contain 2 pieces that are VERY uncommon. Under each neck is a somewhat V-shaped steel stamping with #8-32
tapped holes - one hole for each of the 9 available pulls - in each of the faces of the stamping. The PS210 normally stopped at the endplate when the tuner bar for each pull bottomed out on the endplate. This stamping allows you to put long #8-32 stop screws in each one of the holes to stop the pull WITHOUT the bar bottoming out on the endplate. The delta-shaped drawplates and the tuner bars can then be "floated". I made up some of these screws and installed them on the rear neck (my rear neck is E9) and it definitely takes most of the spongy feel out of the pedals and knees. Gene explained that only 1 or 2 of the guitars made had these stops. You can stop @ the endplate a la Kline, ZB, etc., OR stop the linkage a la most every guitar made today. These were complex stampings and, as toolmaker, I can't imagine what the tooling cost for this could have been. There are 18 holes in each stop that are tapped!! That's 36 altogether. The stampings were obviously black oxided or anodized when completed. anyone out there have these on their PS210's?

basilh · Post by **basilh** » 6 May 2011 1:01 pm

Chris Lucker wrote:That is a curious proclamation. What are you basing that on?

Further info as is known so far:-
Feel free to add as many as you know of..

Known & Unknown PS 210 Serial Numbers (15 guitars made by Fender):

PS 6 - Bob Estes From: Harrison, Arkansas, USA.

PS 7 – Paul Adams, who bought the guitar from Bill Nauman, of Las Vegas, Nevada (2nd number, chassis 25302). Bill bought this guitar new when he lived in Canada. Paul also owns a Prototype of the Fender PS-210 that is not part of the serial number series. He runs the FenderPS210 group on Yahoo! Groups. I believe that Bill’s guitar originally had 8 pedals and 1 knee lever and Bill added 3 extra knee levers.

PS 11 - Paul Richmond, Lemon Springs, No. Carolina (He added extra knee levers himself, per Bill Nauman.) Paul manufacturers his own brand of pedal steel guitar which are very expensive and only made in limited quantities. I contacted him via telephone [he’s wasn’t online] and he mailed me some photos of his guitar along with some knee lever drawings.)

PS 12 - Al Gershen (Bought from Mike Houser in January 2000) (2nd number, chassis 125302). This guitar is being sold in May 2006 to Basil Henriques of the United Kingdom. The guitar is configured with 8 pedals and 1 knee lever.
Now as from June 2006 in the United Kingdom and configured as 6 and 3 on one neck and 8 and 1 on the other.

PS13 – Larry Petree, recently purchased (April 2006) from Barney Horn of Las Vegas. His guitar is configured with 5 floor pedals and 4 knee levers.

PS ?? - Billy Cooper's Music Store in Orange, Virginia (URL: http://www.billycoopersmusic.com/home.htm )

PS ?? - Tom Haffner, Littleton, CO (He wrote letter to Tom Bradshaw's "Steel Guitar Record Club," Newsletter # 6, 1975, about his modifications to his Fender PS 210.) Tom sent me many photos of his guitar showing the before and after of the modifications he made to the instrument.

PS ?? - Howard Reinlieb , 3rd ave
NY, NY Howard has e-mialed me many pictures and I have them on my web site @ http://www.waikiki-islanders.com/assets/012-Mine/

http://www.waikiki-islanders.com/assets/PS210A/

Chris Lucker · Post by **Chris Lucker** » 6 May 2011 1:10 pm

Sounds like another one of those cases where if an "expert" does not know where something is today, then that something does not exist.

I do not think Gene saw the "missing" guitars get destroyed.

basilh · Post by **basilh** » 6 May 2011 1:22 pm

Well Chris if you know of others PLEASE let us know. AFAIK mine is the only one in current Professional LIVE and recoding use.
It will be Featured opening our show at the Birminghan Symphony Hall on July 3rd..
Of course as musical director of the show I shall be backing all the artists during the 6:00 - 11:00 performances, so it's going to get a pretty good workout.

There will eventually be a video of the guitar in use, as I said, It's going to be the opening number at the show we're doing at the Birmingham Symponyy Hall on July 3rd..(Professional video and sound crew)
http://www.thebritishsteeliessociety.co ... 956&p=4248

My original recording of this tune was on my 1970 Emmons PP, and I always felt I needed to re-record it. The tune originally was done in a bit of a rush as a signature tune for a Raidió Teilifís Éireann series "Country Startime".. Just 28 seconds was originally required .. when the show became a hit I was asked at gigs to play the tune so I was forced to extend the tune, write a middle section and take the whole thing seriously. The thirteen week series was repeated twice in later years. The tune was behind the introduction and played in and out of the add breaks.. so each show had the tune featured 6 times.. Thirteen shows times.. 3 = 39, x 6 = 234... Enough TV exposure to make it recognisable nationwide.. Ask any Irish country fan.

AND, it's no more original than the Streets of Laredo or Red River Valley et al. I gathered together my favourite licks and put them within a predictable country chord sequence.
I AM happy with the solidity of the notes on the top string, compared to the slightly thinner sound of the Emmons..It's due to the pickup design, that 'Gene Fields is a smart dude. All in all, I love the tone and its harmonic content but I must admit I simply abhor the weight and also the parallel string configuration..(Same spacing at the nut AND bridge) Makes the left hand quite tired.

Chris Lucker · Post by **Chris Lucker** » 6 May 2011 1:27 pm

[quote="basilh"]Well Chris if you know of others PLEASE let us know. AFAIK mine is /quote]

Why, Basil? After the obnoxious email you just sent me?

If you are so smart, tell me how many fingers I am holding up.

basilh · Post by **basilh** » 6 May 2011 1:43 pm

OK Then why don't you impart your knowledge of these to us ("us" being the PS-210 owners Club) as in one of the links in my thread.
It's not "ME" per se making these statements, it's the combined knowledge of the known and declared owners that I'm quoting from.. have you not read the links ?
They're the funny bits of text that are a different colour within the posts. You click on them, maybe twice, depending on what fingers are available..

basilh · Post by **basilh** » 6 May 2011 1:48 pm

Here's the tune again, I love the sound of the guitar, somewhere betwixt my 1970 PP and my 1964 Fender1000.
http://www.waikiki-islanders.com/assets ... artime.mp3
Click HERE
BTW as a matter of interest, the backings and other solo parts were achieved with little effort with... BIAB Audiophile 2011. (Mac)

Brint Hannay · Post by **Brint Hannay** » 6 May 2011 1:49 pm

I must say it did occur to me that these things look like they'd be pretty hard to destroy. And perhaps not that likely anyone would want to. So--just speculating--absent natural disaster or fire, I'd think it fairly likely all fifteen still exist someplace.

basilh · Post by **basilh** » 6 May 2011 1:58 pm

Brint, yep that's probably correct, the location of the "Survivors" is elusive however.. as is the condition of them, whilst the body is VERY substantial the rest of the guitar is obviously subject to the normal wear and tear that would occur.

AND having not been seen in any form of high profile it would lead one to assume that most of the survivors are not in regular use, if not, Would we not have had reports of them on this and other forums considering their unusual and distinctive appearance?

A similar Search would be:- How many 1981 24 karat gold plated DeLoreans are there?

Brint Hannay · Post by **Brint Hannay** » 6 May 2011 2:14 pm

Maybe one of these days some lucky soul will find a dusty PS-210 at a yard sale for $20.

The guitar (and the picking) does sound very good on Country-Startime, by the way.

Chris Lucker · Post by **Chris Lucker** » 6 May 2011 2:54 pm

I saw a DeLorean yesterday afternoon, but it was brushed. You still see them on the road in these parts. I guess you notice them because of their rarity. DeLoreans disappear because body repairs are impossible to do at a price sensible for the value of the car. I imagine it is less expensive to remica a PS 210 than repanel a DeLorean. Although I have seen some pretty crude looking panels fabricated to cover the endplate adjustments on a couple PS 210s.

Why is it that of the first fifteen Emmons guitars made in 1964 -- of the twenty dated 1964 -- so many of them still exist and are accounted for?

basilh · Post by **basilh** » 7 May 2011 12:56 am

Chris Lucker wrote:I saw a DeLorean yesterday afternoon, but it was brushed. You still see them on the road in these parts. I guess you notice them because of their rarity. DeLoreans disappear because body repairs are impossible to do at a price sensible for the value of the car. I imagine it is less expensive to remica a PS 210 than repanel a DeLorean. Although I have seen some pretty crude looking panels fabricated to cover the endplate adjustments on a couple PS 210s.

Why is it that of the first fifteen Emmons guitars made in 1964 -- of the twenty dated 1964 -- so many of them still exist and are accounted for?

Well Chris as a fellow PS-210 owner I thought you'd know that there isn't any "mica" (presumably formica) substantially used on them: it's just a VERY thin sheet of laminate "Burl Walnut effect" glued onto the Aluminium frame (Which is the complete body of the guitar)
Description HERE
I'd imagine that the guitar would still look impressive minus the façade.

As far as the comparison with the first few Emmons guitars goes, it's a different ball game, the very first Emmons would survive because of their continued usage and the maintenance involved. The PS-210 (To my knowledge) isn't, and hasn't been in in the spotlight on stage or elsewhere, primarily because of it's difficulty in setting up the tensions etc. and also the weight factor. It seems that the majority of them (well at least those that I know off)are either gathering dust or sitting quietly displayed in some collection.. How many are being played regularly today ?
Whereas the Emmons is still "Up Front" and being played by all and sundry hither and thither. The prolifferance of the later Emmons guitars added to the popularity of the earliest.
Conversely, the Fender PS-210 faded somewhat into obscurity when Fender ceased Steel Guitar production, there just weren't any in the public's eye, and none following to rekindle interest. Well at least that's my slant on it, notwithstanding that, the experts may disagree.