Holes for raise helper springs in early Legrande changer?

Ryan Barwin · From: Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

I was doing some work on my '83 SKH Legrande yesterday and noticed there's holes drilled in the changer fingers. I've never seen this feature on an Emmons changer before, and it's not in the Lashley patent.
It looks like the holes are for raise helper springs that were never installed.
I'm curious if that's what the holes are for, how many were made that way, and why newer Emmons changers don't have them?
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Jack Strayhorn · From: Winston-Salem, NC

That is exactly what those holes were for. The pivot points in the LeGrande changer were located to make lowers and raises equal in resistance and the use of helper springs were not necessary. Thus they were eventually eliminated. Tried them on a guitar for Hal Rugg once and made very little difference except adding resistance to the lowers. They were eliminated during the design change from the original LeGrande to the Lashley model.

Ryan Barwin · From: Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Thanks for the info. That's interesting. The pulls tend to be relatively short and light (on the SKH model in particular), so that makes sense that helper springs weren't used.
Though I wonder if adding springs for the whole tone raises on strings 1 and 7 (which aren't also lowered) would noticeably lighten the lever action...
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