1973 Emmons Catalog - See it here

Mike Scaggs · Post by **Mike Scaggs** » 25 Oct 2017 5:18 am

Hi There,

A forum member was kind enough to send me a 1973-74 Emmons catalog. Pretty neat stuff so I thought I would share. Since we cannot post pdf files on the forum I did it this way, enjoy...

https://www.dropbox.com/s/dqi58wl53477f ... g.pdf?dl=0

Jack Hanson · Post by **Jack Hanson** » 25 Oct 2017 6:17 am

I have one of those stashed somewhere, but may not live long enough to find it. Thanks for sharing.

Love the photo on the front cover. Buddy looks like he just walked in off the set of "Love American Style."

Mike Scaggs · Post by **Mike Scaggs** » 25 Oct 2017 6:30 am

Jack Hanson wrote:I have one of those stashed somewhere, but may not live long enough to find it. Thanks for sharing.

Love the photo on the front cover. Buddy looks like he just walked in off the set of "Love American Style."

Ha! I thought the same thing, classic stuff. I wish it had more Emmons factory pics and the machines / processes they used to machine and make parts. That the engineering geek part of me

robert kramer · Post by **robert kramer** » 25 Oct 2017 8:06 am

If you look at the page marked "Message from Ron Lashley" in the photo "Assembly" you can see Fred Trogden back right overseeing a lady assembling pedal bars. Fred Trogden was a tool and die maker who oversaw the machine shop late 60's to 70's. In the photo marked "Spray Booth" is Ron Lashley's father. (Info from Billy Knowles - Steel Guitar East)

Jack Hanson · Post by **Jack Hanson** » 25 Oct 2017 3:21 pm

The photo of "the LOAFER" on page 27 should go a long way to dispel the notion that factory SD-10s & SD-12s were always built with the endplate drilled for only the front neck.

Steven Paris · Post by **Steven Paris** » 25 Oct 2017 11:00 pm

THANKS, Mike!!

Karl Paulsen · Post by **Karl Paulsen** » 26 Oct 2017 8:49 am

Downloaded.
Very cool, thanks!

George Seymour · Post by **George Seymour** » 28 Oct 2017 5:17 am

Thanks! Very nice to have!

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 28 Oct 2017 5:51 am

I had this catalog back in the 1970s. It's nice to see it again. Brings back a lot of memories! I notice that the 8-string lap steel pictured has an early DeArmond pickup (made for Emmons). Those pickups were on the early 8-string Emmons student model PSGs too.

The photo of "the LOAFER" on page 27 should go a long way to dispel the notion that factory SD-10s & SD-12s were always built with the endplate drilled for only the front neck.

That's a good point. It proves that an SD-10 push/pull with endplate drilled front and rear is not necessarily an after-market conversion (D-10 to SD-10).

Marty Broussard · Post by **Marty Broussard** » 28 Oct 2017 5:11 pm

Still have my catalog. I want the guitar that is next to the water. Love that color.

Ray Minich · Post by **Ray Minich** » 9 Nov 2017 4:31 pm

The prices make me wax nostalgic....

The photos and dates remind me of days of longing...

Steven Paris · Post by **Steven Paris** » 9 Nov 2017 8:06 pm

Ray Minich wrote:The prices make me wax nostalgic....

If you put those prices in today's dollars (https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl), you'll see that today's guitars are a real bargain compared to 40 years ago!!

John Scanlon · Post by **John Scanlon** » 9 Nov 2017 8:19 pm

Still .... D-10, $1,500. S-10, $900 (with six pedals).

Jordan Beyer · Post by **Jordan Beyer** » 31 Dec 2018 12:06 pm

Does any body have this catalog and like to reshare it. Its expired with a 404 but I'm interested in looking at it. Thanks, JB

Ryan Bramlett · Post by **Ryan Bramlett** » 31 Dec 2018 12:25 pm

i'd like to second that.

Ian Worley · Post by **Ian Worley** » 31 Dec 2018 12:38 pm

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1pSTVa ... tttPlNEgA6

Jordan Beyer · Post by **Jordan Beyer** » 31 Dec 2018 12:53 pm

Awesome, thanks Ian!

Dennis Montgomery · Post by **Dennis Montgomery** » 31 Dec 2018 2:23 pm

Anyone know of a recorded example using, "The Fiddlers Three String Machine" shown near the end of the catalog? Was it some kind of 3 channel octave delay or something else?

There's currently one for sale on the UK Ebay for about $300

Fred Rogan · Post by **Fred Rogan** » 31 Dec 2018 4:52 pm

I saw the pickups but they never really said who made them. What kind of pickups (who made them) did Emmons guitars have installed as they left the factory?

Ron Funk · Post by **Ron Funk** » 31 Dec 2018 6:31 pm

This really brings back some memories and 'dreams' of "Man, I'd love to have that one."

For anyone looking for The Black Album, it's only $5.00

Did anyone see a price listed for the Emmons amp on Page 20?

Thanks

Jack Hanson · Post by **Jack Hanson** » 1 Jan 2019 9:33 am

Fred Rogan wrote:What kind of pickups (who made them) did Emmons guitars have installed as they left the factory?

A man who should know told me last October that during the heyday of the Emmons operation, the pickups were produced one at a time on Ron Sr's original winder by the same person who built each individual instrument as one step in its assembly process. He said that at that time, they did not have one person dedicated to winding pickups and stockpiling them for later use, but rather built them especially for each single instrument. The exception was some 8-string instruments that used pickups purchased from Rowe Industries (DeArmond).

Roger Rettig · Post by **Roger Rettig** » 1 Jan 2019 10:54 am

Re: end-plates

I bought a Sapphire Blue SD-10 LeGrande 111 new from Jim Aycoth at the factory in Summer, 1998. Mine had two apertures in the changer-end-plate.

Not necessarily 'standard', but probably because the 'proper' end-plates were out of stock. I've seen SD-10s with or without in fairly equal numbers.

Jack Hanson · Post by **Jack Hanson** » 3 Jan 2019 4:57 pm

Dennis Montgomery wrote:Anyone know of a recorded example using, "The Fiddlers Three String Machine" shown near the end of the catalog? Was it some kind of 3 channel octave delay or something else?

There's a good recorded example from the man himself of the "Emmons String Machine" on Pachelbel's Canon in D Major, and possibly some other tunes, from his Steel Guitar album on Flying Fish:

If you look closely at the cover photo you can see part of the unit attached to the end of Buddy's basketweave 'mica 12-string, outside his right hand.

Although I have never played through or even seen a "String Machine," I believe it was basically three Foxx fuzztones in one box with three separate outboard pickups that were placed over whatever strings were played to achieve the desired effect.

If Ernie sees this, he can undoubtedly offer more info.

Jack Strayhorn · Post by **Jack Strayhorn** » 4 Jan 2019 7:15 pm

Paint booth guy is Ron's dad, Tom, who by the way came up with the idea of the spring loaded crossbars and the swivel style bellcrank. In the assembly area photo the lady with big hair is Angie Strickland, who also worked with us in the 90's. The older lady assembling volume pedals is Ron's mother, Tensy.

Brian Spratt · Post by **Brian Spratt** » 2 Oct 2023 7:28 am

The link to the catalog is dead. Anyone have an updated link?