It has an E9 Emmons setup with 3 standard foot pedals (A,B,C) and 1 knee lever (LKL) that drops the Es to Eb’s (see the ‘copedent’ tuning picture attached). It has a 24' fret board, roller bearings, single coil pickup, VERY solid body construction, bell cranks, pull rods, and an all pull changer. The original guitar is jet black, no wood grain showing through (top and bottom). The upgraded body is a high-quality tan textured paint and the ends are polished aluminum (this guitar has been loved). The front name plate was added after the upgrade (i dont think its original but not sure maybe someone on the forum knows).
A little History based on what I found in posts on the forum: Rus-ler guitars were made by Horace Russ Russell from ~1975’ until 83’ when he developed health issues. Russ was a ZB guitars (Zane Beck) employee who started his own company in and made his first guitars from ZB parts. Rus-Ler designed a new a new changer mechanism in the 70's. When Russ Retired, Harold Flynn bought the remaining Rus-Ler parts used a lot of them in his Flynn pedal steel guitars. After Harold died, Chuck Back bought the remaining Rus-Ler parts from Fred and started making high end custom Desert Rose pedal steel, which are still made today! All this to say this is the precursor to the current Desert Rose steel guitar, which still carry a slight resemblance with the Rus-Ler steels. I read on a PSG blog in reference to Rus-Ler guitars, “If you want classic Bakersfield twang, you need a ZB or the Rus-Ler, which is like a mechanically improved ZB.”
I bought the Rus lur locally as an experiment to see if I really could get into playing PSG (I was not aware of the PSG forum at that time!). I thought I would give it a couple of years and start saving my money for an upgraded guitar. I am already hooked and I am selling several instruments to raise money for a SD - 10 3X5 guitar (or D or 12). I'm asking what I paid for it several months ago but I will entertain reasonable offers or a trade ideas.
$1000
I dont think it would ship well. I could meet somewhere in the Western US this summer...Although it has the original case it no longer fits in the original case due to the upgrade which changed the body dimensions (L35”, W12, H5”), with the legs it sits 30” tall . Hence, I keep it set up and ready to play.
I also have a 56' fender champ lap steel c6 tuning that could be part of a trade.
If you made it this far thanks for reading!
Eric