The Beauty of Blanton or Blanton Owners Stand & Deliver!

[Bent Romnes]

J-D, Stay tuned. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if Jerry has overcome that hurdle

[Brad Malone]

Hey Justin, I always thought Pa. was the most backward state in the Union, back in the early 40's guys were still digging basements with picks and shovels..as a matter of fact, in the early 60's I knew a guy that used to dig graves with pick and shovel for side money but even then the smart people used machines. I know there are parts of China that are still not electrified but I think 99% of the USA is.

[Justin Griffith]

Jd, One of my Blantons has 9X6. It is tough but can be done for sure.
I have some thinner bellcranks that help too. I have a sketch of one that I may try. I will try to scan it and post it. I will also take some pics of my 8X6 guitar undercarrage and post them in the next few days.

Brad,
Google Terlingua, TX. His house is in what is called the "ghost town" part. Look it up on Google maps too.
The thing that I don't understand is no water and electricity but there is landline phone service? Figure that one out.

[Bob Parins]

Here's a pic of my beloved Blanton D-12. Does anybody know if it's possible to make a tunable split on a Blanton? I would love to have this for my 6th string on the E-9 neck.

[Mike Bourque]

Just figured I’d bump this thread

In the last few years and with the help of Justin Griffith I got meet mr Blanton and also buy my very first one from him (serial number 1 of the new ones ). Since then I’ve had about 13 of them and still own 9 to this day 4 newer ones and two D10 D12 a SD10 and s10 that are older .

The man was a absolute genius right up until his last days a couple months ago which I got to visit with him and even at the hospice he had a great outlook on everything going on (his words to me were “don’t ever die , it’s a pain in the ass” ) and then he laughed and went on to talking about guitars and music in general , it was a beautiful moment” , I wish he could have hung around forever cause we all have so much to learn from him.

It’s been 13 years since anyone has commented on this post but let’s keep Jerry’s stories and his guitars alive, I’m currently on the road but when I return I’ll post photos and video links to some of the ones I have. Imo and I’m sure others that are in the know will agree that It’s the only guitar that can’t be beat by a original 64 emmons wrap around imo. They both hold their own with each other perfectly.

[Larry Dering]

Mike, nice post about Jerry and his guitars. I haven't seen or heard one up closely yet. I will be watching for your videos hoping to see and hear this wonderful steel.

[John Hyland]

Are the Blantons push pull or all pull?

[Justin Griffith]

All pull. Jerry is arguably the person that invented the all pull system.

[Duane Reese]

Those who have been curious enough to measure know that the pickups that went into Blantons were custom-sized. If there was one complaint about the guitar I had, it's that the pickups were too thin for my liking.

So, I had Jerry Wallace build me up some custom Truetones to go into those Blanton frames. I swear, that was the best sounding Blanton guitar that existed, after doing that.*

Maybe the two Jerrys are up in Heaven, talking about that very guitar right now.






*In my opinion.

[Chris Lucker]

I have the very first Blanton. Jerry made it for a customer in 1964 and it was traded in for a new Blanton -- I am going to guess -- in 2002. Jerry turned the guitar into a loafer and changed the E9 scale to 24 1/4" or 24" from the original 25" I got the guitar from Jerry in 2009. Here are my notes and why I got the guitar. I was buying from Jerry the parts which, around 1960, he removed from his Bigsby. I found the Bigsby and wanted to replace the original parts.

From my notes:

Jerry Blanton, San Antonio, Texas

My 1964 D-10 now a SD10 with pad
This is the first pedal steel that Jerry Blanton ever made.
It is blue leather dye on mahogany
16 ga cold rolled steel frame that he sent out to have bent. Jerry did the welding. Sent out the chroming job.
Hugely massive keyheads were originally designed to have changers in the keyhead. But, Jerry never did machine a cut out for the changer at the keyhead, so the mass remains.
The pickups are supposed to be stacked coils.
Pull rods were originally 1/16th stainless welding rod.


According to a few December 2009 conversations with Blanton pedal steel guitar maker Jerry Blanton, he used to have a D-8 Bigsby. In 1958 or 1959, Jerry bought the Bigsby from a man in a suburb of Houston. It was a D-8 Bigsby with plunger changes on what he used as an E9 neck and one Plunger change on what was then C6. It had _______ pedals (I purchased from Jerry Blanton three pedals and _______ plungers on December 10, 2009). Jerry borrowed money from his band’s drummer to pay the $200 price tag on the used Bigsby.
Jerry said he had the steel guitar building bug at this time and learned a lot from studying his new-used Bigsby. Jerry started making his improvements to the guitar, including adding changer fingers for the E9 neck made from 3/8ths round steel stock with ¼ inch axles. Blanton used cross shafts and pullers. The cross shafts were only long enough to transverse the E9 neck only. These cross shafts were made out of steel with pullers that are the predecessor of the famous Blanton Bellcranks – lengths of threaded rod welded vertically, with a single nut threaded on to the threaded stock. This nut had been mounted in a lathe and a groove was machined into the circumference. Into this groove a wire ring was placed into the groove and a loop off the ring formed and silver soldered to shape. Pull rods from the changer were hooked to loop. The puller was “tuned” by raising or lowering the nut on the puller’s the puller’s threaded rod. The pillows supporting the cross shafts were made from strapping steel strips with brass blocks soldered on top. The brass blocks were drilled out for the 3/8ths cross shafts.
Jerry does not remember making a big cut out at the changer end of the Bigsby. He made his own pickups and does not remember what happened with the original Bigsby pickups. Jerry does not remember painting the undersides black.
Blanton makes his pickups with 1100 turns of #42 wire using a drill press, turning by hand and noting every twenty turns in a sheet of paper.
More Bigsby history
In 1964, In Del Rio, Texas, Jerry lent the Bigsby to a local DJ named Bill Soultaire. In 1968 -1970 Jerry tried to get the Bigsby back, but according to Soultaire the Bigsby “disappeared” in a house fire. Jerry Blanton then made a new Blanton pedal steel for Soultaire, who was playing for the regionally popular band the Texas Tophands, but Jerry never got paid for this guitar either. Disgusted, Jerry finally gave up persuing Soultaire.

I have more photos, such as the early bellcranks and truss rods Jerry has running under the guitar to stabilize each neck, but I keep getting "No File Chosen" when I try to upload the jpegs.