The Steel Guitar Forum

Yeah, that Ace seat has been around the block a few times.. I bought it in the 80's at Steve Lamb's place in Fort Worth. The seat has been recovered once, but it's just as solid as the day I bought it.

It's still in service, just not so much recently.

I was never into Emmons guitars as such and after a friend of mine had a late 70's PP, I was un impressed with not just the action and the sound.
I must say, even at conventions, I was often unimpressed or worse over the sound of some of these beasts.

But 1999 or 2000 I visited a Gentleman in Orlando who just got a PP Bolt-On from Mike Cass. I had just bought a little 50's Oahu amp at a music fair there that day and he let me play the PP.
The thing almost brought me to tears. It was so "unit"-solid the whole guitar just vibrated and wouldn't stop growling so huge, I felt it in my HANDS!
We hooked it to the little Oahu amp and it sounded like Bob White behind Hank Thompson in the 50's! The owner even wanted to buy my amp and I tried to trade the PP Bolt on over it... haha! We both laughed. We both had something we wanted from the other.

The only guitar that ever came close in "gutsyness" was a welded frame EMCI another friend of mine has in Florida.

If I'd ever buy a PP, it would be a Bolt On.

... J-D.

Buddy Charleton's favorite Emmons was a bolt on: alum neck.
Regardless of what he was playing he would always go back to the Emmons "bolt on"

A lot has been theorized about the tuning stability of a PP bolt-on, due to the temperature related neck length fluctuations.
Lacking the experience for never owning one, but owning a Rickenbacher Fripan, I kind'a believe the concerns may be over-hyped.

I would love to hear the opinion of those who own and and work on them.

... J-D.

J D wrote:I would love to hear the opinion of those who own and and work on them.

I've got two, an invoice number '66 and a '67. I gig(ged) regularly with both. I really can't say that either has been overly sensitive to tuning, other than in the rare case when the guitar goes into direct sunlight in the course of an outside gig. i.e I start the set in the shade and end up in the sun. I think any guitar isn't going to be too happy in that situation, maybe the bolt-on 'might' be a bit more sensitive, but it's hard to do a side by side comparison. Fortunately, that situation doesn't happen too often.

As far as club and indoor gigs, the bolt-ons are no different than any of the other 4 non-bolt P/Ps I've owned. I tune them once after they've been in the room a while and acclimated, and seldom touch the tuners again. Somebody mentioned setting up directly under A/C vents, and a situation like that might be a little more troublesome, but again, I think most any guitar might behave like that to some degree. Like all the P/Ps I've owned, these two tend to stay in tune in general way better than a host of 'other well known' guitars I've owned. (Names withheld to protect the innocent, and avoid personal threats )

To summarize; in my experience, they aren't really much, if any, more sensitive to temp change than the other P/Ps I've owned, and the sound more than makes up for any minor inconvenience.

One of these days I'm going to bribe someone to let me sit behind theirs and experience a Bolt-On.

i didn,t know bruce bolton made guitars?? kewl

Sometimes I'm sorry I sold my bolt-on a few years ago, but considering the number of country gigs here in Florida & what they pay...I'm better off with the money. Dickey

I too think bolt ons are the best sounding Emmons made. I’ve never owned an aluminum neck bolt on but I did do a rebuild on one and kept it around couple weeks and it was awesome. I’ve owned about 3 woodneck Emmons and they were awesome also but little different than the metal neck. Have played couple wrap arounds but they seem to lack the hissy highs that a bolt on has.

Mark Robinson wrote:

Beautiful!


If only it had 2 more pedals,... and get it Swingin'!

... J-D.

This little bolt on is a keeper!

I like Tom’s 3 lazy dogs too.