Don Mogle wrote:I was wondering who currently owns some of the pedal steel guitars that were previously owned/played by John Hughey, Hal Rugg, Gary Hogue, Buddy Emmons, Jimmy Day, etc. It would also be cool to see a picture of the guitar along with the history! Thanks in advance!
Gary Hogue bought his first Emmons guitar, a 1976 push/pull, in October 1976. As I recall, he bought it through Jay Dee Maness who, if memory serves, was an Emmons dealer at that time. Brand new, that black 1976 push/pull Emmons D-10 with 8&5 was $1,900.00 (wish they still only cost that much). Here's an old photo (at the Longhorn Ballroom in Dallas) back when the guitar was still new (Gary with his Emmons and that young whippersnapper on the right is none other than our beloved Junior Knight) ...
Gary played it on the
Back To Back album that he cut with Junior. Gary faithfully played that guitar from 1976 until the early 80s when he started using MCI and then a Mullen in 1986.
I bought it from Gary in 1991 and played it until 1998, when I loaned it to Gary. Gary used it off and on from 1998 to 2000 when he passed away. His wife, Nikki, held onto it for Gary's son, Elliott.
Some shots of Gary's 1976 Emmons during the time I owned it.
In its case in a closet, the guitar stayed in Nikki & Elliott's keeping from 2000 to 2014. During that 14 years when the guitar had not been seen, we weren't entirely sure if the '76 Emmons was actually the guitar that Nikki held onto for Elliott, but in the spring of 2014 (I think it was April), Elliott decided he wanted to sell the Emmons and Nikki dug it out and took photos ... and sure enough, it was indeed the old 1976 guitar! Yee-Ha!
I was in the VA hospital due to the stroke I'd just had and couldn't afford it, so I called Junior Knight and told him about it ... Junior was able to buy it and he now proudly owns that guitar.
Here's a couple of shots of Junior with it ...
I am so happy and proud that Junior has that guitar! He makes it sound like a million dollars and looks like he belongs behind it ... a marriage made in heaven.
For those wondering about the cutout in the end plate and the two rows of nylon tuning nuts for the raises, that is a modification that was done by Gary Carpenter (at Gary Hogue's request). Now, I'm not sure what the modification was actually supposed to do ... the guitar still tunes as a push/pull ... but I do know that I played the guitar when it was new and then after the modification ... the one difference I saw was that it played so much easier and smoother (pedal and knee lever action) after the mod was done, so maybe that was a purpose behind it.
The old Emmons was one of two guitars that were Gary's all-time-favorite guitars. The other one, which a lot of people like to call "the Holy Grail of Gary Hogue guitars", was his very first Mullen ... a 1986 D-10 with 8&7 and dual pickups on each neck. Here's a photo of Gary with it when it was new ...
Whenever asked what his absolute favorite guitar that he ever owned was, it was always the 1986 Mullen he referred to. Gary cut at least two of his albums,
A Brand New Me and
Night Train, with that guitar. I bugged Gary from the start that if he ever sold that guitar, I wanted to buy it; and he always bugged me with the reply that the 86 Mullen was one guitar he'd never part with.
One day in March of 1995, Gary surprised me like a big dawg when he called me up and asked me if I still wanted his old '86 Mullen ... my reply to that? "See how fast I write this check!" I bought it on the spot. Here's a photo of it showing lots of detail ...
Ah, you're noticing the Emmons fretboards on it, huh? Those are the silver anniversary chromed Emmons fretboards. I've had a habit of putting Emmons fretboards on my Mullen guitars and Gary, liking the look of my guitars, wanted some on his old Mullen, so he ordered the anniversary ones and when they came in, I installed them for him. They've been on the guitar since.
One quick interesting story about that guitar ... see the polished pedals on it in that photo above? That pedal bar was actually from Gary's second Mullen ... a black mica guitar ... and Del did the pedal bar with Gary's name on it. Gary wanted the personalized pedal bar on his old guitar, so he switched them and when he sold the black guitar, the old original pedals went with it.
Then we come full circle to 2013 ... Mickey Adams had acquired Gary's second Mullen which had my guitar's original pedal bar on it. Billy Tam, who is a local steel brother, purchased it from Mickey and Billy and I traded pedals ... we each kept our pedal bars, but switched pedals so that he'd have the original polished pedals that belonged to his guitar and I'd have the original old style pedals that belonged on mine ... here's a photo of the two after the pedals trade ...
So, there you go, Don ... photos and some history on the two guitars that were Gary Hogue's most favored and most played instruments.
