The Steel Guitar Forum

I purchased a 1979 Emmons Push-Pull from it's original owner, Forum member Jay Barron, in Nashville Monday. First of all I have to say that Jay is a joy to do business with and a real quality individual. If you ever have the occasion of doing business with him, fear not. Jay is a credit to to the steel guitar community and to the Forum.

I bought this as a summer project, but after three days things are going far better than I ever expected - but my fingers are crossed!!
For instance, the add said Green Sunburst, but the picture in Jay's add here on the Forum showed the front of the guitar looking sort of a tobacco brownish sunburst, and indeed it did when I picked it up:


After an all day cleaning session with Murphy's Oil Soap the body now looks like this:



Great progress is being made!
Note the dull aluminum necks and incorrect fret board on the E9 neck.
I made a quick call to Ron Jr. at Emmons for the correct fret boards and a few other parts, along with a lengthy discussion concerning the 5-way Pentad pickups on the guitar. While waiting for the parts to be delivered I removed the necks cleaned, polished and rejeweled them and this work yeilded the following:


And


Tommorrow is wiring day! I am going to rewire the guitar so that both of the Emmons Pentads will function properly (5-positon switches).
I'll let you know how the project progresses.

Cheers!!!

Gosh Benton, You look like a P/P pro. Great work.

That realy is superb workmanship and applied patience.

I hope you took the torque tension readings of the neck retaining bolts and set screws, and subsequently set them the same on re-assembly.!

See this CLICK here

Roger Francis


From:
Indiana, USA
Post Posted Wed Apr 18, 2007 6:21 am Reply with quote
I do recall something about the tightness of the neck had some effect on the sustain of the guitar, and if i remember right getting it to tight could effect it. I would call a steel builder and ask before making any rash decisions, especially since the neck has been removed.

Donny Hinson


From:
Balto., Md. U.S.A.
Post Posted Wed Apr 18, 2007 3:39 am Reply with quote
Quote:
How tight to the neck screws need to be?


Not very tight. You want the neck to stay on the guitar, and not rattle. Any further tigtening may cause problems.

Please excuse my ignorance...... "incorrect fretboard on the E9th neck".
Please explain.
Regards, Nic

Note the thick white borders on the E9 neck in the first picture, unlike the chrome borders C6 neck, or both in the second.

Bas, Thanks for the kind words!

I know that the tension on the mounting hardware plays an important part in the overall sound, sustain, and tone of the guitar. I didn't have a handy way to measure torque or tension, but I took pictures, and made a chart of of all the screws/bolts and the number of turns that each were installed with. I then put eah screw/bolt in it's original position with the same number of turns. It should be pretty close.
When I get this thing finished, I'll probably drop it off at Bobbe Seymour's and get him to wave his magic Seymour - I mean wand over it and give it the final tweak!

Cheers Bas!!!

Benton

Looks great, but I think it's a bit older than a '79.
Sometime in '78, Emmons switched to the Le Grande style pedals.
I have a '76 with the narrow cast pedals like yours and butterfly tuners as well.

Jay, your right on the money!

I checked with Ron Jr at Emmons and the guitar was completed and shipped in March of 1979. That would mean it probably started life toward the latter part of 78. It was probably one of the last built with the older style pedals.

Cheers!!!

Hey Benton looks great! I have a late 70s D10 pp that I am loving.

When you say you redid the jewelling - where? The necks on mine are polished except between the pickup and the fingerboards - that area looks like the casting was semi-polished - but I would not describe it as jewelled.

Thanks and again, nice work!

Patrick

Please explain how you Rejeweled the necks.Iam also confused on the wrong fret boards,my P/P has the wide white stripes like yours did,are those the wrong ones ? Mines a 72 model. How much (if you dont mind me asking) do new fretboards cost ?
The guitar looks great already !!

Hi Wade!

According to the fine folks at Emmons, my guitar originally came with what they termed as "Chrome Fretboards" having chrome frets and trim . The one on my C6th neck was original, but the one on the E9th neck had been replace with a fretboard with "White" frets and trim. The new originals were $30.00 each.

As far as the jeweled or jitter-bug finish goes, that is covered in detail by the fine folks at Carter Steel Guitars on their website here:

http://www.steelguitarinfo.com/restorat ... index.html

Keep on pickin'!!

Cheers!
Benton

OK - that looks familiar. I am used to "jewelling" being the swirl pattern that people use on guns etc. Learn something new every day.

Thanks!

I am now a member of the Push-Pull Club

...Nice axe, Benton..did anybody show you our secred handshake yet?...

..Patrick, I didn't know there was another steeler over on the other side of the township...I'm down the ridge by Lake Owassa, and Buck Dilly is on the other side of Sunrise Mountain in Sandyston...give us a shout..

Welcome to the club!

Benton,
I love P/P's. To me, theres nothing better. Here's my 3 babys.

Hey Benton , great looking guitar , re the white fretboards V the chrome , I had the chrome on my first guitar and was a bit dissapointed when my current P/P arrived with the white board . That was until I played it on a gig , those white lines light up like Christmas and make it really easy to see what you are doing . I would try it out in a low light situation before deciding on which one is wrong .

Just for the record: My'78 PP (original owner) has the narrow cast pedals.

Another Oregon steeler, Mark Simpson and I ordered our guitars together and received them in Summer of that year....both have the older pedals.

In regards to the fretboards with the white lines, they were also made with thin white lines and wider white lines.

This one isn't too shabby either:

I'm seeing some inconsistancies here with some of the dates as to when the factory did certain changes to the pedals and fretboards on delivered guitars.
Being a fanatic on detail and being a 40 year player of this brand AND dealer in these days, I must point out that the narrow cast pedals were continued up to the '80s, then the extruded "LeGrande" pedals were augmented into the eighties ,,,,,,,,,,
As far as fretboards go, there were choices as to what the ordering player wanted, white frets, satin chrome or, the very rare "All pure white" markers and frets which were orderd by several pro-players because of their being much easier to see in dim and "production" guitars used these at times.
Remember also that throughout these years, Emmons fretboards were manufactured by different suppliers from McGhee Displays in Nashville to a Monroe N.C. supplier ( Bill Gear) then to several other screen printers. All these fretboards were slightly different. As they are today. SOOOOOOOOOO, If you have a double neck guitar and want to replace one fretboard, you'd better replace them both if you want them to match perfectly.

Bobbe Seymour

Erv, thank you for showing this Emmons but why didn't you let me put gold keys on it?
Send it back and I'll do it,
I'm installing Grover Imperials on mine now, looks great and it isn't original anyway so I'm taking the liberty to replace the Klusons, at some date in the future when "originality" means more than "playability", I can always change them back.
Great to see you push-pull nuts proclaiming your love for what I consider the greatest musical instrument ever, (am I too out spoken here?).
Keep this thread going!

What great sounding and looking guitars. Congratulations.

Well,,,,I guess I,ve joined the pp club as well.Thanks Bobbie for fixing the green loafer pp,,,Thomas Malugin from Columbia.I am going to play it out tonight.I think when your playing with the band live,,the pp,s really come alive,other than when your just alone practicing.I truely believe that they are the best sounding guitars that have ever been made...Thomas Malugin

I Love My 1972 PP Black 8 and 4 . Sounds Great Even When I Play it. No Other Steel Made today Sounds better!Randy Gilliam

Thank you Tom, I enjoyed our visit, you are a great guy and fine player. Your green SD-10 is a total killer!

Randy, I agree with you wholehartedly.
I love my Jackson, it sounds truly incredible, but the Emmons has a totally different and also incredible sound. I have built a whole career and lifetime on the Emmons P-P, always trying other guitars with an open mind, but for all around playing under a host of conditions, it's impossible to beat the Ole' Emmons P-P, but I am enjoying the Jackson. I'm expecting great things from these boys.

Ole' Bobbster

I'm curious about how tight neck screws should be for aluminum necks on a PP. "Just tight enough that the neck doesn't rattle" seems counter-intuitive. I would think a more tightly attached neck to increase body rigidity and sustain, but I'm no expert. Any other opinions? And explanations?

Peter Freiberger