The Steel Guitar Forum

Anybody know about these guitars,would love to have a couple pics of the under carriage,and a little history...thanks in advance....CM

p/s not sure if I posted in right spot....

These guitars were built by Jimmie Crawford. He was famous for the "Crawford Cluster" knee lever arrangement.

Charlie,

Try talking with Buck Reid, Tommy Minniear or Gary Rittenberry. I think they might have as much knowledge about JCH as anyone.

Scott

Jon Graboff started a registry at one time.
He's a member so maybe you can send him a pm.

This might help:
http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopi ... hlight=jch

I was told that they were built by Jimmy Crawford and John Hughey.

J-Jimmy/John
C-Crawford
H-Hughey

Mitch

J - Jenkins (Conway Twitty)
C - Crawford
H - Hughey

Jimmy was also a great steel player, I have an Emmons course with him teaching some great stuff.

I wonder why Hughey played Zum guitars?,I have acquired a JCH D10,and would like to find a vertical knee lever kit and would love to see the under side cause It looks like something is missing that was in front of the changer,ANY help would be helpful,thanks all replies ....Charlie

I've heard that John played a JCH at one time. I think "Look At Us" was recorded with a JCH

Don't forget about Lloyd Green's JCH serial# 1054 which he had from 1988 and 2002. What a great guitar this is!



Kind Regards, Walter

The ser# on mine is 92LG 922 anybody know what year it is?,still would like a picture of the bottom of a D10,thanks guys I really appreciate your input....CM

If my memory serves me right Buck Reid plays a JCH steel guitar.

Paul King wrote:If my memory serves me right Buck Reid plays a JCH steel guitar.

He used to play a JCH but now he plays an Infinity

Hughey had left the JCH company a few years prior to playing Zums. In fact, he even went back to playing Emmons guitars before going with Zums. Jimmy had quit building JCH's around mid nineties to start a new guitar company called Crawford/Parks which never really got off the ground. He made a few design changes on his guitars and went back to building JCH guitars back in the late nineties. I and Buck and a few others had what we called the newer JCH'S.

If I'm not mistaken, I believe the "J" stands for "J"immy and "J"ohn. I believe that's what John told me.

Unless I'm way off the mark, my recollection was John Hughey approached his long time employer Harold Jenkins (aka Conway Twitty) to help fund a steel guitar company he wanted to begin with Jimmy Crawford. Conway agreed to put up the "start" money; thus the J, C & H. Maybe one of the ole Nash-guys from the mid to late '80s can corroborate this story.

Doug Jones wrote:Unless I'm way off the mark, my recollection was John Hughey approached his long time employer Harold Jenkins (aka Conway Twitty) to help fund a steel guitar company he wanted to begin with Jimmy Crawford. Conway agreed to put up the "start" money; thus the J, C & H. Maybe one of the ole Nash-guys from the mid to late '80s can corroborate this story.

Doug, that what I've always heard.

The J did stand for Jenkins. That's what I was told from Jimmy because Conway did have an interest in the company and yes, Conway was Harold Jenkins. I can see where the J could've stood for all three but the C and the H already stood for Crawford and Hughey and JCH were the initials of their last names.

Met Rusty Parks a few years back in Ct. where he was appearing at a local fair. The 'Crawford/Parks' that he was playing appeared and sounded very similar to the 'JCH' guitars that I had seen and heard.

Hey Charlie sent a pm

Charlie,
Here is a picture of the changer end of an SD-10 JCH. I believe this is what you were asking about. Jimmie called it the "sound post", like in a violin or fiddle. Others have called it a "tone bar". This is what the scissor assemblies of the changer rest against:



Hope this helps.

I stand corrected. I must have misunderstood what John was saying. I don't remember him mentioning Conway, but that was a long time ago. The memory ain't what it used to be.

On the newer JCH'S the sound bar was butted up to the endplate. That was one of the changes he had made. I only saw one Crawford/Parks guitar and that guitar went to Russ Hicks. It was an SD10.

This is Lloyd Green's guitar from the underside:



Kind Regards, Walter

At the risk of repeating third party info, rumors, gossip, etc. I seem to remember hearing that John parted ways with Jimmie on the JCH business because John wanted to have a consistent product, and Jimmie, ever the inventor, tinkerer, engineer, etc. was constantly refining the design and every guitar was different from the last one!