The Steel Guitar Forum

My late brother Larry Hilt was a close personal friend of Buddy Cage of the New Riders of the Purple Sage. Buddy took over as pedal steel guitarist after Jerry Garcia left the group.

Well as part payment for the custom HILT PEDAL STEEL, Buddy gave my brother the Emmons Custom Pedal Steel he had used for years along with 2 Speaker Cabinets from the famous WALL OF SOUND.

These items are up for auction at Skinner Inc, Marlborough MA Nov 9-19th timed auction.
Link to auction: https://www.skinnerinc.com/auctions/3490t
Link to Buddy's Emmons Pedal Steel: https://live.skinnerinc.com/lots/view/4 ... buddy-cage
Link to Wall of Sound speakers: https://live.skinnerinc.com/lots/view/4 ... teful-dead

Wayne Hilt

WOW!!!

What a cool guitar. A D-12 bolt-on with 10 pedals! And also a piece of history.
Bummed there are no photos of the underside.

For additional photos:
Call Adam Tober 508-970-3216 music@skinner.com (email)
Adam is in charge of the musical instrument sales.
or If you contact Skinner Inc, https://www.skinnerinc.com/auctions/3490t

Wayne -- do you know where this guitar is physically located (if one were to win the auction and want to pick it up)? I'm thinking Marlborough, MA but I'm not certain.

Bump for Larry's estate. Besides having been made for a major steel player, this is one heck of a guitar and so far at a great price

Looks like it has some bent and missing tuning pegs

I had a '74 D10 with Keystone tuners and they were easily bent in the case while being transited.

Gaveled at $6,500 . Add 25% buyer's premium and someone is in it for $8,125 . I was out of the game thousands of dollars ago (as I'd expected).
Congratulations to the new owner and to the Hilt estate.

Jon Light wrote:Gaveled at $6,500 . Add 25% buyer's premium and someone is in it for $8,125 . I was out of the game thousands of dollars ago (as I'd expected).
Congratulations to the new owner and to the Hilt estate.

Yeah, went for more than I anticipated as well. I hope it get's the minor repairs needed and the new owner plays it everyday.

Hopefully whoever bought will enjoy playing it as much as Buddy and Larry did. It would have been nice to keep it as a memento of them. Better it be played.

And the Wall of Sound speakers went for 4K

Wow, congratulations! What an awesome outcome for Wayne and Larry's estate!

Maybe I should list my D-12 Emmons again. I'd be happy to get half that price, AND it's black, lol!

Provided Buddy Cage was your PSG hero, I can (almost) understand the winning bid on the steel

But $4G for the Wall of Sound ?
Perhaps "NOS" plywood and Speakers wouldn't have the same mojo.

any equipment that belonged to the Grateful Dead is going to fetch a decent price, and the wall of sound holds a legendary place in their history.

I am not swayed by the who owned what excitement. It's still just a guitar or speaker cabinet and I'm sure it's had a hard life on the road. The Dead no doubt had hoards of speakers and equipment over the years that was just the tools of the trade. The mojo of ownership has to hold a special place at this price range. I much prefer a flawless working instrument over a museum piece.

Had the opportunity to check this guitar out at the Emmons factory when it was made in'75.

with you on that Larry

Michael Tyne wrote:Had the opportunity to check this guitar out at the Emmons factory when it was made in'75.

Y'know, I think that may be the first photo I've ever seen of the interior of the Emmons factory. Michael, do you have any other shots?