The Steel Guitar Forum

Long story short, I bought two boltons last week. They are both excellent steels. I'm going to be looking for a RR with a flag on it as my legs are too short to reach under to activate that lever easily.

two Boltons. Yours are much better.



Michael Yahl sells Emmons RK levers with the fold down flag https://www.psgparts.com/Lever-Knee-Rig ... 05-056.htm, or just the flag alone https://www.psgparts.com/Lever-Knee-Flag-05-062.htm

no fireplace?

Jeremy Reeves wrote:no fireplace?

In the other room house was built in 1875.

He would look good in a derby.

And which do you prefer?

I've only had the black on since Wednesday and the mahogany Formica one since last night. The black one is 100 percent original and sano. The brown one is also very original. I would say the black guitar has a bit smoother tone. The brown one definitely has some pop. I'm not sure what I should be listening for in a bolton guitar compared to a wraparound or a cut tail. I just know they both sound really good.

Thank you Allen Howington and Eric Philippsen for these great Pedal Steels. Both of these gentlemen are great to deal with and honest all the way.

Would the GS-10 be considered a bolt-on?

No. That’s not a bolt on.

Tyler Hall wrote:No. That’s not a bolt on.

You sound awful sure about that,PALFANGER...

Love.
SH

I'm not usually one for hijacking a thread, but it has to be done...

Welcome back, Mr. Hinson, my beloved, crotchety old friend! We were worried about you! Give me a shout sometime (I'll be home all winter, like most of us).


Edited to say that Steve has now checked in on the "Our Extended Family" thread with updates on his health scare:

https://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtop ... 3&start=25

(With apologies for my hijack) this can now return to a thread about cool old Emmons guitars and bad haircuts.

Pete Finney wrote:I'm not usually one for hijacking a thread, but it has to be done...

Welcome back, Mr. Hinson, my beloved, crotchety old friend! We were worried about you! Give me a shout sometime (I'll be home all winter, like most of us).

Pete-check your PM...

SH

To quote Merle Kilgore:

"Fantastic"

I have owned 4 Emmons pp's in my lifetime. Except for the last one, which I've only had a few weeks, they have all been metal neck cut-tails. I always wanted to try a wood neck, bolt-on. I've always heard they had a little bit more of a mellow sound. Right now, I have a 1975 SD-10 metal neck cut-tail and a 1974 D-10 bolt-on sitting side by side. Using my Evans amp, Wet Reverb, and DD-3, I can't really tell any difference in the sound between the two. Bryan Adams said once that he couldn't tell any difference between the metal necks and the wood necks, and he worked at Emmons building them and was a master pp mechanic. The bolt-on has more sustain, but the cut-tail has as much as you will ever need. It has been a hard decision, but I've decided to sell the SD-10. Great, great guitar in perfect working order and looks like new.

Hey hey hey!! Hinson’s back!! I’ve been wrong before but in my mind if the changer isn’t sitting on a metal neck or pickup surround, it’s not a bolt on. Hope you’re feeling better, PAL.

Regarding George Kimery’s post about wood-neck, bolt-ons, one could get the mistaken impression that bolt-ons were only made with wood necks. Just to clarify, all wood neck Emmons are bolt-on and they were an available option well past the 60’s on push-pulls. However, the relatively rare metal-neck bolt-ons were only made in the late 60’s. The black one I sold Tom, the original poster for this thread, was one of those.

Tyler Hall wrote:Hey hey hey!! Hinson’s back!! I’ve been wrong before but in my mind if the changer isn’t sitting on a metal neck or pickup surround, it’s not a bolt on. Hope you’re feeling better, PAL.

Just" funnin'",as"Roadhog"would say...I've only owned two bolt-ons(both for a short time).
so I'm not really qualified to talk about them...one I had the first time I worked with John Conlee,and the other at the old"Nashville Palace",where I sat under an A/C vent...every time it came on, that thing went nuts!What a sound, though...everybody likes the wraparounds best, but I'd love to "a/b"the two sometime, just to see how much difference there really is...

As I told you in the texts we sent though...those student guitars really sound good!
"Bolt on"or not, they sound like a PP...

Love ya PALFANGER
SH

Steve, do you remember if the bolt on you used at the Palace was a metal neck? The changer was fastened to the metal neck and when the temperature went up or down,the metal neck expanded or contracted, throwing the guitar out of tune. This was not a problem with the wood necks.The changer is not attached to the neck.

Eric, you are quite correct. All wood necks were bolt-ons, but not all bolt-ons were wood necks.

George Kimery wrote:Steve, do you remember if the bolt on you used at the Palace was a metal neck? The changer was fastened to the metal neck and when the temperature went up or down,the metal neck expanded or contracted, throwing the guitar out of tune. This was not a problem with the wood necks.The changer is not attached to the neck.

Eric, you are quite correct. All wood necks were bolt-ons, but not all bolt-ons were wood necks.

George,both of my bolt ons were black with metal necks...one was leatherette and the other was plain...great sounding steels,just very sensitive to temperature changes...I still wish I had em back.

SH

Tyler, you are correct, a bolt on is when the changer assembly is mounted to an all aluminum neck. A wooden neck guitar is just that, a wooden neck with an aluminum insert for housing the pickup which the changer assembly is also mounted.
Whoops, slightly misread the statement. Ron Lashley, Sr. and the Emmons company did not consider the wooden neck guitar insert a bolt on guitar.

Jack's explanation is what I've always considered a bolton to be. I'll also add that in a conversation with Big Ron in 1990 he considered the bolton to be the best sounding model of Emmons guitar. Though I was playing a bolton at that time, I personally disagreed with him, favoring the wraparound, a somewhat less brash and punchy sounding horn. That said, over the years I've owned probably a half dozen boltons, and currently have 2 S-10s from 1967. All of them were/are great sounding, of course.

Ron did prefer the tone of the bolt on. He liked brightness and found that design to have the most belltone. In his opinion low frequencies where not hard to produce. His personal guitar was a bolt on.

"Now lay there and wiggle!"
-Merle Haggard

Steve wrote:great sounding steels,just very sensitive to temperature changes

Direct sun? No prob... of course it was a little harder to play like this, but I had a good place to eat lunch. Yes, that's a bolt-on under there.

Bill - I see a vintage ACE seat in that photo.

I'm still using my ACE from way back when.