EMMONS ARE BACK

[hickenjr]

Well Steven - the Euromillions Lottery is £153M tonight, and if I were to land that I will treat myself to a couple of new Wraps and a couple of P2P handwired valve amps from Mike Scaggs in Nashville.

My Webb amp is blowing main power amp fuses at the moment, and my pal Danny Hughes is going to take a look at it for me when I run it down to his place in Bognor this coming Friday. I have put a new Travis Toy 15" Eminence speaker in my Webb amp today that I've owned for some 18 months or so, and it has dropped the weight of that combo amp considerably. I had a Black Widow 1501 with Neo magnet previously, but it was still quite heavy.

My favourite rigs that I own are my Emmons Push Pull through my Webb amp. My MSA Legend through my Telonics TCA500 combo amp, and my Show Pro through my Peavey Valve King 2 x 12" 100 watt valve combo. My Zum sounds fine through any of my amps, and my Sho~Bud is great through my PV Nashville 400.

You can treat me to Franklin Pedabro too...I know you southerners are a bit more generous.

Hope you get the Webb fixed. I've recently bought a Quilter TT12 and it is tremendous. Good on the shoulders at 12kg but doesn't lack the bass most small amps do. Really well balanced for steel. Has the Peavey bass response and power I like but also the creamy highs of a tube amp.

[Ted Nesbitt]

Ken, with your knowledge of the Emmons p/p guitar, I reckon you should be the UK/Europe rep for
the new Emmons company. What say all you steelers out there?

[Ken Byng]

Thanks for the suggestion Mr Ted. I might have been very interested some 40 years ago, but not now that I'm into old age. You know, back in the early 70's when I was a rep selling ZB Guitars for Eric Snowball, he sent me a D10 rosewood push pull to sell for him. I played it, and didn't like the tone compared to my ZB!! I made the mistake that many of us make in that I tried to get the same sound that I was getting from my ZB. I should have realised that the push pull had its own voice, but it was many years later that I twigged that one.

Hope you are keeping well buddy, and I will definitely make the trip next year to attend your steel guitar meeting one month when it's being held. Ivor has been sending me texts to let me know that he and Frances are okay, and also to tell me what steel rigs produce the best tone! He has a thing for Little Walter amps now as you know, and bought the last 2 Eminence Franklin 12" speakers to go in his LW cabinets. I thing he may be keeping a beady eye on the new Emmons Wraparounds.

[Ken Byng]

Well further to this tale, there is a YouTube clip of the very impressive steeler Wayne Dahl playing an Emmons ReSound'65 (mock-up). It's called a mock-up because it is an early working model, that was not yet the finished article. The new Emmons company are now taking orders for D10's, SD10's and S10's. They will be in mica and lacquer finishes. Starting prices are at $10,000 for the basic D10, and upwards depending upon the complexity of the set-up. Definitely not the emperor's new clothes - the new '65 Wraparound has amazing smooth action on both levers and pedals. Throw in its capability for installing splits and multiple raises on the same string, and it is a guitar of the 60's from a tonal perspective, and a guitar that is mechanically the equal of any all-pull model from the 2020's.

However, price wise the MSA range, Mullens, Show Pro, Rittenberry, New Sierra et al no longer look expensive when comparing the list price for a pro model pedal steel. Sit back and watch and listen to the awesome off the cuff playing skills and tone of Mr Dahl playing the incredible new Emmons 65 Wraparound.

[Danny Mitchell]

That sounds amazing, Ken. A real dream machine. Though the wee glimpse of the under carriage is scary.

[Ken Byng]

That sounds amazing, Ken. A real dream machine. Though the wee glimpse of the under carriage is scary.

Well Danny, the intonation is perfect all the way through on both necks. The string separation and bell-like tone is fantastic from the 1st fret to the 24th. Without doubt, this Wraparound model has the classic early Buddy Emmons tone of that era. I think these guitars will definitely appreciate in value, as they have better tone and engineering than the Franklin, and as such will be more sought after. I think they will be great acquisitions for anyone who is happy to invest in one.

[JohnDavisStringsHere]

10.K.!! I thought 8k was a lot for a steel but understanable to get project up and running but, silly me, thought once in production cost may come down a little but how wrong can a body be??
I am sure they will still sell as there are plenty out there to whom money is no object but it prices me out of the market and I will have to wait until a battered neglected one filters down to this department at an affordable price.

[ZakTF]

I've been watching the progress of the new Emmons guitar on facebook, and the mockup sounds great, but I'm not sure I really understand the point? At $10,000 for a basic D10 it makes the instrument too expensive for probably 90% of players, and for those who can spend that kind of money, would they not rather buy an original 60s Emmons guitar if they can find one?

There's also the fact that Buddy Emmons sounded like Buddy Emmons no matter what guitar he played.

[Ken Byng]

I've been watching the progress of the new Emmons guitar on facebook, and the mockup sounds great, but I'm not sure I really understand the point? At $10,000 for a basic D10 it makes the instrument too expensive for probably 90% of players, and for those who can spend that kind of money, would they not rather buy an original 60s Emmons guitar if they can find one?

There's also the fact that Buddy Emmons sounded like Buddy Emmons no matter what guitar he played.

Well Zak, if I wanted to buy a new Wrap Emmons with my preferred set-up and a road case to protect it, I would have to lay out $16K at least. When you get to that scale of outlay, yes most steel players would find it difficult to justify laying out that amount of money for one of the new guitars. Would I prefer to buy an original Wrap? Absolutely not - it might be a more attractive proposition for some, but not all Emmons guitars of that vintage are created equal. That's in terms of tone and playability. The new Emmons guitars are not exact clones of the original Wraps, but the owners of the new company have taken the basic design and improved on it, especially with regard to playability. Modern guitar manufacturers like MSA and Mullen and a number of others use state of the art machinery to make each instrument in their range mechanically consistent with the previous one.

I am fortunate to own a 1980 vintage Emmons cut tail push pull, and now that I have got my head around the way that the pulls work on it, I love everything about it. Enough not to be tempted to buy a new Wrap model. But I can still drool over the new Wraps when I see photos or YouTube clips of them being played. Re Buddy Emmons - I still prefer his tone on the black album to his tone on later albums. But it's all a matter of taste. His playing was always as good as it gets.

[ZakTF]

Thanks for your informative response Ken. I see what you mean, especially with not all vintage guitars being created equal, I've noticed that too (with my 6 sting guitars anyway).
I also think that those new wraps have a great and distinctive tone, but I wonder if the average country music listener can actually hear any difference between a push pull, or all pull (for example) if they are played by the same player or even hear the difference between a humbucker and single coil. When I first started playing the steel guitar I could barely hear any difference between most brands of steel guitar haha.

Anyway, I do very much look forward to hearing people record on the new wraps!