Smashed up Emmons Push Pull

[Ken Byng]

I have just acquired a D10 Emmons push pull that had been acquainted with some of the airport gorillas at a 'certain airport' in New York. My friend took a risk and decided to fly his push pull in its standard Thomas case from New York to Kentucky. It didn't even get out of New York. His guitar was thrown onto the conveyor that runs from the tarmac to the hold in the plane. It landed half on the conveyor belt and half over the edge. When it was close to the top, the conveyor belt juddered, the steel fell off and crash landed on the tarmac ground below. My friend filmed it all from the waiting area in the gate. The case was badly smashed and the guitar's cabinet damaged beyond economical repair.

He advised the airline that he had filmed the incident of his guitar being thrown, despite having 'Fragile' stickers all over the case. He presented the airline soon afterwards with a bona fide valuation of the guitar, and after lengthy negotiations, accepted a one off payment plus his guitar. He told me what had happened in an email to me. I made him an offer for the guitar, and he has now packed and crated the guitar and has sent it over to me. I will now strip it down and use it for spares should I need any for my own Emmons push pull. I think the moral of the story is to use a purpose built road case for flying a guitar from A to B. My smashed up Emmons should be with me quite soon.

PS - it was bought with a view for me to store the parts for spares, so please - no offers for parts. I'm not looking to sell under any circumstances.

[bob adams]

Ken, We used to have a TV advert in Scotland, ... 'It is never too late to call your lawyer!'

Well, you prove.... neither is it ever too late to buy an Emmons!

I believe there are enough parts around in the UK at present to keep all the 'E' Boys motoring along, but it is in our blood so I for one will continue to pursue my quest to avoid the need for purchase from the US. The cost of shipping and duties is now becoming a 'complete comedy'

It appears that if it needs a stamp the start price to get it over here is at least £50 + + (yeah right!)

For now at least it seems they really don't want our business, however I'm sure us Emmons players will survive!

Trust your package arrives safely!

[Ken Byng]

Well Bob
We'll never be stuck for parts with you around buddy. My first instinct was to get my friend Mark Giles build me a new cabinet for said wreck, and I know that he would have done a great job as I have a beautiful Zum D10 that sports a cracking cabinet that Mark built for me. But after thinking about it, I have way too many steel guitars and should be shifting some and not adding to them. As I paid peanut money for the broken push pull, it made sense for me to have instant access to spares for mine. So although some would see it as sacrilege to cannibalise a push pull for its parts, I don't see it that way. I could never buy the parts as cheaply as this even from the great Robert Adams. I paid my friend about twice what I paid you recently for some bits, for the whole busted push pull, so that will give you an idea what a bargain I got. He just wanted to get rid. The only thing he insisted on was erasing the serial number from the changer end plate. I just wish I'd got this deal some ten years ago.

My biggest mistake in my musical life was selling the late Ron Mawn's fabulous birds eye maple push pull for him, instead of buying it myself. It looked amazing and sounded even better. I have seen a few disastrous Emmons guitars, including a LG3 that Eric Snowball converted from a D10 to an SD10 for a guy in London who bought it direct from Lashley Jnr. Eric kept the parts from the C neck and the recipient was over the moon that Eric had made the guitar a lot lighter!!

[hickenjr]

Looking forward to see how this project progresses.

I do wanna try out a Push Pull someday to see how they compare to Show Pro.

[Ken Byng]

Looking forward to see how this project progresses.

I do wanna try out a Push Pull someday to see how they compare to Show Pro.

Not a project Steven. I'm only going to store the parts in my shed, and chop the cabinet up and put it on my fire.

I've almost finished my recording of MYN on my push pull, and I've spent a fair bit of time getting the tone that I want. In my honest opinion, both my Show Pro and my Emmons have wonderful tone, but in different ways. The Show Pro has a huge bottom end and a natural scooped mid range with a sparkly top end, but that could all be down to the Lawrence 710 pickups. My Emmons push pull has a full but twangy bottom end, more pronounced upper mids than the Show Pro and a bell-like chimey top end. I have new style Wilde 705 pickups in the Emmons.