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Topic: How Many Emmons Lap Steels Out There? |
Jim Lindsey (Louisiana)
From:
Greenwell Springs, Louisiana (deceased)
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Posted 9 Jan 2010 9:37 pm |
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Years ago in the mid-late '70s after I'd started playing steel, my father became inspired to learn one and shopped around for a simple one. He soon found and purchased an 8-string Emmons lap steel (pictured below):
I recently dug it out of one of my closets (the poor thing really needs some tender loving care and cleaning) and as I was examining it, I became curious as to how many steel players out there might also have an Emmons lap steel.
I'm also curious to know if anyone knows how many of these were made and about the serial numbers. Years ago I called the Emmons company (in 1988, I think) and was told to look for the serial number under the pickup plate by unscrewing it and turning it over. I did this and there is no serial number anywhere. In fact, I cannot find a serial number anywhere on it.
The gentleman at Emmons who I'd spoken to was as puzzled as I was and said that the absence of a serial number means that I might have a prototype in my possession, but he wasn't exactly sure.
Can anybody shed any light on this? This little Emmons lap steel is the only thing I have, pretty much, that was my father's and I'd be interested in learning as much as I can about it now that it's been dug out of the closet again.
It has a fantastic tone. Back around 1985, I took this little guitar with me to Bob White's club in Ft Smith, Arkansas, to let him play it. He remembered seeing a photo of one in an old Emmons ad, but this was the first he'd actually seen. He tuned it to a B-flat 6th and played the stuffings out of it. What a player he was!
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1986 Mullen D-10 with 8 & 7 (Dual Bill Lawrence 705 pickups each neck)
Two Peavey Nashville 400 Amps (with a Session 500 in reserve) - Yamaha SPX-90 II
Peavey ProFex II - Yamaha R-1000 Digital Reverb - Ross Time Machine Digital Delay - BBE Sonic Maximizer 422A
ProCo RAT R2DU Dual Distortion - Korg DT-1 Pro Tuner (Rack Mounted) - Furman PL-8 Power Bay
Goodrich Match-Bro by Buddy Emmons - BJS Steel Bar (Dunlop Finger Picks / Golden Gate Thumb Picks) |
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Jim Lindsey (Louisiana)
From:
Greenwell Springs, Louisiana (deceased)
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Posted 10 Jan 2010 7:34 am
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Oops, I think I might have posted this under the wrong section ... should probably be under Steel With No Pedals?
b0b, can you move it if it's in the wrong place?
Thanks ... 
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1986 Mullen D-10 with 8 & 7 (Dual Bill Lawrence 705 pickups each neck)
Two Peavey Nashville 400 Amps (with a Session 500 in reserve) - Yamaha SPX-90 II
Peavey ProFex II - Yamaha R-1000 Digital Reverb - Ross Time Machine Digital Delay - BBE Sonic Maximizer 422A
ProCo RAT R2DU Dual Distortion - Korg DT-1 Pro Tuner (Rack Mounted) - Furman PL-8 Power Bay
Goodrich Match-Bro by Buddy Emmons - BJS Steel Bar (Dunlop Finger Picks / Golden Gate Thumb Picks) |
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Bent Romnes
From:
London,Ontario, Canada
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b0b
From:
Cloverdale, CA, USA
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Posted 11 Jan 2010 4:23 pm
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| Moved as requested. |
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Al Terhune
From:
Newcastle, WA
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Posted 11 Jan 2010 4:59 pm
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I had one of those guys and sold it to, I believe, a forumite a few years ago. If you do some research, there have been a couple of threads on this with maybe even someone posting shots of the brochure from Emmons offering this guitar. It was a fun guitar with a nice sound.
_________________
Al
My equipment:
One heck of a Wife
The ghost of a red Doberman
Several pairs of reading glasses strewn about |
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Michael Lee Allen
From:
Portage Park / Irving Park, Chicago, Illinois
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Posted 11 Jan 2010 5:18 pm
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DELETED
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"Wisdom does not always come with age. Many times age arrives alone."
Last edited by Michael Lee Allen on 27 Feb 2011 3:25 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Doug Beaumier
From:
Northampton, MA
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Doug Palmer
From:
Greensboro, North Carolina, USA
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Posted 13 Jan 2010 6:59 am Ls-8
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I have one. It is an LS-8. Emmons didn't make many. The body is solid Mahogany. Most used an Emmons pick up. It sounds like my D-10. I don't play mine much and would consider selling it. Any offers?
Doug Palmer
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Emmons D-10, ST-10,LD-10 III, NV-112,Fender Deluxe Reverb. Authorized wholesale dealer musicorp.com! |
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Peter Jacobs
From:
Northern Virginia
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Jim Lindsey (Louisiana)
From:
Greenwell Springs, Louisiana (deceased)
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Posted 15 Jan 2010 6:56 pm
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Hi, guys ... sorry I haven't had time to revisit my thread here (been very busy here lately and not able to really get into the forum as much as I'd like).
Bent ... actually, I don't know what kind of wood it's made of, but the thing really sounds great when hooked up and played. For the fun of it, I hooked it up and ran it through my ProCo RAT distortion to see what sort of slide guitar sound I'd get ... it sounded so much like a David Lindley sound that I wish I'd had it with me on the road with Ty Herndon whenever I'd have to do slide guitar stuff on my steel.
Al & Michael, it's funny you mentioned some postings of ads from Emmons with a picture of that guitar. Only yesterday I happened to be going through some of my old steel guitar stuff and ran across an Emmons catalog from the late '70s (yep, I'm a pack rat and keep all that old stuff) and there was a photo of it amongst some of the Emmons pedal steels.
The only thing about mine is that there's some old, rather permanent, masking tape pieces with the fret numbers on them that don't seem to want to come off. Anybody have any idea how I can get the old pieces of masking tape off my lap steel fret board without harming the fret board itself? I was tempted to use Goo Gone, but I'm concerned that the petroleum agent in it might remove the paint from the fret board as well as the tape.
_________________
1986 Mullen D-10 with 8 & 7 (Dual Bill Lawrence 705 pickups each neck)
Two Peavey Nashville 400 Amps (with a Session 500 in reserve) - Yamaha SPX-90 II
Peavey ProFex II - Yamaha R-1000 Digital Reverb - Ross Time Machine Digital Delay - BBE Sonic Maximizer 422A
ProCo RAT R2DU Dual Distortion - Korg DT-1 Pro Tuner (Rack Mounted) - Furman PL-8 Power Bay
Goodrich Match-Bro by Buddy Emmons - BJS Steel Bar (Dunlop Finger Picks / Golden Gate Thumb Picks) |
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Doug Beaumier
From:
Northampton, MA
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c c johnson
From:
killeen,tx usa * R.I.P.
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Posted 16 Jan 2010 3:59 am
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| mine is ser#4 and has a 8 stg fret board. I ordered this from their catalog which showed it as mots. I received it in wood and called Lashly at the factory. They had changed their thinking. There was three mots made and I guess still out there. My guitar sounds great and I still use it on gigs about 6 to 8 times a yr. cc |
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Al Terhune
From:
Newcastle, WA
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Posted 16 Jan 2010 5:01 am
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| Jim Lindsey wrote: |
| The only thing about mine is that there's some old, rather permanent, masking tape pieces with the fret numbers on them that don't seem to want to come off. Anybody have any idea how I can get the old pieces of masking tape off my lap steel fret board without harming the fret board itself? I was tempted to use Goo Gone, but I'm concerned that the petroleum agent in it might remove the paint from the fret board as well as the tape. |
Oh, Jim. Good luck with that. Wish I had something to offer that would take that off without also removing the paint, but I remember mine had a number of missing flecks of black on the board, so I do know that "paint" is touchy. If it were me, I think I'd try soap and water...knowing that the paint could come off, so I'd just try one spot -- which I'll bet you've already tried. Of course, the other option is to just leave it there, so...
_________________
Al
My equipment:
One heck of a Wife
The ghost of a red Doberman
Several pairs of reading glasses strewn about |
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Erv Niehaus
From:
Litchfield, MN, USA
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Posted 16 Jan 2010 9:09 am
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When I want to remove "gunk" from something and don't want to do damage to anything else, I use regular rubbing alcohol. It shouldn't do any damage.
I'd soak up the tape with the alcohol and then lightly rub to remove it. |
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Peter Jacobs
From:
Northern Virginia
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Al Risbeck
From:
Iowa, USA
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Posted 6 Jul 2011 1:19 pm Wd-40
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Just ran across this post, if you didn't get the tape marks off use WD-40 on a soft cloth ans maybe just a little low heat like from a hair dryer, haven't found a glue yet the it won't take off except Gorilla Glue. I'm probably way late on this but thought I'd send it anyway.
Al |
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