posted 13 November 2001 02:03 PM         

I think your information is basically accurate. I have only seen one in my life, and that was being played by Butch Cornwell when he first came back to Texas from Tacoma, WA. several years ago. It was a D-11 and it sounded great, even though it was very old, tired and worn out. Butch now plays a Fulawaka (sp? Hell, I will never be able to spell that name of that guitar, but it is a good one!) U-12. I believe he still has the old guitar. If I remember correctly Butch told me that he worked for Russ and made many of the parts for those guitars when he was in Phoenix. From what I know of them, which is not much, they are a fine old instrument.

posted 13 November 2001 07:43 PM         

I lived there in the 70's and knew Russ. He did work for ZB.

When I moved back to Michigan, I had him build me a S12 with 10 foot pedals and about 7 knee levers.

It was beautiful, wood body, and he scrolled all the chrome parts, which sparkled like diamonds.

It was very close to the MSA undercarriage and pulling system, but built a little heavier.

It had a fantastic tone, Like the old Sho-Buds, but it was HEAVY.

posted 13 November 2001 09:32 PM         

He developed heart trouble and moved back to his native east Tennessee in the mid-80s, taking the Rus-sler inventory with him, but never manufactured any guitars after 1983. He was something of a self-taught engineering genius and continued to do machining work for farmers and others in his home area down to the time of his death in the early 90s.

When Harold Flynn bought the Rus-ler inventory, a contract assigned ownership and all rights to the Rus-ler company to Harold. Harold also bought out the Bos-San steel Guitar company in Richmond, Va. He had already owned the Walton Steel Guitar company which he and two friends began in the late 60s and produced guitars down to the end of the 70s. Harold had no desire to renew manufacuting the Rus-sler steel, but designed and patented a new changer mechanism, did away with all castings (except pedals), milled his own keyheads and tailpieces from solid aluminum, appropriated useful parts from the Rus-sler inventory and began manufacturing the Flynn Steel Guitar in 1989.

Following Harold's death last January, I bought the Flynn company in July, including the Rus-sler company contract and I presently own all rights to it, as well as to the Flynn company. I have a file of most all original Rus-sler owners and dates of sale on many of them. Like Harold, I have no plans nor desire to renew manufacturing the Rus-sler guitar because technology and design features have moved beyond the period in which they were manufactured, but I do have many original parts which are available for sale to Rus-sler owners as needed.

My impression of the Rus-sler steel, drawn from brochures, conversations and the parts inventory that I have are as follows. (Since I never owned a Rus-sler, owners of the guitar are in a better position to correct my perceptions where they are awry).

1. The Rus-sler was produced at a time when the technology for steel guitars -- especially changer mechanisms -- was in a period of transition. The body styles of the early models had much in common with both the ZB and Sho-Bud guitars, i.e., rounded edges on the body tops, wood inlay, beautiful cabinetry, stained and lacquered, and cast aluminum keyheads,tailpieces and endplates. This was prior to the move toward lighter weight and dimension-efficient guitars in the late 80s and most all manufacturers at the time were building very heavy guitars. A D-10 Rus-sler could weigh 90 pounds in the case.

2. The pickups followed the precedents established by Zane Beck, i.e., dual coil with two sets of magnets, one set on each side of the coils, and had an excellent tone. I have several of these coils and a large box of magnets.

3. The changer pieces I have reflect this period of transition also. The Fender 400 and 1000 and the 800 and 2000 set the standard in the 60s, as reflected in the ZB changer (with tuning nuts on the endplate) and, to a degree, the Sho-Buds during the late 60s and early 70s that employed the two cross arms on the changer lever. The transition was completed with the arrival of the MSA "scissor" type changer, which soon became the standard for all pedal steels except Emmons, which also eventually abandoned the push-pull changer in favor of the "scissor" type all-pull. The Rus-sler bell cranks were adaptations of the MSA style, only with larger brass bearings to spread the wear on them.

The collection of Rus-sler changer parts that I have is a sort of archaeological record of this transition. Some parts indicate that Russ was experimenting with (and may actually have used on some of the early Rus-lers -- owners can verify)a changer that used the two-piece changer lever and "half-moon" radiused caps that the string went over (like the ZB), but added a "scissor" type lowering finger to it. Examining it, I can't figure out how it ever worked, and it may not have and was never used. A second set of changer parts indicates that he followed the trend in the industry toward the MSA "scissor" type changer with a double lower, double-raise format. Finally, he evolved -- as did most manufacturers at the time -- to a triple raise, triple-lower changer. I have this archaeological "evidence" cataloged in different drawers in the collection.

4. The earliest Rus-sler steels were all-wood bodies. But during the early 70s, MSA reestablished a precedent set by Fender in the 60s, i.e, enclosing the guitar body in a metal frame for support against body deflection and detuning. Russ, always aware of new trends and trying to spot the wave of the future, designed extruded front panels and corners and began supporting the bodies of the Rus-slers with them. This accounted for much of the tone, sustain and negligible body deflection in the later Rus-slers.

5. In summary then, the Rus-sler steel may be described as a "period piece", reflecting the technology and trends in the steel guitar manufacturing industry during the period of the mid-70s to the mid-80s. Since then the move has been toward lighter-weight, more dimension-efficient, pedal steels with tool-and-die stamped changer parts and bell cranks which are not only effective, but also more cost-efficient, in comparison with the milling and machining necessary to produce quality guitars in an earlier period. Whether the tone of modern guitars has surpassed those of the earlier Sho-Buds, Emmonses, ZBs and Rus-slers is a matter of debate that reoccurs frequently on the pages of this Forum. I leave all this with you for what it's worth.

[This message was edited by Fred Layman on 13 November 2001 at 09:40 PM.]

posted 15 November 2001 05:34 PM         

I do remember the tuning on it, E6-E9-E13, get em all with pedals.

[This message was edited by Al Marcus on 15 November 2001 at 05:37 PM.]

posted 19 November 2001 04:19 PM         

KEN

[This message was edited by Kenneth Kotsay on 20 November 2001 at 05:46 PM.]

posted 20 November 2001 09:06 PM         

Bob-I can email a photo, but I am getting a storage place for pictures, and when I get the address, I'll post it The guy has got my pictures, but I will have them back in a couple of more days, maybe right after Thanksgiving.

posted 26 November 2001 11:31 PM         

Chuck N. ... I talked to Danny Sneed back in September. He lives in Arizona and plays with a country singer named Pat James. I work with Pat when he occasionally comes to Texas. In fact, I'll be at the White Elephant in Fort Worth this Thursday, Friday and Saturday with Pat. But Danny won't be there. Danny's a monster steel player, by the way.

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