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Author
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Topic: Ernie Ball pedal steel??
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Stu Schulman
Member From: anchorage,alaska
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posted 12 April 2006 01:20 PM
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I used to play at a club in Costa Mesa Ca.Down the street from Ernie Ball Co.They had built a whole bunch of Keyless guitars that were very nice playing but never were on the market.When I moved to Alaska in the mid 80's I had a friend who owned one and remembered that it was a quality guitar,I also talked to Red Rhodes about and he told me that they couldn't put it out because he had the patent on the Keyless design?I was told that they had built a few hundred of these guitars,Anybody have the 411 on them,Stu |
Bobby Lee
Sysop From: Cloverdale, North California, USA
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posted 12 April 2006 05:29 PM
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Red's patent has surely expired by now. That's one I'd like to see. |
Jim Palenscar
Member From: Oceanside, Calif, USA
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posted 12 April 2006 06:11 PM
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I had one and the keyless that it had on it was very similar to the one that was found on the Williams keyless with the straight aluminum "pullers" being pulled straight back by an allen screw. I substituted a Sierra keyless tuner for it and it worked very well. |
Stu Schulman
Member From: anchorage,alaska
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posted 12 April 2006 06:38 PM
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Bobby:From what I remember they had a stack of them ...maybe 100 or so,It would be worth e-mailing the Ernie Ball Co. |
Herb Steiner
Member From: Cedar Valley, Travis County TX
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posted 12 April 2006 07:44 PM
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Red did have a patent on one keyless design and told me with great glee how his having same prevented David Jackson from marketing the S~B keyless mechanism. This is in the 1969-71 time frame.There's a photo in Winnie's book of Hal Rugg playing a prototype S~B keyless on the Opry. That's the design that Red claimed his patent put the quietus on. ------------------
Herb's Steel Guitar Pages
Texas Steel Guitar Association |
Stu Schulman
Member From: anchorage,alaska
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posted 19 April 2006 10:04 AM
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Dan McPherson at Ernie Ball sent me this today.What you are referring to is the Ernie Ball Black Eagle Steel Guitar. There were roughly 300 of them made. They ceased production in 1978.
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BobbeSeymour
Member From: Hendersonville TN USA
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posted 19 April 2006 07:35 PM
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Never mind [This message was edited by BobbeSeymour on 19 April 2006 at 07:41 PM.] [This message was edited by BobbeSeymour on 19 April 2006 at 07:47 PM.] [This message was edited by BobbeSeymour on 19 April 2006 at 09:57 PM.] |
Roger Shackelton
Member From: Everett, Wa.
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posted 20 April 2006 01:41 AM
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The only PSGs that I know of, that Ernie Ball produced were called the "Earthwood Steel Guitar." They were shown at Scotty's National Steel Guitar Convention in about 1975. I believe they were the first keyless
PSG on the market. Roger |
Jim Eaton
Member From: Santa Susana, Ca
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posted 20 April 2006 08:33 AM
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I hung out at the EB Booth for the better part of the day at a late 70's NAMM show playing a s10 keyed guitar that they were showing that year. They were so happy to have someone to play it, they bought me lunch and gave me a case of strings to stick around all afternoon. |
Brad Bechtel
Moderator From: San Francisco, CA
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posted 20 April 2006 10:38 AM
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I bought one of these in 1978/9 for $300. I didn't get it - the mechanics of how to play pedal steel didn't make sense to me at the time. I later sold it for the same amount I paid for it. From what I remember, it was a decent enough starter instrument. |
Gary Jones
Member From: Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
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posted 20 April 2006 11:58 AM
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I worked for the EB Company in 1978 and ’79, and built several of these guitars. Perhaps I can provide some information on the subject.
I’m glad to hear that my friend Dan McPherson is still working at EB. He and I worked in several bands together many years ago, although I have not talked to him in years.
There is a great deal of difference between the Earthwood PSG, designed by the great Chuck Wright, and the Black Eagle student model, designed by EB staff workers Ron Saul (who designed the EB volume pedal) and Dan Norton.
As far as I know only a few prototypes of the Earthwood guitars were ever built, and I am not sure of how these guitars were configured. The one I saw at the factory (which I believe was Ernie’s personal guitar at the time) was a keyless D-10.
These guitars were very innovative for their time, and of course Chuck would later start the Sierra PSG Company. I have often wondered what has become of the wonderful guitars he made for EB, and who has them now?
The Black Eagle guitars, on the other hand, were made specifically to be cheap. The body was made from the same extrusion channel we used for the volume pedals. The keyless tuner system was very primitive and the changer was a pull-release, with only enough fingers to provide the standard 3-pedal, 1kl changes. All-in-all, these were not particularly good guitars, even as a student model.
I assembled three Black Eagles from parts in 1978, and I think that there were enough parts in the shop to make one or two more. I don’t know if any more were made after that point, but I suspect not.
Again, I do not know specifically how many of the Black Eagle guitars were ever made, but I suspect the total production run was around 50 or 60 units. Edit: re-reading earlier posts I see that Dan suggests there were 300 of the Black Eagle model made. I have no reason to dispute this number. I just never saw very many units assembled at any one time.
I am still wondering (and perhaps Bobbe Seymour and other retailers can help with this) if any of the Earthwood keyless models ever turn up for sale? These were very nice guitars, and I'm sure some of them are still out there.
Gary Jones
KLVX-TV, Las Vegas
[This message was edited by Gary Jones on 20 April 2006 at 06:09 PM.] |
Jack Mansfield
Member From: Reno, NV
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posted 20 April 2006 02:35 PM
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I had one in the mid 90's when I was just learning psg. Bought it from a place I believe called Steel City Music in Ft. Worth. Paid $350.00 for it. It was black with a wooden raised neck. 3&1. I tried to tune it to regular E9th but it would break the third string at G# to A. Tuned it to D9th and had no problem with the guitar. Seems it stayed in tune well. Sold it to Elderly Instruments later on. |
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