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Topic: Value of "The Blade" |
Herb Steiner
From:
Spicewood TX 78669
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Posted 27 Feb 2017 8:36 am |
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Of course, the value of the Blade rests virtually entirely on the iconic stature of Big E, and being able to own a part of his incredible legacy. As far as it's intrinsic nature, it's a basic 9/8 1968 cut-tail Emmons in definitely used condition that'd be worth about 4.5k-5k here in Forumland.
I wonder if in 20-25 years when this/our generation is mostly gone, Buddy's work may be considered like we today think of Joaquin Murphey... "wow, have you heard these old cuts of this guy Emmons? Awesome, dude!" 
FWIW, Murphey's t-8 Bigsby, after decades of modifications being removed and the horn restored to its original shape, was on the market for 60k. I don't know what it ultimately went for.
I could be in error, but I believe one of Buddy's sons has the Blade.
Vintage prices in general spiked in the early-mid 70s due in no small part to very, very wealthy rock musicians craving 50s-60s vintage guitars their blues/country/jazz heros played, and willing to pay stupid money to get them. Then the upper-middle to upper class fans of these rock heros compete with the market with their own big bucks. This has always been a volatile market with swings over the years. But now look for many of those instruments, as their Baby Boomer owners are looking at retirement and wishing to convert some non-liquid assets into cash, to be hitting the market in the next 10-20 years.
As to the 250k Martins, AFAIK that only applies to the 91 pre-war D-45s... god knows how many are left..., and again, those are asking prices and "askin' ain't gettin'" as we say down here. People who buy Loar F-5s as well don't share the actual purchase prices, and with good reason. Most pre-war D-28s sell for the mid-5 figures, from 25k-60k depending on lots of things.
Is Mother Maybelle Carter's Loar L-5 worth more than a non-celebrity model, around 25k-35k? Ask the man who owns one. (A shout out to any Packard owners out there)
I don't know... just sayin'.
_________________
My rig: Infinity and Telonics.
Son, we live in a world with walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with steel guitars. Who's gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinberg? |
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Marco Schouten
From:
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
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Posted 27 Feb 2017 11:39 am
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I just hope that it is still being played.
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JCH SD-10 with BL XR-16 pickup, Sho-Bud Volume Pedal, Evidence Audio Lyric HG cables, Quilter Steelaire combo |
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Bobby Boggs
From:
Upstate SC.
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Posted 27 Feb 2017 3:09 pm
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| Quote: |
| 9/8 1968 cut-tail Emmons in definitely used condition that'd be worth about 4.5k-5k here in Forumland. |
He told me it was a 67. Maybe he was confused. But I questioned him. Because the Blade is of course a cut-tail and Dad's 67 was a Bolt On. This was many years ago before I knew Emmons built both aluminum Bolt ON's and cut-tails in 67.
b. |
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Herb Steiner
From:
Spicewood TX 78669
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Posted 27 Feb 2017 3:55 pm
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They were changing over to cut-tails in '67, so it could be a '67. It's 1139D as I recall. According to my unscientific list of Emmonses from that era, it could be late '67 or early '68.
I have two '67 S-10s, 1042S and 1043S, both bolt-ons. From my unofficial list I've been assembling through various sources:
1078D bolt-on
1079D bolt-on
1081D cut-tail, earliest cut-tail on my list.
1088S cut-tail
1088D bolt-on
1089D cut-tail
1090D CT
1104D BO
1107D CT
From 1107D and on, all cut-tail guitars. But I'd wager Mike Cass could give us a definitive answer, I believe he has access to the company warranty files.
_________________
My rig: Infinity and Telonics.
Son, we live in a world with walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with steel guitars. Who's gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinberg? |
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Bobby Boggs
From:
Upstate SC.
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Posted 27 Feb 2017 5:26 pm
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From the man himself.
| Quote: |
| The Blade is a stock 1968 Emmons P/P with a 9 x 7 pedal and knee setup. There's not a lot of magic in the guitar compared to earlier Emmons models I've heard, but it has something that made me want to hang on to it for thirty four years. I have a black P/P with 20k pickups that would probably sound as good as the Blade if it had 17.5ks as the Blade does. The Black Album was one of the few times I used a Fender amp and I may have gotten lucky that day because I've recorded other sessions with a Fender Twin and got a sound that would blister a beagle's ear. The same applies to a Twin I used on a TV show, so who knows? The push pulls are notorious for mid range quality and the only guitar I've played that comes close is my Legrande. I still have the Blade to compare it to, and when I get through experimenting with new pickups, I'll have a better handle on the comparison. |
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Herb Steiner
From:
Spicewood TX 78669
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Posted 27 Feb 2017 6:07 pm
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Of course, I am short and Buddy was tall, but I never ergonomically enjoyed sitting behind the Blade the half-dozen or so times I could do so. It played way too stiff for my taste, but then again, the last time I was at Buddy's house I sat down behind Brown Bart (a LeGrande) and it was so stiff as to be unplayable for me.
I'm not sure what pickups are in the Blade now. Buddy asked me what pickups I had in my wraparound and I told him 15.5k pickups. He said he wanted to try those in the Blade, so I gave him a 15.5 that I had and Tony Wilcox gave him a 15.7 that he had. Then Bobby Bowman, Tony and I went up to Buddy's place and Bowman put those pickups in the Blade. He seemed to like them but said the sound still isn't like the wraparound sound. AFAIK, the pickups in the Blade are still the 15Ks that Tony and I gave him.
_________________
My rig: Infinity and Telonics.
Son, we live in a world with walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with steel guitars. Who's gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinberg? |
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Mike Vallandigham
From:
Martinez, CA
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Posted 27 Feb 2017 7:46 pm
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I find this kind of stuff super interesting. Thank Herb and Bobby and everyone for sharing this.
I think it's important (for folks like us) to write this down and preserve it.
Cheers! |
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Bobby Boggs
From:
Upstate SC.
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Posted 27 Feb 2017 10:47 pm
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I'd still like to know Mike Cass's thoughts on the year model. I know what Buddy wrote. And I remember what he told me. He could have gotten mixed up either when he told me 67. Or when he wrote 68. I remember well. He was not a fan of the aluminum neck Bolt On's. He blamed it on tuning issues. Which I understand. But wonder, if a lot of his resentment comes from the fact that Ron started building them without Buddy even being consulted. I read in the Ask Buddy Forum that he learned of their existence only after his cousin bought one. That would be a bummer.
67 or 68. A few months really doesn't mater. But it does make me curious. I'm starting to wonder if there were any Cut-Tails built in 67? Herb?
b. |
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Hook Moore
From:
South Charleston,West Virginia
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Posted 28 Feb 2017 2:55 am
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Buddy told me they started building the blade in the last month or two of 1967 and he got it early 1968.
He also told me a couple times that he had given the blade to his son Larry. At that time Buddy still had the guitar in his music room but I have no idea where the blade resides today.
_________________
http://twitter.com/hook_moore
www.facebook.com/hook.moore
Blaine Moore |
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Herb Steiner
From:
Spicewood TX 78669
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Posted 28 Feb 2017 4:26 am
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| Hook Moore wrote: |
Buddy told me they started building the blade in the last month or two of 1967 and he got it early 1968.
He also told me a couple times that he had given the blade to his son Larry. At that time Buddy still had the guitar in his music room but I have no idea where the blade resides today. |
That's the story I got as well, Hook. I recall thinking that the Blade was delivered in January of '68, which is how I got an idea about the time frame.
_________________
My rig: Infinity and Telonics.
Son, we live in a world with walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with steel guitars. Who's gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinberg? |
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Hook Moore
From:
South Charleston,West Virginia
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Jerry Jones
From:
Franklin, Tenn.
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Posted 28 Feb 2017 6:43 am
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I once owned 1126D - Rosewood 8/0. The pot codes indicated no earlier than Feb. 1968.
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Jerry Jones |
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Donny Hinson
From:
Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.
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Posted 28 Feb 2017 8:27 am
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| Marco Schouten wrote: |
| I just hope that it is still being played. |
To me, while that may sound nice, it would still be just a footnote in the history of the guitar. Buddy made that guitar what it is...or rather, what it was. Now that he's gone, listening to anyone else playing it would be sort of an anticlimax. 
At least, that's the way I feel. |
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Doug Beaumier
From:
Northampton, MA
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Roger Rettig
From:
Naples, FL
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Posted 28 Feb 2017 9:04 am
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I think I might have enjoyed acquiring the Blade had I been in a position to buy the guitar from Buddy directly. But, having said that, I'm probably the least-deserving steel player on the planet.
Once it has passed through various hands then it's just another guitar. So what I'm saying, I think, is that perhaps I'd have been prepared to pay extra money for a steel if the process had included me going to his house in Hermitage and maybe shooting the breeze with one of my musical heroes. 'E' was pretty accessible to all of us - on here, or if we snagged him at a steel show - and I even had the good fortune to play with him a couple of times. But a one-on-one encounter in private would be a lifelong memory and maybe worth a couple of thousand bucks over market price.
It's a very personal thing. There was a brief moment when I might have acquired Lonnie Donegan's original Martin 000-21 - the guitar I'd ogled on his 1956 LP sleeve and on black-and-white TV as an impressionable adolescent. Unfortunately it went to Van Morrison who, back then, had been a similarly impressionable lad but, after Lonnie died, he had far deeper pockets than I did.
I couldn't have adequately explained this to anyone else but holding that (to me) iconic instrument would have been a constant reminder of my first and most important musical influence.
I think I do get the celebrity guitar thing but not because of what everyone else might think; it would be because of what the music it helped create meant to me. I would sit with it in a darkened room and remember...
_________________
Roger Rettig - Emmons D10s, Quilter TT-12, B-bender Teles and old Martins.
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John De Maille
From:
On a Mountain in Upstate Halcottsville, N.Y.
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Posted 28 Feb 2017 2:29 pm
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| Roger, your last statements hit home with me. I understand exactly what you're saying. |
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Mitch Ellis
From:
Collins, Mississippi USA
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Posted 28 Feb 2017 10:20 pm
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| Hook Moore wrote: |
Buddy told me they started building the blade in the last month or two of 1967 and he got it early 1968.
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That's what he also told me.
Mitch |
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