Emmons vs Sho-Bud (West Coast vs East Coast)

[John Larson]

So I'll let the seasoned players correct me here but is the Emmons (push-pull) vs Sho-Bud (all-pull) tone thing actually a thing? Or is there more variance with the historic coastal styles (Bakersfield and Nashville)?

Where do the tonal spectra of other steel guitar brands fall are some all-pull guitars more Emmons-esque? (Or am I crazy and is this all mostly insane minutiae)

Here are some players I know play what brands (feel free to add more or correct my foolishness below).

Emmons
Buddy Emmons (obviously earlier was Sho-Bud)
Jay Dee Maness
Buddy Cage
John Hughey
Weldon Myrick
Greg Leisz (plays a Williams and Infinity as well)
Sonny Garrish
Bruce Bouton
Jerry Garcia
Hank Devito

Sho-Bud
Lloyd Green
Pete Drake
Ralph Mooney (Fender in the early days, GFI later)
Daniel Lanois
Jimmy Day


Other Brands

Franklin
Paul Franklin

Williams
Greg Leisz
Eric Heywood
BJ Cole

Mullen
Lloyd Maines
Tommy White
Sarah Jorey
Austin Tripp

Rains
John Neff
Will Van Horn

MSA
Susan Alcorn
Travis Toy

GFI
Norm Hamlett
Ralph Mooney

Jackson (I guess this counts as Sho-Bud maybe)
Robert Randolph (Fessenden, Mullen, etc as well)
Slash

Zum
Steve Fishell
Jonathan Gregg

ZB
Tom Brumley (Fender earlier)
Al Perkins
Bernie Leadon

Fender
Sneaky Pete
Ralph Mooney (Buck Owens, Merle Haggard era)

[Marco Schouten]

You might add JCH,

John Hughey
Jimmy Crawford
Lloyd Green
Buck Reid

[Richard Sinkler]

ZB:
Jerry Garcia
Norm Hamlet
Rusty Young
Wally Murphy
Sonny Curtis

Sho-Bud:
Hal Rugg
Curly Chalker
Dan Dugmore
Rusty Young
Big Jim Murphy
Ernie Hager
Bobby Black
Tommy White
Larry Sasser
Mike Johnson

Emmons:
Hal Rugg
Sonny Burnett
Bobby Black
Tommy White
Larry Sasser
Mike Johnson

Franklin
Mike Johnson

[Joe Bill Moad]

Great History you guys have assembled!

Jbm

[Brett Day]

Tim Sergent plays a Jackson with Dierks Bentley-Jackson Steels are built by Shot Jackson's two sons, David and Harry, so they are very similar to Sho-Bud. Norm Hamlet now plays a GFI Ultra S-10. In the JCH category, Steve Sturm needs to be added because he played a JCH guitar while working with Travis Tritt. There are a lot of great players in the Mullen category, including Tommy White with the Grand Ole Opry, Chad Jeffers, who plays steel for Carrie Underwood plays two Mullen G2s-both are SD-10s, Jim Bob Gairrett is also a Mullen player-he played a Zum right after joining Kenny Chesney's band, but started playing Mullen guitars in 2006, on the Franklin steel-Paul Franklin and Mike Johnson, as well as Randle Currie-former steel player with Bryan White-currently playing steel with Brad Paisley. On the MSA now, there's Travis Toy, who is currently playing steel with Luke Bryan, but has worked with Patty Loveless and Rascal Flatts. Mike Daily plays a Zumsteel with George Strait, and has also played an Emmons. Larry Hight now plays steel with the band Ricochet and plays a Carter steel-Teddy Carr played Emmons, Franklin, and Carter steels with Ricochet in the nineties, and Mike Daly, who plays steel with Hank Williams Jr. plays Emmons, Sho-Bud, and ShowPro steels. Jonathan Reynolds now plays an Emmons on tour with Sammy Kershaw, Harrison Yount plays a Mullen and MSA with Cody Johnson, and "Cowboy" Eddie Long plays a BMI steel with Jamey Johnson-CJ Udeen plays a Mullen with Gary Allan. Sonny Garrish also played JCH guitars, in addition to Emmons guitars. Tyler Hall plays an Emmons with Josh Turner, Rusty Danmyer is playing a ShowPro with Alan Jackson

[Danny Letz]

Buddy Emmons, Hal Rugg, & John Hughey we’re all playing Zums near the end of their reign on earth. Bruce Bouton said in an interview that he when on the road with Reba, he took his Zum cause it was bulletproof. I’m a Zummy but I have an Emmons I like & have worked on others that I liked.

[Danny Letz]

Oh and don’t forget Jernigan.

[Brett Day]

I remember talking with John Hughey one time after we became friends and he'd told me he'd started playing ZumSteels. When I saw him play at the Georgia Steel Guitar Association's show in June of '07, he was playing a Zum. Before Doug Jernigan started playing a Zum, I'd gotten an instructional video of him teaching steel and he did the lesson playing a Mullen-this was in 1999, so I wonder what year Doug started playing a Zum.

[Richard Sinkler]

Jernigan once played an Emmons.
Jimmy Crawford played an Emmons.
Shot Jackson - Sho-Bud.
Buddy Merrill- Emmons and maybe Fender.
John David Call - Sho-Bud.
Don Felder - Sho-Bud.
Red Rhodes - Sierra.
Tom Brumley - Anapeg.
Pete Finney - Sierra.
Russ Pahl - Show Pro.
Bobby Black - Carter

[Brett Day]

Dennis Delorme with Prairie Oyster-Emmons
Denny Hemingson with Tim McGraw-Emmons

[scott murray]

wouldn't it make more sense to list all the brands each player has been identified with?

Buddy Emmons
Bigsby
Fender
Sho-Bud
Emmons
MCI/EMCI
Carter
Derby
Sierra
JCH
Zum