The Steel Guitar Forum

John Campbell of Antioch California died today, 2/08/2011, of respiratory failure. John was the chief architect and guiding light of the legendary Webb Steel Guitar Amplifier. He was one of the finest lead guitar players in the San Francisco Bay Area and a great friend to steel players everywhere. A...

Greg, someone took the C neck off and put a pad on it. That was originally a D-10. I thought that might be the case (no pun). But looking at the one photo that shows the right end of the guitar I can't see any holes drilled in the endplate that would indicate the pre-existence of a bottom neck. Now...

Now I could be (and probably am) wrong about this as I am no steel guitar historian but it seems to me that nobody was making single necks on a double neck body (SNDNB) as early as the late 60's. As I recall, it wasn't until Lloyd Green had a custom Sho-Bud made for him somewhere in the 70's that th...

It's a ZB "student" model. That's what the 'S' in the serial number stands for. It was an economy model kind of like the Sho-Bud Mustang. The Emmons company also came out with a student model around that time that was a real POS. Why a vertical lever? An "up" lever is usually not...

Brad, I would love to hear what a ZB sounds like with a replacement pickup just out of curiosity. I've only heard them with stock pickups. Post a sound clip if you can or want. Congrats on the new guitar! I once installed a Sho-Bud pickup in one of my ZBs (sacrilege! :whoa:). It sounded slightly di...

Quick question about the pull system on your guitar. Does the mechanism allow the pulls bottom out correctly (at the same time) against the endplate? I always thought that the yoke system was the only mechanism tha can accomplish that. That's a very good question. I don't see any springs which woul...

The changer looks to be authentic. It looks like someone has ground off the "horns" from both the peghead and the changer plate. Is that what you mean by "short scale"? If the horns have been chopped off then it would mean that the cabinet has also been shortened because there is...

Even if this guitar is customized, and I strongly suspect that it is, it appears to have the original ZB changers (hard to tell for sure from the photos) and that is important. I believe that more than any other factor - i.e. cabinet, pickups, etc. - it is the metallurgy and construction of the chan...

Hi Again Kevin, I love the Emmons D-10PP cases you just built for me. As I mentioned before, they are beautiful and I'm amazed at the perfect fit! I'm also amazed that you are a ZB guy. What a coincidence!!! Greg P.S. In case you're confused, I do business under my real name 'cause that's what's on ...

I'm biting my tongue to suppress a particular word. (And it's a well-known historical fact that Zane worked for Sho-Bud at one time.) I notice there's no pic of the front apron. Is this thing marked or branded in any way? Let's just say this is a far cry visually from any ZB I've ever seen. And it'...

Hi Dan, I too remember that guy at Sam's. I haven't thought about him since the 70's. His name was Billy Wayne. I remember his guitar quite well. It was a very early brown ZB Custom. I mean VERY early. The cross straps inside actually had hacksaw marks on them from when Zane hand made them. It had t...

Hey Barry! Howinthehell are you? I have to tell you something weird. Just last Sunday - the 7th - I played at a gathering of the Western Swing Society up near Sacramento. I was reminiscing with a steel player there about YOU and what an inspiration you were for me back when I was starting out. I was...