ZB Pedal Steel Guitars - Please help!

[Kevin Hatton]

I do not sell pickups separately. They are very difficult to make. The pickups on the new guitars are EXACT 1968 reproductions. Same Alnico magnets.

[Skip Edwards]

Kevin, that single 10 is beautiful...just beautiful.
Is that Gary Brandin's new gtr?

[Kevin Hatton]

Yes, its going to a great west coast player. Bakersfield sound here we come.

[Skip Edwards]

I'm jealous...

[Joe A. Camacho]

This is a NEW Retro Steel Guitar ZB S-10 with modern quick change bellcrank mechanics. Oooh baby! The finish looks like the dashboard of a Jaquar XKE. Its going out to the west coast. California bound. The tone makes you feel sorry for the people who never heard a ZB. The West Coast Sound.




Anyone who wants to order. www.retrosteelguitar.net

Nice!

[Kevin Hatton]

Joe, if you want to hear and see that guitar Gary Brandin is now playing it out in your area. Check his schedule with The Blue Hawaiians. When you hear that guitar you will see cactus in the desert. I am starting a new blue D-10 next week.

[Joe A. Camacho]

I need to see that guitar!

[Paul Frank Bloomfield]

AS Joe says "we want to see that blue D-10" !
Don't we Duncan ?
All the best
Frank. Corfu

[Tom Karsiotis]

I bought a D10 ZB from a neighbor who said it was originally Zane Beck's and then Bromley's before her father bought it from him. The only number I can find on it is "1" stamped twice under the changer. The E9th neck has what seems to be a Wallace pickup because it's not the same as the C6th neck. It has black and white laminated plastic on the spool and that is what the Wallace has too. The A B pedals are worn smooth to the point that they're sharp at the edges. It has the A B C pedals and 3 knee levers for the E9th and 6 pedals for the C6th neck. The case was a disaster and after I removed the covering I could see it was made out of MDO (medium density overalaid) plywood which didn't appear on the market until the late 60's. It's not salvageable and I'll have to build one for the body and one for the legs and bars. I'm sure it needs a good cleaning and adjustment but I'll have to make a fixture to hold it before I try that. I''ll take a photo of it later and post it.

After buying the D10 I saw a ZB Student on Ebay and the bid was at $325.00 so I figured what the heck and bid $350 and won it! All it needed is one tuning gear which I had in the junk box.

As you can see from my avatar I'm a 6 string player and the closest I've been to a pedal steel is a Multi-Kord. So many strings - so little time.

[Ben Elder]

This thread needs a bump, so here's something interesting on eBay...perhaps only if you're within driving distance of Celina TN.

Item #280551042658

you won't find it by searching for "ZB" because the seller is obviously not a player or aficionado and calls it a "zane beck double neck pedal steel guitar with amp." (The number of pedals and levers is not specified and guitar is sadly underrepresented photographically.) It's a D-10/11 stained blue, with white fretboards and pickup covers and looking like otherwise a lot like my D-10 #0078. There's also a Session 400 and what appears to be a Miller volume pedal as part of the package.

Seller is an eBay newbay--(0) feedback. Should be interesting...

[Chuck McGill]

Very interesting guitar. Session 500(worth a lot if you sell them by the pound). Are you still the proud
owner of a D11?

[Russ Tkac]

This too could be a nice project if you have the interest.

ZB steel

[Chuck McGill]

This looks to be needy steel. I love the pic from the
front Russ, with the chair legs in the background makes it
look like Buddy Cage's guitar with multiple knees.

[Russ Tkac]

Chuck,

I thought so too. Looks like about 12! But with 4 knees and some elbow grease it might be nice. But I don't need a project or another steel as you well know.

Russ

[Duane Keiper]

I thought that I would add some pictures of my guitar. It's a ZB Retro Steel Guitar. I am not sure of the age as I am the second owner. I don't play well yet, but when Kevin Hatton plays this guitar you don't just hear the sound, the music fills your head and you become the music.

[Tom Karsiotis]

I finally got the pics of the ZB D10.


The headstock is not like the ZBs I've seen here. It must be a prototype. I made the smaller steel (3/4" Diameter). It helps get the slants better on some songs.


Here's the 2 pups. The on on the E9th neck looks like a wallace. The one on the C6th looks original. If I run both pickups the 60 cycle hum stops.


These tuners are like I've never seen, but they work.


This is a dead giveaway as to which pedals I should be using most.


Switching from a National Tri-cone and a Multi-Kord with the wide string spacing to the tight spacing used on today's pedal guitars is still taking some getting used to. The levers on the changers flop around like wind chimes. That can't be good.

[Ben Elder]

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's a lot nearer in some respects to a Sho-Bud fingertip.

Experts?

[Greg Lasser]

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's a lot nearer in some respects to a Sho-Bud fingertip.

Experts?

I owned two ZB D-11/10s in the 1970s, one of which I customized heavily. I was/am a steel guitar mechanic and was the authorized warranty station in Northern California for ZB while the company was in Phoenix up until the time that Tom Brumley bought the company.

There's a possibility, albeit a very small one, that this guitar may have been a very early experiment by Zane Beck. I would have to have a look at the transport mechanism to be sure. Zane's early guitars had pieces that were shaped with a band saw (really!) and he sprayed them all flat black.

In any case, this guitar is a far cry from any ZB I have ever seen and I have seen some of Zane's earliest work.

First of all, the changer mechanism is completely wrong - not even close to ZB.

The pegheads are wrong too although I do recall one early Zeeb which had a "Conan O'Brian" cowlick similar to this. Almost all ZBs, though, had those "devil horns".

Those knee levers look like Sho-Bud levers. They're not ZB. ZBs had two types. The earlier, skinnier ones, were roughly cast and black while the later ones were machined aluminum with plastic facing.

There is no shot of the front of the guitar so I can't say much about the cabinet except that it has a purfling pattern I have never seen before on a Zeeb and I have never seen purfling on the top next to the necks. I can't see the fretboard very well in the photos but those fret markers don't look too kosher either.

I don't think either pickup is ZB. The C6th pickup looks like Sho-Bud and the E9th pickup is almost certainly Emmons. ZB pickups had three rows. The center row had allen screw adjusters and the two outer rows had visible holes showing the magnets.

All-in-all, I'd have to say this guitar is a "hybrid".

Greg Lasser

[Kevin Hatton]

Tom, as Greg just pointed out, your guitar is not a ZB. It looks very much like a Walters guitar that is pictured in another post. It also looks very much like a modified Sho-Bud Fingertip. Those are Sho-Bud parts.

[Greg Lasser]

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 my credit card but as a musician, I'm Greg Lasser.

[B. Greg Jones]

Have to agree here too. This guitar is not a ZB. Even Zane's earliest guitars did not look like this. His first changer was a pull release set-up like the old Sho~Bud perms. To my knowledge, he never used a fingertip type changer.

As Greg said, the undercarraige, many parts were cut on a bandsaw. Crude by todays standards but the guitars worked and played well. Zane used surplus Air Force steel and motorcycle spokes for his underccarraige

Tom Brumley partnered with Bill Simms and bought the company in 1969 and moved it to Bakersfield, Ca. About 2 years later it was moved to Phoenix and Tom went on the road with Rick Nelson. Around 1978, Tom took sole ownership of the company and moved it to Texas. He sold the company around 1985 and it moved again.

Greg

[Tom Karsiotis]

Thanks for the info on this steel. I tried calling Jess Hurt today and he's not home. Jess knows this guitar and the fellow who played it. Maybe he has an idea what it is. I paid $1000 for it and for that amount I really can't complain. It sounds wonderful even through a Tech21 amp. It even plays well in "Hugheyland". After playing a Multi-Kord sidesaddle and using my pinky on the volume pot, this a step up.

If this is a hybrid and has no collector value then I'll have no problem modifying it. I have a friend who has a lathe and mill that I can use.

[Kevin Hatton]

I like the part where he told you that this guitar was once owned by Tom Brumley. I've got a stinky pair of old sneakers that someone told me that Tom Brumley alledgedly wore after his Carneigie Hall performance with Buck Owens. I can let them go for $100.00 if anyone is interested. Email me for photos.

[Tom Karsiotis]

I like the part where he told you that this guitar was once owned by Tom Brumley. I've got a stinky pair of old sneakers that someone told me that Tom Brumley alledgedly wore after his Carneigie Hall performance with Buck Owens. I can let them go for $100.00 if anyone is interested. Email me for photos.

What size are they?

[Kevin Hatton]

It says 7 come 11's on the bottom.