Question for Zum players

Henry Matthews · Post by **Henry Matthews** » 28 May 2010 8:25 am

I just aquired an older model Zum, 1984, and was just wandering what pickups most would reccomend. It now has Barcus Berry and sounds great. Just some feedback on pickups from some of you Zummers. Thanks-Henry

CrowBear Schmitt · Post by **CrowBear Schmitt** » 28 May 2010 9:29 am

Bruce has been installing (single coil) True Tone PUs for a while now
(before that Bruce had his own(?) single coils that were darn good imo )
i went the BL 710 ( dual coil) route & have stuck w: them

Hey Paddy, how bout them Alumitones ?

Michael McGee · Post by **Michael McGee** » 28 May 2010 9:44 am

Henry, this guitar has single coils that Bruce made:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEvYwcc5uZQ

Tony Rankin · Post by **Tony Rankin** » 28 May 2010 11:13 am

Single coils---TruTones

Humbuckers---The reissue 705 is what I am using, although I would like to try an Alumitone.

Roger Crawford · Post by **Roger Crawford** » 28 May 2010 11:24 am

Here's another vote for TrueTone.

Danny Letz · Post by **Danny Letz** » 28 May 2010 6:36 pm

Henry, if that 84 Zum is like the one I reassembled for a friend not long ago, it has some blade like fingers in the changer that are pulled up against the body of the guitar by some springs in sort of a "body contact" kind of way. This one has some George L's in it that had the model number worn off. We think they may be 10-1's. I don't know if it is the body contact or the pickups or what, but this 84 Zum has excellent tone.

Paddy Long · Post by **Paddy Long** » 28 May 2010 7:28 pm

Well I have Trutone single coils on my Hybrid D10 and Alumitones on my older 01 standard all-pull D10.
Both of them sound outstandingly good -- I had BL710's on the older guitar before that and they were great too, but I do prefer the Alooms on that guitar.

Tony Glassman · Post by **Tony Glassman** » 28 May 2010 10:04 pm

I swapped out the BL's that were on the guitar when I bought it for a pair of 15K Emmons single coils that I bought from Larry Behm.

Eddie Lane · Post by **Eddie Lane** » 29 May 2010 5:40 am

Henry,

I have a 1980 Zum that has single coil pickups which Bruce wound. It sounds great and I have had people tell me that it is the best sounding guitar that they ever heard. I have played next to Mike McGee at steel jams when he played his Zum that is on the U Tube video. It also sounds GREAT. I have to agree with Del Mullen in his post to the Mullen RP owner. It all depends on the tone that YOU want. Probably the best tone that I ever heard was a mid 80s Mullen that I installed some 10-1 pickups in for a guy. It would blow you away. I will say that you have one of the best guitars ever made (and I haven't even seen it). I've never seen a bad Zum.

Robert Brown · Post by **Robert Brown** » 29 May 2010 6:13 am

Henry,I probobly have one of the oldest zums around.It has the old round crosshafts in it. I called Bruce Zumsted and asked about not ftnding a serial number on it and He told me He buried the numbers on the early ones.He asked about the crosshafts and told me it is one of the first 50 made late '77 ore early '78. I purchased it from Scotty's in St. Louis in 2006.It was bought with George l's PF1's on both necks.i like them but I bought 2 alumitones from Bobbe Seymore but I havent isstalled them yet.I liked Paddy Longs opinion of the ones He put in his Zum so I'm going to give them a try. hope this helps. Bob

John Hawkins · Post by **John Hawkins** » 29 May 2010 6:28 am

BL 710 's on both necks !

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 29 May 2010 6:47 am

I have TruTones on my Hybrid.

Henry Matthews · Post by **Henry Matthews** » 29 May 2010 8:10 am

Thanks very much guys and Michael, great job and good tone and nice arrangement on your song.--Henry

Earnest Bovine · Post by **Earnest Bovine** » 29 May 2010 9:08 am

I've tried most of the Lawrence and George L pickups on my Zum. My favorite is Tonealigner.

Harold Dye · Post by **Harold Dye** » 29 May 2010 11:20 am

I have a 1981 Zum I have owned for about 15 years. When I got it, it had E-66's in both necks. I changed those out and installed BL 710's. I have been extremely pleased with those until I had Jerry Wallace rewind my original PU's in my Sho-Bud. After listening to those I decided to replace the E neck PU in the Zum with a Truetone single coil. I am extremly pleased with that sound. It seems to be somewhat cleaner and I have had some good comments on it. I really can't say it sounds better, but maybe different is a better way to discribe it. I still have the 710 in the C neck. In my opinion either the Truetones or the 710 is a good choice.

Terry Sneed · Post by **Terry Sneed** » 29 May 2010 1:43 pm

Henry, I had a 1990 Zum with stock pickups, It sounded very good, but I put a truetone on E9 and liked it better. I'z wanderin what that new toy was you was gettin.

terry

Marvin Born · Post by **Marvin Born** » 29 May 2010 2:57 pm

I have a 2006, D-10 with True tones that I play mostly at home. And a '95 SD-10 with an Alumatone. Both sound good. The Alumatone is brighter on the high end and a little more bass. The True Tones
sound very traditional. The Alumatone is great for playing where there is possible electrical noise. It is very quiet even sitting in front of a Plasma TV.

I use Telonics pedals.

Marvin

Mitch Ellis · Post by **Mitch Ellis** » 29 May 2010 11:38 pm

Robert Brown wrote: I called Bruce Zumsted and asked about not ftnding a serial number on it and He told me He buried the numbers on the early ones.

Did he say why?

By the way, I have Truetones on my 04 D10 Zum and am very pleased with them.

Mitch

Robert Brown · Post by **Robert Brown** » 30 May 2010 12:25 pm

Mitch, No Bruce did not elaborate much on why, just that he was trying out all sorts of stuff to see what worked best in the begining. Bob

Adair Torres · Post by **Adair Torres** » 3 Jan 2011 10:19 am

BL 710 's on both necks !!!

!

Charles Campbell · Post by **Charles Campbell** » 3 Jan 2011 1:23 pm

I have BL 710's both necks (2009) model.

Charles

John De Maille · Post by **John De Maille** » 3 Jan 2011 2:58 pm

Started out with a BL-912 on my U-12 Zum. I switched to a True Tone, wound to 19,500 and have never looked back.

Eric Philippsen · Post by **Eric Philippsen** » 3 Jan 2011 3:14 pm

Wow, a lot of opinions. Then again, that is what was asked for.

I play push/pulls pretty much all the time now. However, I do have an 84' D10 Zum that I pull out every now and then. It has its stock pickups and I like 'em. I like 'em a lot on that guitar. I have no intention of changing them.

Jack Ritter · Post by **Jack Ritter** » 3 Jan 2011 3:29 pm

Single coil True Tones. Jack

Jay Jessup · Post by **Jay Jessup** » 3 Jan 2011 7:33 pm

I think most any pup would sound good on a Zum but find myself tempted to say that if any pickup would sound bad on one it would be a Barcus Berry, I had some on a EMCI I had once---couldn't get them off fast enough!!

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