ZB Pedal Steel Guitars - Please help!

Larry Chung · Post by **Larry Chung** » 27 Dec 2003 9:44 pm

Hey Dave, Hey Brad, Hey Bob:

Happy Holidays and Happy Gollydays! (Gomer Pyle's Happy Days!)

I had a chance to play out with both my D-10 and S-11 over the past week and dagnabbit if they don't just sound awesome!!! My D-10 is just HUGE and sounds unbelievably clear and mellow, and my S-11 has a whole lot of Ralph Mooney in it - lots of depth, but also very clean and with good bite, but also strangely and beautifully full and mellow.

Mmmmmmmm. Greg, you out there? How do I get bits of ham and baked potato out from under my knee levers? (:

ZBest and Zee Happy New Year to all.
larry

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Larry Chung
ZB D-10 8+4
ZB Custom S-11 4+4 Dekley S-10 3+4

Bob Mainwaring · Post by **Bob Mainwaring** » 27 Dec 2003 10:18 pm

Hey all you guys out there in Z.B. Land.......

All the "Very Best" for 2004 and hope that all your wishes come true......now if only that darned 3rd string could keep in one piece.......mutter....mutter...........

Bob Mainwaring. Z.Bs. and liking 'em.

Larry Chung · Post by **Larry Chung** » 2 Jan 2004 9:55 am

Attention ALL ZB players (and BMI players, too):

Happy New Year!

AND - please be sure to check out Winnie Winston's steel guitar page at http://www.julianwinston.com

He has a great recent topic in this Pedal Steel section of the Forum.

There you will find an EXCELLENT description and explanation of the Kline guitar, whose mechanisms are very, very similar to ZBs and BMIs. I highly recommend it. AND a huge thanks to Winnie Winston for a great instruction book (along with Bill Keith) and a great new website with lots of great stories and information.

Happy New Year and all ZBest.

Larry

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Larry Chung
ZB D-10 8+4
ZB Custom S-11 4+4 Dekley S-10 3+4

Larry Chung · Post by **Larry Chung** » 7 Jan 2004 4:18 pm

Nice link to some ZB pics from Brad Sarno on another page in this section of the Forum!

I'm up to about 80 guitars so far on my list. Be sure to send along ZB info if you have it - serial numbers, photos, stories of Zane and all things Zaney.

ZBest!
larry

Kevin Hatton · Post by **Kevin Hatton** » 7 Jan 2004 6:10 pm

Larry, when are we going to get to see "the list" and some pictures? I'm looking forward to it.

Larry Chung · Post by **Larry Chung** » 13 Jan 2004 11:52 pm

Hey Kevin and ZBers!

Thanks for the info on how to post photos - I have an AOL account and my computer and software are "dated" - is there a way I can post pictures on the Forum without having to go through the Evil AOL Empire?

Please advise and will post ZPictures!

ZBest
lc

Larry Chung · Post by **Larry Chung** » 22 Jan 2004 9:32 am

Great news from Tom Brumley on the Steel Players page - ZBs are everywhere!

ZBest,
lc

Earl Yarbro · Post by **Earl Yarbro** » 22 Jan 2004 10:29 am

My ZB D10 s/n 1108, headed to Norway, thru Tom Brumley, then thru Greg Jones, to Steinar Schroeder. I hope Greg will post a picture of it when he gets that finish job on it. Tom will be playing it when he goes to Norway next August. Heres hoping Steinar gets much pleasure owning and playing this instrument built by Zane back in '68.

Earl Yarbro

steve takacs · Post by **steve takacs** » 23 Jan 2004 11:39 pm

Steinar deserves that ZB & will make it sing soufully. He's done a lot for pedal steel guitar in Norway and the rest of Scandanavia. When are you coming to Beijing, Steinar? steve

Brendan Mitchell · Post by **Brendan Mitchell** » 25 Jan 2004 7:37 pm

Help needed
I have this incredible itch to go and buy a ZB double neck custom guitar.Even though I have only ever played single neck E9.Even though I know I won't be able to carry it.Even though I know nothing about the mechanics of the thing.Even though I can not afford it and my wife will go buresque when she finds out.I just find it such a great looking thing I think I could buy it and just put it on show as a piece of art.
What can I do?
Regards Brendan

HowardR · Post by **HowardR** » 25 Jan 2004 8:24 pm

I can not afford it and my wife will go buresque

If you meant "burlesque", then you'll soon be able to afford it. If you meant beserk, you won't be owning one any time soon.

Bob Mainwaring · Post by **Bob Mainwaring** » 25 Jan 2004 8:46 pm

Brendan - just go out and buy it - you'll never need to think that the price will devalue over time.......then go and buy another just to make sure of what they are!!

Bob Mainwaring. Z.Bs. and other sweet things.

Larry Chung · Post by **Larry Chung** » 2 Feb 2004 11:51 pm

ZBump!

Larry Chung · Post by **Larry Chung** » 11 Feb 2004 9:02 pm

ZBump - more info on the way!
lc

Larry Chung · Post by **Larry Chung** » 20 Feb 2004 8:58 am

ZBump!

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 20 Feb 2004 1:43 pm

I really liked the styling of the early ZB's, and their sharp, metallic tone used to be in vogue, but really isn't now. (The same could be said of the old Fender PSG's, too.) The thing I never liked about the ZB was they were hard to set up. Like a P/P Emmons, they almost require a specialist to get the most out of them, and make them play smoothly.

Jim Simon · Post by **Jim Simon** » 21 Feb 2004 3:12 am

Larry:

In your own back yard! Bobby Thompson, who has played in the bay area for many years, plays a ZB. I believe he has moved to Red Bluff or up close to there. He has played since the 60's. Good pedal squeezer. That's all I know.

Jim

Larry Chung · Post by **Larry Chung** » 21 Feb 2004 5:34 pm

Thanks, Jim:

Every so often I'm up around Red Bluff and Redding for fiddle contests. I'll have a look and ask around about Mr. Thompson. Is this the same Bobby Thompson who plays (played?) banjo on the Dukes of Hazzard, also with Jim and Jesse? Or is this someone different?

Thanks and all ZBest!
lc

Larry Chung · Post by **Larry Chung** » 3 Mar 2004 9:25 pm

Just received some ZB parts from Greg Jones in Kentucky and added half-stops to the 2/9 string right knee lever on both my S-11 and D-10. Great stuff, Greg, thanks a milliion!

I'll be bringing one or the other to the San Jose Steel Jam in April if anyone out there would like to see a ZB up close and personal!

ZBest,
larry

Duncan Hodge · Post by **Duncan Hodge** » 4 Mar 2004 9:36 am

I want to get in on the fun. I'm looking for a decent ZB Custom, being unable to talk Steve Takacs out of the one he was previously selling. In fact, I believe that my unbridled enthusiasm for his instrument probably made him want to keep it more. By the way, that was about the prettiest instrument I've seen anywhere If you haven't seen the pics, you should. In any event, if one of you feel that your ZB custom is "just too heavy" and wants to sell it to a good home where it will be played daily and polished all the time, please feel free to get in touch with me. I lift weights regularly which I feel makes me very qualified to own a ZB Custom.

Thanks, Duncan

Ben Elder · Post by **Ben Elder** » 8 Mar 2004 9:32 pm

My name is over yonder thar to the left, and I’m a perennially-beginning
pedal-steeler-wannabe living in Los Angeles (where pedal-steel retail and service are as nonexistent as in any town with one-millionth of this comsopolis’ population--but for Blackie Taylor 90 miles away in Riverside.) Once again I am trying to get serious about pedal steel. I collect better than I play and while my main fetish is Weissenborns and similar pre-reso Hawaiians (OK, resos, laps and ironing boards too), my interest in pedal steel goes back thirty-odd (and they were odd) years.

In my early enthusiasm after discovering SGF and this thread a coupla weeks back, I emailed Larry Chung and Dave Zirbel individually before my registration was processed. Anyway, for the sake of the knowledgeable and enthusiastic ZB community, here’s the “War and Peace” of self-introductions.

About two or three years ago, while my walnut S-10* was languishing as an apartment coffee table/geegaw-catchall, I happened on to a similar-vintage blonde-and-walnut D-10 (s/n 0131; 8P 3K; pot codes 306128 and <inaccessible>) in an Oklahoma (my ancestral home) music store tagged at $995 but to be had for the idiotic (or so I thought at the time but don’t necessarily anymore) price of $500 cash.

(Pot codes suggest 1971; does that seem to jibe with the serial number? And what about all the black paint on the pedals and undercarriage—factory spec or some Goth lunatic previous owner sniffing more than he was spraying?)

I sold the S-10 (#0248) on eBay in 9/01 (to Billy Knowles and I see from earlier in this thread that it’s passed on to Dave Zirbel who reports he’s in turn sold it to a friend) for $500 & some. No real beef against the S-10 except I can’t get comfortable at PSGs set at anything like conventional height. (I'm only 6-1 and so am at a loss to explain why I need Shaq's setup.) I thought I had an attempt to trade up in a big way virtually for free. yeahright…

My frustrating attempt to tune the D-10 resulted in an undercarriage thingamawhatsy (did I mention I’m even more mechanically inept than I am glib and rambling?) coming apart at the hex thang. Attempts to fix the one caused a cascading series of other discombobulations and de-linkings. I commended the D-10 to Blackie Taylor for reconnection, but found that I was still hopelessly uncomfortable with the height. After a self-installed lift kit procedure, I’m now finding other problems (mostly too minute to catalogue here even in my windy style) in getting the rods set for good feel, proper pedal height and quiet, positive pull.

One big obstacle to progress: the main KL for the E9th neck has been had its undercarriage doodad repositioned at a nonperpendicular angle, likely because the wood is chewed up in its original location. Bottom line: it doesn’t operate smoothly (or even at all, really.) Another thingamawhatsy has come undone and somehow I don’t see getting to play this thing for several weeks/months/years, a few hundred dollars and more blood, sweat and tears than Winston Churchill could ever imagine.

Never mind tuning—at this point, that seems a hundred miles down a tunnel with no light.

I have a co-worker (former pro player and teacher) helping me but I’m more than a little horror-struck at the retro-tech Fred Flintstone-meets-Rube Goldberg creativity of the ZB workings. (Ca. 1971? B.C or A.D.?) Before I happened on to the SGF and this thread a couple of weeks ago, I was ready to surrender and hope I could trade backwards to something like a gently used S-10 GFI or some kind of beast whose underbelly inspires a little less terror among the mechanically hopeless.

But in spite of all this, the enthusiasm of the participants of this thread is helping me (I won’t say “stay the course” because of whom I associate with that hackneyed phrase some years back) to not lose hope and keep plugging away.

Pictures (in its early March ’04 state of--ahem!, revival) are at:
http://home.earthlink.net/~weissenben/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/bezb1845.jpg http://home.earthlink.net/~weissenben/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/bezb1846.jpg http://home.earthlink.net/~weissenben/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/bezb1847.jpg http://home.earthlink.net/~weissenben/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/bezb1848.jpg http://home.earthlink.net/~weissenben/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/bezb1849.jpg http://home.earthlink.net/~weissenben/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/bezb1850.jpg http://home.earthlink.net/~weissenben/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/bezb1851.jpg http://home.earthlink.net/~weissenben/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/bezb1852.jpg http://home.earthlink.net/~weissenben/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/bezb1853.jpg

Anyway, thank you for indulging a long diatribe. (The good news: my posts are always smilie-free.) Any wisdom, encouragement and observations of prior experience and expertise are heartily appreciated. Any attempts to wheedle me out of this Beast With Two Necks will be received with equal parts guarded wariness and deferential consideration for the possibility for escape from a mechanical quagmire.

BE

Dave Van Allen · Post by **Dave Van Allen** » 9 Mar 2004 10:58 am

Ben;

Sounds like you have a classic case of the "ZB Jeebies™"

lexicon:
undercarriage doodad = Knee lever cross rod bracket
thingamawhatsy = pull rod
hex thang = pull rod turnbuckle

I love the description:
"retro-tech Fred Flintstone-meets-Rube Goldberg creativity of the ZB workings. " It's true they are arcane...

Take this as you will, but personally I think you should plan a nice long driving vacation trip, routed thru London,KY.

Plan on staying there a couple of days; and of course bring the ZB for it's own stay at B.Greg Jones' ZB Spa and Chiropractic Center.

that way the ZB gets itself detoxed, and you'll get a nice (apparently much needed

) rest.

Upon trip's completion you'll both be restored to health.

[This message was edited by Dave Van Allen on 09 March 2004 at 11:05 AM.][This message was edited by Dave Van Allen on 09 March 2004 at 07:06 PM.]

Ben Elder · Post by **Ben Elder** » 9 Mar 2004 2:35 pm

Dave:

From what I've been reading here, I was thinking right along the lines of your advice. (Need to look up London's location relative to other KY landmarks like Lexington, Louisville and Rosine.) Maybe one day soon a gallon of gas will cost less than an hour of shop labor.

"ZB Jeebies"--I'm sick that I didn't think of that myself. I wonder if "ZBGBZ" is still available as a California vanity license plate. A wonderful symmetry there that the instruments that inspire it will never know.

Dave Van Allen · Post by **Dave Van Allen** » 9 Mar 2004 6:54 pm

"ZBGBZ"

I love a palindrome!
Thanks Ben!

I just thought of "ZB Jeebies™" a couple days ago... I'm copyrighting it [This message was edited by Dave Van Allen on 09 March 2004 at 07:08 PM.]

B. Greg Jones · Post by **B. Greg Jones** » 9 Mar 2004 8:17 pm

Ben, London Ky, is just about an hour south of Lexington Ky. on Interstate 75. Let me know if you ever decide to head this way. We'll getcha some Renfro Valley tickets too.

Greg