ZB Pedal Steel Guitars - Please help!
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- Duncan Hodge
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- Brad Sarno
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Just a ZB point of interest. I got to speak with Tom Brumley last week. I finally remembered to ask him what his standard pickup switch position was when he played his ZB. He said the middle one. So most or all of the ZB Brumley stuff was done on position #2. I was messin with #3 for a couple of months recently and I liked the fatness and warmth, but it did lack the edge and sparkle of #2. I find that #1 is neat too if you want to get that old thin Fender type sound.
Brad Sarno
Brad Sarno
- Larry Chung
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Hey ZBers!
Sorry I've not been in touch with you all and also with ZSuper Thread... I went off and got engaged. Does this mean that my ZBs will sit idle? Only time will tell... (:
Naaaaaaah.
Brad - thanks for the Tom Brumley info - I THOUGHT SO! AHA! I like switching between all three options. The thin setting is very cutting, almost like an old Fender (but not quite!); the middle setting is clean and super-glassy; the bass setting is pretty fat and round. All good!
Duncan - I'm always a little shy about posting other people's email addresses anywhere, but if you'd like to see "the list", I can email the serial numbers and approximate dates. Thanks for asking. Still living in the stone age and almost time to get a ZB website up and running - Greg Jones and Billy Cooper already have their own!
Phillip - Yes, please, please send photos - I own a D-10 #1077, which dates back to 1966-67. Which makes yours right around that period - an early Scranton ZB. Very, very nice and pickups handwound by Zane himself. Congratulations.
OK, back to wedding planning...(:
All ZBest,
Larry
Sorry I've not been in touch with you all and also with ZSuper Thread... I went off and got engaged. Does this mean that my ZBs will sit idle? Only time will tell... (:
Naaaaaaah.
Brad - thanks for the Tom Brumley info - I THOUGHT SO! AHA! I like switching between all three options. The thin setting is very cutting, almost like an old Fender (but not quite!); the middle setting is clean and super-glassy; the bass setting is pretty fat and round. All good!
Duncan - I'm always a little shy about posting other people's email addresses anywhere, but if you'd like to see "the list", I can email the serial numbers and approximate dates. Thanks for asking. Still living in the stone age and almost time to get a ZB website up and running - Greg Jones and Billy Cooper already have their own!
Phillip - Yes, please, please send photos - I own a D-10 #1077, which dates back to 1966-67. Which makes yours right around that period - an early Scranton ZB. Very, very nice and pickups handwound by Zane himself. Congratulations.
OK, back to wedding planning...(:
All ZBest,
Larry
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- Duncan Hodge
- Posts: 1670
- Joined: 26 Dec 2003 1:01 am
- Location: DeLand, FL USA
Congratulations Larry,
I'm getting married on the 22nd of this month. I'm not interested in knowing exactly who owns which one, and I am interested, though, in which serial numbers you have recorded, where the ZB currently resides and about what year and place it was born in. I don't need the email addresses of anyone else. I'm through harassing people and trying to get them to sell me their ZBs, honest. All except for Steve Takacs. I'm resorting to bribery at this point since my threatening and crying like a girl had no effect on him.
Have a beautiful engagement Larry!
Duncan<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Duncan Hodge on 11 May 2004 at 08:02 PM.]</p></FONT>
I'm getting married on the 22nd of this month. I'm not interested in knowing exactly who owns which one, and I am interested, though, in which serial numbers you have recorded, where the ZB currently resides and about what year and place it was born in. I don't need the email addresses of anyone else. I'm through harassing people and trying to get them to sell me their ZBs, honest. All except for Steve Takacs. I'm resorting to bribery at this point since my threatening and crying like a girl had no effect on him.
Have a beautiful engagement Larry!
Duncan<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Duncan Hodge on 11 May 2004 at 08:02 PM.]</p></FONT>
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- steve takacs
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- Duncan Hodge
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- Larry Chung
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- Brad Sarno
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- Location: Middleport, Ohio USA
Brad, I have never had a ZB pick-up potted but I am sure there are some people on this forum that have and can do it. The pick-ups on a ZB usually set right on the top of the guitar, with the magnets and polepieces touching the wood and transfering the noise from the undercarraige. Ant little pedal "creak" or whatever gets heard. What I do on the restorations and rebuilds is this. The undercarraige has to be set up properly and working smooth. I take surgical rubber tubing and put it on the pick-up mounting screws. Actually I use the Fender pick-up tubing...same thing. I also cut a peice of black foam, the size of the pick-up, and put it underneath the pick-up to isolate it from the body. This will dampen alot of the noise you get although won't make the actual pick-up less microphonic. I have used 3 different ZB's in the studio and haven't had any problem with noise while tracking with the stock original pick-ups.
Potting is definetly a good idea and if you are successful with it or find someone that can do it, I am interested. Drop me an email.
Greg
Potting is definetly a good idea and if you are successful with it or find someone that can do it, I am interested. Drop me an email.
Greg
- Brad Sarno
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Greg, I thought about the foam/rubber isolation approach, but it's not just the mechanical noise that's a problem. The microphonic factor will also cause feedback if I use overdrive and play pretty loud. The pickup will howl with feedback. I think I'll give it a shot with the wax potting and I'll let y'all know how it goes.
Also, I'm in the middle of designing a ZB roller-nut upgrade kit. My prototype parts will be here soon. It basically converts the fat roller axle to the thin, Emmons type and uses little cylindrical spacers to fit the small axle to the rollers and the axle holder. This should eliminate the roller friction problem so many of us have. I'll give an update after I give the kit a try.
Brad Sarno
Also, I'm in the middle of designing a ZB roller-nut upgrade kit. My prototype parts will be here soon. It basically converts the fat roller axle to the thin, Emmons type and uses little cylindrical spacers to fit the small axle to the rollers and the axle holder. This should eliminate the roller friction problem so many of us have. I'll give an update after I give the kit a try.
Brad Sarno
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- Larry Chung
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Dear ZB Community:
I was recently contacted by Zane Beck's daughter, Carrie, who has been in contact with Zane's wife Faye. We continue to have a lovely exchange of emails about Zane Beck.
For those of you who are interested in serial numbers and dates of early ZBs - it gives me great pleasure to post a link to a website that Carrie has put together with a complete list of ZBs made in the mid - and early - 1960s. This was the period that Zane owned the company. Here's the link: http://home.comcast.net/~cdmarcone/zb.htm
My deepest thanks to Carrie and to Faye for this valuable information for any of us who love and respect Zane Beck's magnificent musical creations!
All ZBest,
Larry<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Larry Chung on 20 May 2004 at 07:14 AM.]</p></FONT><FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Larry Chung on 20 May 2004 at 07:15 AM.]</p></FONT>
I was recently contacted by Zane Beck's daughter, Carrie, who has been in contact with Zane's wife Faye. We continue to have a lovely exchange of emails about Zane Beck.
For those of you who are interested in serial numbers and dates of early ZBs - it gives me great pleasure to post a link to a website that Carrie has put together with a complete list of ZBs made in the mid - and early - 1960s. This was the period that Zane owned the company. Here's the link: http://home.comcast.net/~cdmarcone/zb.htm
My deepest thanks to Carrie and to Faye for this valuable information for any of us who love and respect Zane Beck's magnificent musical creations!
All ZBest,
Larry<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Larry Chung on 20 May 2004 at 07:14 AM.]</p></FONT><FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Larry Chung on 20 May 2004 at 07:15 AM.]</p></FONT>
- Dave Van Allen
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This is great!!!! Thank you Carrie and Faye!!! Thanks Larry for putting this post up. Takes all the guesswork out of dating the CZB guitars!!!!! As for the location and current owners of these guitars...I have a few.
#1014 was on Ebay awhile back, dont know who got it
#1034--John Borchard
#1037--Greg Jones
#1039--Tom Brumley
#1044--Jonathan Gregg
#1053--Phillip Morgan
#1077--Larry Chung
#1092--Chris Rohde
#1096--Dave Flavin Jr. (I currently have this one for a full restoration}
#1108--Steinar Schroder (I have this one too for restoration)
Keep em comin folks!!! Let us know where these guitars ended up!!!!
Wonderful history here!!!!
Greg
#1014 was on Ebay awhile back, dont know who got it
#1034--John Borchard
#1037--Greg Jones
#1039--Tom Brumley
#1044--Jonathan Gregg
#1053--Phillip Morgan
#1077--Larry Chung
#1092--Chris Rohde
#1096--Dave Flavin Jr. (I currently have this one for a full restoration}
#1108--Steinar Schroder (I have this one too for restoration)
Keep em comin folks!!! Let us know where these guitars ended up!!!!
Wonderful history here!!!!
Greg
- Larry Behm
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- Location: Mt Angel, Or 97362
Brad pop the pickups out, drop 4 large drops of white silicon in the hole and push the pickups down on top of them. You can run a high string and a low string over the pickup to get the height you want.
This works. I got this from the late great Danny Shields, the creator of the ZB pickup. If you take the metal plate off of the bottom it will clean up the sound also, as per Danny.
Larry Behm
This works. I got this from the late great Danny Shields, the creator of the ZB pickup. If you take the metal plate off of the bottom it will clean up the sound also, as per Danny.
Larry Behm
- Brad Sarno
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Thanks for the silicone pickup mounting tip Larry.
ZB Nut Roller Upgrade:
So, the new ZB nut roller experiment seems to work great. I got the parts today and gave it a try. Now the 4th string returns from a lower just right. It used to come back about 6 or more cents sharp and then you could nudge the nut roller a bit and it would come back. The nut rollers just dont roll real well on those fat axles. This new one comes back from a lower only about 1.2 cents sharp which is pretty normal based on the string hysteresis factor. Then if you just pick the string it's back to zero.
The new roller is a skinny 3/32 axle like on an Emmons and probably many others. Then there are 21 little bushings, 3/32" hole on the inside, 3/16" on the outside just like the stock ZB axle. Each bushing is as wide as a roller. I crazy glued a bushing inside of each roller. Then I loaded up the axle alternating with a bushing and a roller/bushing. The bushings sit in the nut, and the rollers spin on the skinny axle but now with far less friction than before due to the increased mechanical advantage that the string now has over the roller. Basic physics. Easy fix. I had a machinist make me that parts on a test run for $20. I bet some steel maker with all the machining tools could make tons of these little bushings for cheap. Better yet would be to find some steel or aluminum tubing that's 3/32" ID and 3/16" OD and then slice them off appropriately. Very simple fix that seems to work flawlessly. Also you'd never notice the change by looking at the guitar unless you look at the end of the axle and see that it's really a bushing with a skinny axle inside. I took some pics and I'll try to post them soon.
Brad Sarno
ZB Nut Roller Upgrade:
So, the new ZB nut roller experiment seems to work great. I got the parts today and gave it a try. Now the 4th string returns from a lower just right. It used to come back about 6 or more cents sharp and then you could nudge the nut roller a bit and it would come back. The nut rollers just dont roll real well on those fat axles. This new one comes back from a lower only about 1.2 cents sharp which is pretty normal based on the string hysteresis factor. Then if you just pick the string it's back to zero.
The new roller is a skinny 3/32 axle like on an Emmons and probably many others. Then there are 21 little bushings, 3/32" hole on the inside, 3/16" on the outside just like the stock ZB axle. Each bushing is as wide as a roller. I crazy glued a bushing inside of each roller. Then I loaded up the axle alternating with a bushing and a roller/bushing. The bushings sit in the nut, and the rollers spin on the skinny axle but now with far less friction than before due to the increased mechanical advantage that the string now has over the roller. Basic physics. Easy fix. I had a machinist make me that parts on a test run for $20. I bet some steel maker with all the machining tools could make tons of these little bushings for cheap. Better yet would be to find some steel or aluminum tubing that's 3/32" ID and 3/16" OD and then slice them off appropriately. Very simple fix that seems to work flawlessly. Also you'd never notice the change by looking at the guitar unless you look at the end of the axle and see that it's really a bushing with a skinny axle inside. I took some pics and I'll try to post them soon.
Brad Sarno
- Dave Zirbel
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- Brad Sarno
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- Dave Zirbel
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Thanks Brad. Does Billy Knowles make a roller nut mod? I thought I saw a thread on this a few months back.
DZ
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Dave Zirbel-
Sho-Bud Super Pro, 8 x 5, ZB Custom D-10 8 x 5, Dobro Cyclops reissue, 1967 Fender Telecaster, Webb 6-14E, Fender Super Reverb
The Mother Truckers
DZ
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Dave Zirbel-
Sho-Bud Super Pro, 8 x 5, ZB Custom D-10 8 x 5, Dobro Cyclops reissue, 1967 Fender Telecaster, Webb 6-14E, Fender Super Reverb
The Mother Truckers
Another one for Larry's archive?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=2384&item=3727485037&rd=1
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=2384&item=3727485037&rd=1