ZB Pedal Steel Guitars - Please help!

Pat Kelly · Post by **Pat Kelly** » 17 Jan 2005 1:56 am

Further to the above: My LKL raises the 4th- a semi tone. The 3 pedal raises the 4 one tone. Both are on the same action. I am a novice but both are on the same action.......I cannot tune both changes, Am I doing somethng wrong or how should this steel be set up differently? I read this back and it doesn't seem clear but I hope that the guys who will read this know what I'm talking about!!!!!![This message was edited by Pat Kelly on 17 January 2005 at 02:19 AM.]

richard burton · Post by **richard burton** » 17 Jan 2005 12:31 pm

Pat, when you say that the knee lever and pedal are on the same action, do you mean that they are attached to the same pull rod?
There should be two pull rods attached to the 4th string raise finger; one rod linked to the C pedal, and the other rod linked to the knee lever. The knee lever pull rod is hooked to the changer finger in the normal ZB fashion, but it should have a Z bend after the finger, so that it can pass through a hole in the endplate directly under the full tone raise adjusting bolt.
This rod can then be adjusted independently of the full tone raise.
R B[This message was edited by richard burton on 17 January 2005 at 12:36 PM.]

Webb Kline · Post by **Webb Kline** » 18 Jan 2005 12:27 pm

Anybody see the Linkon on ebay? It looks exactly like a ZB with different machines, pickup and fretboard to me. Is that for real?

------------------
MCI D10 8+5, ZB 11/10 8+3 Early 30s Dobro, Harmony Lap Steel, ad infinitum

Chuck McGill · Post by **Chuck McGill** » 18 Jan 2005 4:48 pm

How about the package on ebay with D10 and
a session and seat. Serial 0468.

Kevin Hatton · Post by **Kevin Hatton** » 18 Jan 2005 5:56 pm

How many of you are playing your ZB's out professionally, and what amp are you using?

Dave Zirbel · Post by **Dave Zirbel** » 18 Jan 2005 8:06 pm

Webb 6-14E. Great combo with the ZB.

DZ

Larry Chung · Post by **Larry Chung** » 18 Jan 2005 11:11 pm

Hi Kevin and Dave:

I usually play my ZBs through a Fender Tube Amp - Twin or lately an 80s Fender Concert. The reverb is really great on Fenders, eh?

I also play through a couple of Peaveys, too. An early Session 400 with 2x12s or a more recent Session 400 Limited with a 15" speaker.

Seems like whatever the amp, ZBs sound great. I find that I just need to tweak the EQ ever so slightly to get a great tone from just about any amp.

All ZBest - keep the ZB info coming, too! Thanks to all of you for keeping the post going with great info and stories, too. Thanks, bOb for keeping it running, too.

LC

------------------
Larry Chung
'67 ZB D-10 8+4 (ser. #1077)
'69 ZB S-10 3+4 (ser. #0124)
'70 ZB D-10 8+4 (ser.# 0215)
'71 ZB Custom S-11 4+4 (ser. #0252)

Kevin Hatton · Post by **Kevin Hatton** » 19 Jan 2005 9:40 am

Dave, I also play my ZB through a Webb 614-E.
Tremendous ZB tone.

Brendan Mitchell · Post by **Brendan Mitchell** » 19 Jan 2005 12:10 pm

In reply to Webb Cline on the Linkon on ebay:
looks to me like this guitar has been built using ZB parts.The machine head end has 3 "horns" and the changer end is not finished like a ZB.Underneath is very similar apart from where the pull rods attach to the cross straps.Very interesting.
Brendan

tom anderson · Post by **tom anderson** » 19 Jan 2005 12:56 pm

I have noticed on several pictures of the underside of a ZB that the guitar appears to not have crossrods that are anchored on the front and back rails as do most modern all pull guitars, but have a cross plate that is anchored near the rear rail and pulled either left or right at the front of the guitar by the pedals (sort of a pivot system). Is that a correct reading of the mechanics of the ZB?

Webb Kline · Post by **Webb Kline** » 23 Jan 2005 1:58 pm

Well, I finally got my 11/10 fired up this weekend. Having never heard a ZB before, I took this restoration project on with much anticipation. I really figured it would be a task to get it set up, but to my surprise, it was very close. The knees were right on, the B pedal was right on, A+C were only a bit flat. C pedal doesn't return without rubber band and little things like that. But, overall, I am pleasantly surprised.

I didn't have enough strings at home to finish the C6 neck yet, so I don't know what to expect there, although everything is free on the changer.

Now that I got it shined up, I can hardly stop staring at it. She's a real looker.

But, the tone and power of those pickups are what really knocked me over. This baby is like tone on steroids!

I'm already as happy as a pig in slop with my MCI Waco, but this ZB is an all together different animal. It's like I got a Custom Strat with my MCI and a Les Paul Custom with the ZB. What a fat, warm, yet silvery clear and clean sounding horn. I wish somebody else was here who could play so I could just sit back and listen to it. I feel like my playing distracts from the incredible tone.

Now I know why this is the longest thread on b0b's forum.

Fellas, I'm afraid I've got me a case of the ZBGB's!

------------------
MCI D10 8+5, ZB 11/10 8+3 Early 30s Dobro, Harmony Lap Steel, ad infinitum

Dave Van Allen · Post by **Dave Van Allen** » 23 Jan 2005 4:49 pm

I've had the 'ZB Jeebies™' since 1968, and back then I didn't even know what to call 'em...

Welcome to the Club!!!
------------------

"I've got the 'ZB Jeebies™' !"

"Pickin' it 'old school' on the Pedizzle Stizzle"
1998 Zumsteel U12 "Loafer" 8&6 :: 1973 ZB Custom D-10 8&5 :: Vintage Fender 'Tube' Amplification

www.dvanet.net :: zbcustom73@dvanet.net :: www.lasttrainhome.com
:: My Tribute to the Hot Club of America in Hi-Fi

[This message was edited by Dave Van Allen on 23 January 2005 at 04:51 PM.]

Kevin Hatton · Post by **Kevin Hatton** » 23 Jan 2005 7:34 pm

Congratulations Webb. Thats the same reaction I did when I first got my ZB. Tremendous classic pedal steel tone. Zane Beck really knew what he was doing.

Ben Elder · Post by **Ben Elder** » 24 Jan 2005 3:24 am

Although I've cultivated something of a reputation of a curmudgeon about the endless hassles of getting my Chappaquiddick/Woodstock-era ZB D-10 up and running (and bemoaning the sale of the S-10 that financed this albatross), I decided that atop the list of '05 resolutions would be to get it set up, so learning could commence. I had a furnituremaker friend of mine build a case to replace the foolishly shallow keyboard enclosure it came more or less inside of. (Thought I was gonna barter some koa lumber, but we settled on $250 in cash instead. Oh well. Go find a used ZB D-10 case or even one for that one longer (36"+) Sho-Bud model--Professional?)

I contacted a knowledgeable Forumite about working on it for me and arranged, for reasons of snow on the Interstate route, to drive the longer and lower way through the desert in the Biblical downpour we Southern California heathens enjoyed for our sins a couple of weeks back.

I do a bluegrass radio show...every...Saturday... at...6...bloody...a..m... and enroute there the day of the intended ZB trip, I successfully braked, swerved and dodged a black and blacked-out pickup blocking three lanes of freeway--but not before getting rear-ended myself.

Silver lining: I hadn't yet put the ZB in the car (big-ass Olds 98 Regency, totaled by a Honda--oh, the humiliation!). But the trip up north is indefinitely postponed while insurance red tape is sorted out and until I can get something more distanceworthy than an 86 Astro van I never intended for use for day-to-day driving.

I'm convinced more than ever before that the bargain price I paid for the ZB included the Curse of the Monkey's Paw or Albatross's Talon.

I'd sell it in a second or heave it off a precipitous height to a calamitous hard landing but, as I've said in the past, for all the rapturous praise these beasts are showered with in SGF. (This of course assumes the belief that a ZB like mine can be made into a functioning unit. As blind leaps go, that exceeds the faith in tax cuts to cure a wartime budget deficit; that the Red Sox will ever (wait--that actually happened); or that I can beat the 14,000,000-1 odds against winning the lottery...this week.)

But a handful of you folks swear it's so, and I keep on hoping. There's always 2006--wait till next year.

Webb Kline · Post by **Webb Kline** » 24 Jan 2005 8:56 am

Well, look at it this way Ben; if in the end you conclude it wasn't worth it, you don't have to shoulder the responsibility yourself. You can blame this forum and particularly those of us with the ZBGBs for all of your maladies. You may have to enroll in anger management classes, but at least you won't have to resort to verbal and physical self-flagellence. The anger, of course, could be best resolved by sending the guitar to a needy family back east here in Pennsylvania. Dragging it behind the Astro with a log chain will not put an end to the internal conflict nearly as well as an act of selfless benevolence.

Signed,
The head of a needy family in PA.

------------------
MCI D10 8+5, ZB 11/10 8+3 Early 30s Dobro, Harmony Lap Steel, ad infinitum

Henry Nagle · Post by **Henry Nagle** » 24 Jan 2005 2:07 pm

Hi Ben... You're going to take it to Tom Bradshaw?
Hope you have better luck on you're next journey. I'm sure that you'll be pleased with the guitar once it's up and running.
I sold your old S10 to Chip McConnell is San Francisco. I think he's pretty pleased with it.

Ben Elder · Post by **Ben Elder** » 24 Jan 2005 9:32 pm

Although I've seen an example of Tom's wizardry, I was acutally headed a shorter distance (endless and seemingly unattainable anyway)--to my ZB's (# 0131) likely birthplace: Bakersfield (and Larry Petree).

"sold your old S10 to Chip McConnell is San Francisco. I think he's pretty pleased with it..."

If you find out he's not, someone let me know, OK?

Chip McConnell · Post by **Chip McConnell** » 24 Jan 2005 10:20 pm

Sorry Ben- I traded in my ShoBud Pro II for the ZB and I couldn't be happier. Great to know the lineage of the steel though. Best of luck with your new one-
Chip

Webb Kline · Post by **Webb Kline** » 25 Jan 2005 7:00 am

Got my C6 neck up and running last night. Considering that this guitar looked like it layed in a coal bin for 20 years, I can't believe how well it has stayed adjusted. I virtually made no adjustments to the pedals. It was spot on!

But, I do have a problem. The copedent is not something I am familiar with. 6 and 7 do what they are supposed to, but 4 is setup like the BooWah pedal, 5 is something else and 8 is diconnected.

Anybody know if it is hard to change to copenden on these guitars?

------------------
MCI D10 8+5, ZB 11/10 8+3 Early 30s Dobro, Harmony Lap Steel, ad infinitum

Kevin Hatton · Post by **Kevin Hatton** » 25 Jan 2005 8:44 pm

We did a tsunami releif aid concert this weekend. There are some pretty good shots of my green ZB D-10 if you to www.bbjack.com
Click on the "Scrapbook" tab and go to the first set of pictures. I love that guitar.[This message was edited by Kevin Hatton on 25 January 2005 at 10:01 PM.]

Andrew Buhler · Post by **Andrew Buhler** » 26 Jan 2005 6:21 am

Beautiful instrument, Kevin. Are there any sound samples of the ZB/Webb combination on that website?

Kevin Hatton · Post by **Kevin Hatton** » 26 Jan 2005 9:50 am

Andrew the aren't, but I think that I'm going to post some here. I shoot for the Brumley/Buckaroo tone. I love it.

Duncan Hodge · Post by **Duncan Hodge** » 26 Jan 2005 2:22 pm

Hey guys. The blue/blonde ZB arrives from Kentucky tonight. What a great guy Greg Jones is to deal with. And Andrew...NO!!!, I'm not going to sell you this one too.
Duncan

John Rutledge · Post by **John Rutledge** » 28 Jan 2005 10:33 am

I dug out my steel, cleaned it off, its been sitting there for 15 years, hope it still plays[This message was edited by John Rutledge on 28 January 2005 at 10:37 AM.][This message was edited by John Rutledge on 28 January 2005 at 02:16 PM.][This message was edited by John Rutledge on 28 January 2005 at 02:17 PM.]

Rick Garrett · Post by **Rick Garrett** » 28 Jan 2005 11:07 am

I've sure enjoyed getting to know my dads 68 D10 ZB that I got from Jody Sanders. Thanks Jody for selling me a great guitar. It sounds awesome to my ear.

Rick