The Steel Guitar Forum

Thanks Greg, thats a nice compliment coming form you.

We are snowed in here in SC and I've been playing this ZB constantly for several days. I really have it dialed in now, its playing like butter and is very accurate.
I'm sort of a collector of amps. I've tried the ZB with many including Peavey LTD 400 one with a D130 one with a BW, 1959 Fender Twin with Jensen p12's, Sho Bud christmas Tree and Single Channel both with D130's, Standel UL100 and 80L15 both with JBL K130's, 1968 Fender Twin with D120's and the amp that suits it best is a 1966 Twin with Weber F150's. Its a match made in heaven.
Here's a couple of photo of my knee lever install. The hardest part was making the turn buckles. I only had a drill press so center drilling a 7/64" hole thru 1/4" stock took a few try's. I drilled 9 to get 2 that were acceptable. I ordered the LH tap and die online. Drilling the 1/16" holes thru the 1/8 rods proved to be very easy, I just center punched the rod and then drilled them, no problem
I got all the parts from Greg Jones except the aluminum bracket mounted on the rear skirt, I got that from Billy Knowles.
I need to repair the two holes left over from the old LKL, does anyone have any suggestions?

Mike

Yeah, ZB's love Fender amps.

Very clean underside. This is a perfect example of what a properly setup and cleaned ZB should look like. It makes a world of difference. Excellent job. You can't beat that ZB tone.

Mike I'm glad to hear your satisfied with the ZB. Probably one I should have kept but the Day set-up is not for me. You and the steel sound great!

Thanks Chuck,

No one could ever accuse you of overstating the condition of a guitar you have for sale. I don't think this guitar had more than a few hours playing time on it. It's very close to a new guitar. I fought the urge to just leave it alone because it was completely original and in nearly new condition, but decided to go ahead and add some knees and make it comfortable to play for myself because it sounds so good.
I'm going to do my best to make the added knee levers look like original equipment.
Thanks again for selling me this guitar and I hope you daughter is enjoying her car.

Mike

I believe this is the steel that is for sale in the for sale section Here. It was for sale or trade a while back. Looks to be in nice shape and it reminds me of the one from the Tom Cattin' album cover. Looks like a good clean one if you're searching for a ZB.

Russ



















Looks almost as good as mine ...thanks Chuck!

Your very welcome Russ. Is that a Greg sticker on the underside of this steel? If so that would make this an
extra good buy. Wonder what the serial is?

This one just sold in the for sale section SN# 1076 (1967) D-10, 8x3 but I thought I'd add the pictures to the thread. Looks like a nice one to play or restore.

Another nice D-11/10 for you who might want one. This one is 8x3 and is for sale on ebay Here
















Someone bring this one home or send it to Greg...I think he needs the work!

Here is Ben Elders Old D11 in process of rebuild and finish. Marv Pfleuger is kickin butt on the finish and
inlay. Here it is with no clear coat.

Very nice Chuck!

Thanks Russ. I can't wait to get it home after Greg Jones does his thing.

Bee-You-Tee-Full!!!

Thanks Duncan. I am ready to play this sucker but it will be a little while.

D-10 ZB Custom #0330 has made its way to Portland, and I’m loving it! It sounds amazing and plays wonderfully.

Scott Hiestand sold it to me, and it arrived from Connecticut almost in tune. I got it tuned up and played it for a while, then I adjusted the pedal heights. I was tuning the changes when I noticed that RKL, which lowers the D# to D, was returning sharp. So I lubed almost everything up. It still returned sharp. I backed off the return spring significantly, until it returned flat, then tightened it until the lever returned to pitch (thanks, Kevin Hatton, who posted this advice somewhere around page 60). Then I noticed that the D was sharp, so I backed out the tuning bolt at the endplate. I backed it out until it wasn’t touching the endplate, and the D was still sharp. RKL also lowers the C to B on my back neck, and that change was perfectly in tune, so I had a look at the undercarriage. The linkage that connects the lever to the changers has a solid rod on the C6 side, and a tunable rod on the E9 side. I fiddled with the turnbuckle for a while, and got the D in tune. However, then the D# resumed its little trick of returning sharp. I had backed off the return spring just about all the way, so I didn’t want to mess with that anymore. What I did was to adjust the lever return stop so that the D# would be in tune, and my problem was solved!

Then I noticed that my 8th string lower was not returning at all. The return spring was catching on the adjacent 7th string return spring. Since I don’t change the 7th string, I moved that return spring more to the side of the pull bar, instead of directly under it. Voilá! Another thing taken care of.

Later, I discovered that my 6th string lower was not returning unless I subsequently pressed the B pedal. There would be a metallic “click,” and after releasing the B pedal, the string would be at pitch. Okay, start with the easy fix: I lubricated the lowering tuner at the endplate, and it returned silently and easily.

I must say that the process of getting everything in order has taught me so much about the guitar. Fortunately, it has a good setup already—Billy Knowles went through it sometime around 2002, and there are no major issues as a result (it helped that the previous owners obviously knew enough about ZBs to leave well enough alone…). I need to do some work on the 10th string lower; there doesn’t seem to be enough tension on the pull rod to lower the string. Since I’ve never had a lower on the 10th string, I don’t miss it, so I’ll probably leave well enough alone myself until I get some more familiarity with the whole system.

I changed the first string on the C6 neck to an 0.011 and raised it from D to G, because the copedent is old school (5+1), and I wanted a fifth on top inversion. After adjusting the raise tuner slightly, it was perfect. Now I have to learn to play on C6….
[/img]

Congratulations on your guitar. As you can see, owning an original ZB is like owning a classic Jaguar. You really have to know how to tweek them. Which is why we upgraded the mechanics for the new Retro Custom ZB's. No more return problems, with quick change bell crank mechanics for ease of set up change while maintaining the original tone.
You can see the advantage having having a new system that eliminates all the maintenance. www.retrosteelguitar.net

Beautiful guitar Jeremy. ZBs are easy to love once the
set up is done. they stay in tune and at string change
lock to pitch better than any guitar I know.

Man, that is nice, I'm jones'n for another one.

I have struggled with this guitar for years, finally had my friend Carson Wells gut it out and put EMCI mechanics in it.
Still I struggled and finally went to playing Universal and got a PP Emmons 12 string Universal which I thought was the end of the road the tone search.
The ZB has sat in the closet until I figured hell I might as well sell it along with all the amps that I don't use.
A guy wanted it for $1400 and I got it out put new strings on it and worked out all the bugs.... tuned it up.
The guy decided against buying it and it was sitting out so I hauled it out to the Monday night jam along with my Peavey LTD and all I can say is it is no longer for sale...
This guitar has Fantastic tone and is a dream to play.

Hi Larry and All ZB fans,

Just bought from SGF member Loren Bayles this little early ZB Custom S-10 serial# 234S with 3 pedals and one knee lever..Its my first psg and it hasn't even arrived in the mail yet. I'm sure I will be back for tips and tricks as it seems these guitars have a special place in the hearts and history of lots of players..Thanks what a great resource you guys and the SGF are.
Mick

Took the D-10 '69 ZB and the Webb out with Commander Cody last evening. Wow! What a sound. No gizmos. Just a little spring reverb and a JBL, volume pedal and steel. Pure tone! I've been avoiding double necks lately because of the weight but I needed the back neck for this gig and was really diggin' it.

Thought I should post to keep this thread going.

dz

You need to get those split cases from what I read on the forum.

Actually I have them.....
They really work great but I get lazy sometimes and don't want one more thing to carry. Pathetic, isn't it?

Well, us older guys have earned the right to carry as little as possible. Look at me, I'm so lazy I don't even play out!

Here's another good ZB if you need one! 8+3 Buy it now $1500. Looks like a deal. Just a heads up to you ZB nuts! Based on the Serial number 0159 I'd say 1970.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-1968-ZB-Cus ... 490wt_1139