The Steel Guitar Forum

Dave, did you have any trouble balancing the pulls with the Kline setup?

No trouble, it's a lot easier to dial in the balanced pulls but still takes a few trys to get it. You simply loosen the hex screw and adjust the rods, basically guessing/hit and miss. I found the turnbuckles near the changer really made it tricky to make adjustments. Next time I come down to the central cost to visit family I will give you a shout and bring it along (if time allows). Maybe I'll bring the Kline too so you can see.

That would be cool. I noticed Michael Yawl over at PSG parts has hex cross shafts available on his website. Have you looked at any of the stuff that is already available?

Here are some pics of the finished ZB conversion. I used the yolk type on E9th and the spring P/P type on the C6th. The reason I used the Kline type yolk on E9th is because how low the pulls are on changer in cabinet. I also turned the bell cranks upside down on the pedals to get a straighter pull which made the pedals feel really good. Guitar sounds awesome and plays and stays in tune really good. Tuning on C6th is a little tricky but not that hard and also was a little tricky getting E9th pulls timed but the yolks work perfect. Guitar has no cabinet drop that you can see on a tuner. I put pedal stops on C6th and plan to put them on E9th even thought the pedals feel great, I think stops would make them more positive. The guitar isn't hard to change setups and I think is a big improvment over the old ZB crossbar undercarriage.

This was a major job in that some was trial and error but think I found a working solution that will be a lot easier to do if there is a next time. I also moved the pedals over one to left as ZB pedals were sorta in center. I also replaced the aluminum bars on front and back of guitar. The cross bars are pinned in the end with a spring so easy to remove or change. Just remove piece of formica on rear apron and you have access.

I own a ZB D10. I'll send you the serial # ,info and pics shortly. Thanks JDS

Played my ZB (in pics above)out Friday and Saturday night and really surprized me at how well it played and sounded. It stayed in tune all night and the tone to me is really bright compared to my P/P. I had to take some highs off amp. Tone was chrystal clear. My RNR is a little stiff so going to work on that. It does have pedal noise coming thru pickups but not noticable when playing with band.Over all played great.

Hey Guys got a question for you about the E9 neck on my ZB. When I raise my E (4th String) using either the C pedal or knee lever it returns sharp. Now if I lower the E afterwards with the other lever it returns to correct pitch. It seems like the changer or a rod is getting hung up. Any of you guys run into this?

This is present on a lot of the original changers. Part of the problem with the original guitar design. You can lessen it to some extent with adjusting the return spring, but on some guitars you just can't eliminate it.

Thanks for the info Kevin,
Josh

Josh,
Lift the 4th string off the roller nut at the headstock end, and check that the nut is free to turn.

Lubricate it and work it until it turns freely.

That will help, but in most cases will not eliminate the inherent hysterisis nature of the changer design.

Since I did the conversion on my ZB, everything comes back as true as can be. My ZB undecarraige may be a little crude in a few aspects but works very well. If I had to do another, I could do it slick as a button now after doing one. As I said above, a lot of trial and error.

There is an interesting ZB for sale here on the forum.

http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopi ... 04#2051004

The changer & underside are really different. Can anyone shed some light on it's history?
Eric

Not original ZB changer.

That guitar was built sometime in 1965. The changer is original for that guitar, I have seen others like it including Tom Brumley's 1st ZB. Everything on the guitar appears to be original with the exception of at least one or possibly two of the knee levers. They are ZB levers but from a later era in the 60's. This is kinda a rare bird and would make a great project for somebody at that price.

Greg

There doesn't appear to be any turnbuckles, so it looks like you would have to disconnect each rod & screw it in or out of the changer, and then re-attach it. No bike spokes needed.
It's fun to see the evolution of various designs of PSG.

Josh when I sent you the email I should have said to lube the changer. Very little tension on that return and the finger should move freely. It fixed my Scranton with the same issue. Like I said I lube weekly now.

Hey guys, I found out what was hanging up. It turned out to be the tuning nut that was getting hung up as it went through the end plate holes. The tapped hole in the tuning nut wasn't perfectly straight and the inside threads were wearing through to the outside of the nut. I ended up replacing it with a nut from the C6 neck that wasn't being used. Thanks for all the info everyone.

If those tuning nuts are in a bind and rubbing the sides of endplate, they can cause tuning issues and the answer isn't more oil. The little screw end that holds the tuning nuts can be carefully bent while in place to make tuning nuts pull straight in to eliminate the problem. Be careful, they can break.

My 2nd string half stop is a little sharp. Where do I tune this?

thanks,
Joe

Do you have a half stop adjustment or just using 9th string lower as half stop? Some have half stop adjustments sorta looks like a SHo-Bud barrel. If it is 9th string then thats another can of worms.

I have a half stop adjustment.

I would just make sure your whole tone lower is tuned and then adjust your half stop for the half tone lower.

Does anyone have a picture of that half stop mechanism?