The Steel Guitar Forum

Hi, First I am so sorry for continually asking questions on steels but it seems to me the best way forward for now. Has anyone heard the ZUM ENCORE yet and if so how does it compare with the STAGE ONE ; is there any sound tracks yet?

James,

The Zum Encore is a profession model single neck guitar with a triple raise/triple lower changer. The setup can be changed easily. The tone and pedal action of this guitar is second to none. (Including my Zum Double Ten). This is truly an outstanding guitar for the price. CALL DOUG!

got one on order for a client here
can't wait for it to get here so i can get to know more bout the critter

In my estimation, if the Encore plays, sounds & records as well as my Stage 1 & has the added changeable copedant, it is well worth the money. I assume this steel will also be nearly as light as and will include that well-built case as the Stage 1. Doug has really come up with an amazing value for money pedal steel. stevet

Here is one in dark woodgrain headed for France
Sorry for the "quickie" pictures and messy shop. It's pretty hectic around here these days, and I'm grateful for that.

Dang Doug, that is beautiful!

Doug , what colors will the Encore be in besides red, black and the wood grain?
Thanks, stevet

Doug, Can we hear the sound of this good looking instrument,and preferably without any RV2's or 3's please. Every success to you with these wonderful guitars. YOURS AYE JAMES TAYLOR

Steve, I'm thinking keeping the color selection fairly simple will be the best thing. I would like to have some more of the teal that I used to get, it really makes a sharp looking guitar.

James, you really don't want to hear me play. Trust me. These do seem to have an incredible amount of sustain. I'll see if I can get one of the guys around here that can actually play to make a sound demo.

Doug,
I understand but if you get in any teal, please let me know. Like to order a C6 Encore in Teal
Thanks, steve

You got C6?

KP

Any photos of one of the (older) teal guitars available to post? Thanks.
John

Nice looking - I'd sure like to see silver colored end plates though personally. Otherwise I am also waiting for some sound samples.

Yes Dave, shiny endplates would be nice. They would also cost a lot more. I've always said that shiny costs a lot of money no matter what you put it on.

I use cast aluminum endplates and finding a foundry to pour them from the right alloy for polishing without getting pits in them is pretty hard to do. Even powder coating cast plates in a silver color is not really a viable option because when the powder coat is sprayed on there will be little bubbles where the pits are. I can get them painted and baked in a silver color but they really don't look very good. We did a few and decided that all in all the baked on textured black polyester is better and more durable.

The other option is to machine the endplates out of a solid block of aluminum like most other companies do so as to have a perfect surface for polishing. The cost adds up pretty quickly and there is some school of thought that the sound quality may suffer. I can't say that I know enough to agree with that or not. If I wanted to build a more expensive guitar I would probably go that route but lots of other people sell those.

Or we could do it like ShoBud and others used to - polish it pits and all. From four feet away they look pretty good. I'm afraid that buyers today won't settle for that.

The Encore is designed to be a high performance economy guitar for people to play day in and day out, not so much of a work of art.

Jon, I remembered this post last night and snapped a picture of my teal Stage One. I frequently get compliments on the color and sound. (There aren't many pedal steels in my playing circles).


Doug, I like the looks of the new Encore. I love the teal, but that dark wood grain is pretty slick looking too!

Hope to hear some sound samples from someone that picked one up soon!

Yeah, Tom, that is the color I want!!! Hope Doug can find more of that formica.
steve t

Thanks for posting the photo, Tom. I believe you that you get lots of good comments on that teal color!
John

YES, That teal does look real nice. James Taylor

That's a sweet looking teal steel, Tom. I also use a Morley Little alligator for volume/expression. I think it s a completely underrated pedal. If adjusted according to the output of your amp, the Little alligator provides a great deal of flexibility and control. Doesn't mess with the sound either.
Cool set up you got there,
-Dan

Doug Earnest wrote:Yes Dave, shiny endplates would be nice. They would also cost a lot more. I've always said that shiny costs a lot of money no matter what you put it on.

I use cast aluminum endplates and finding a foundry to pour them from the right alloy for polishing without getting pits in them is pretty hard to do. Even powder coating cast plates in a silver color is not really a viable option because when the powder coat is sprayed on there will be little bubbles where the pits are. I can get them painted and baked in a silver color but they really don't look very good. We did a few and decided that all in all the baked on textured black polyester is better and more durable.

The other option is to machine the endplates out of a solid block of aluminum like most other companies do so as to have a perfect surface for polishing. The cost adds up pretty quickly and there is some school of thought that the sound quality may suffer. I can't say that I know enough to agree with that or not. If I wanted to build a more expensive guitar I would probably go that route but lots of other people sell those.

Or we could do it like ShoBud and others used to - polish it pits and all. From four feet away they look pretty good. I'm afraid that buyers today won't settle for that.

The Encore is designed to be a high performance economy guitar for people to play day in and day out, not so much of a work of art.

Would it possible to have the end plates chrome plated? I would be willing to have it done myself if you think it would look and sound good. I'm thinking about selling my Stage One to order one the new Encore models.

Clinton, in order to have chrome plating looking like you expect chrome plating to look like, you have to polish the substrate to perfectly smooth. Chrome plating just makes the shiny permanent, because chrome is HARD. If you want chrome over aluminum to look like that mirroresque that you think of as chrome, you'll have to have the aluminum shining like a mirror.
If you take basic matte-finish aluminum straight from the foundry and chrome-plate it, you'll have a hard as steel (well, harder than that) matte-finish.
Like Doug said, shiny is expensive to install, it takes time and grind.
A standard Zum already has lots of polished surfaces, and the friend of mine with a chrome plated Zum said it cost him $500 more than regular shiny aluminum.

I think if you wanted a shiny Stage One or Encore, you're kinda missing the point of an economy steel. I think I'd buy one with black hardware and have it made shiny once I got it.

EDIT: after rereading your post, yeah, you mentioned that. Just buy one, remove the hardware, have the black blasted off, have it polished shiny and then have the shiny chromed. But it sounds like putting a 64-bit soundcard in a Commodore 64)

You can polish it as shiny as you want but there will still be tiny pits in the cast metal, which is the root cause of the reason for not polishing them or plating them. As someone said regarding one of the great old famous steel guitar brands - you could polish those endplates until they were gone before you would get rid of all the pits. That company sold more steel guitars than any other company before or since.

A certain amount of pitting is not necessarily a defect, and yes for the right price you can still get certain foundries to pour the correct metal alloy for polishing and hopefully they will also have the skill to pour the metal in such a way that there will not be pits. I understand that this process is somewhat of a black art. None of the foundries in my area seem to want that work anymore unless you want them to do a very large quantity (like about a thousand sets of endplates). I usually have about 150 sets poured.

Thanks to all!

I don't need shiny but I sure do like shiny I was just spitballing so to speak.

Cheap idea that might work for endplates: Remove endplates; apply glue (Thinking contact cement, but it's rather unforgiving, so other adhesives might be better); stretch one of those Mylar balloons with the chrome-looking appearance over them, smoothing out any wrinkles; stick them good (perhaps roll them down?); reinstall endplates.

Can't find the Encore at the Zum site?