The Steel Guitar Forum

Here’s my new ZB. Bought it from Mike DiAlesandro and then took it to
Tommy Cass for a tune up so now she plays as good as she sounds.
Serial # 0528

Replacement and upgraded ZB fretboards are now available. The mis-registry in the graphics of the original fretboards has been corrected with these boards. Check them out at https://www.songwriter.com/bradshaw/fretboards.php.

Here:

https://songwriter.com/bradshaw/fretboards.php

Does anyone fiddle with the allen head screws in the pickups ? I've never really noticed they appear to be adjustable , saying that I've always been pretty happy with my guitar .

Brendan Mitchell wrote:Does anyone fiddle with the allen head screws in the pickups ? I've never really noticed they appear to be adjustable , saying that I've always been pretty happy with my guitar .

I haven't noticed any string-to-string unevenness in volume, so I haven't messed with them. On other guitar pickups, like the Fishman Blackstack (Sunrise clone) I use in an acoustic guitar, they've been a lifesaver.

Thanks Dave . I find it hard to compare volume on different notes ! I think I'll leave well enough alone .

I received these last September or October, moved to Wichita and finally mounted today. The fretbaords came out great and included excellent setup/mounting instructions. Tom, the "windex" trick was great!

The new white board is an an "off-white" or cream (?) and looks alot nicer than the the original white. Also, the fret markers are correct...the old appeared to be a systemic stencil missalignment.

These are made for a 24" scale. Our ZB's have an adjustable nut that will extend out to 24 1/4". I adjusted for 24" and everything lines up great and the frets are accurate.

Great job to Tom Bradshaw!

Tom Jordan

I’m working on one now , looks like smoke to me not rust give it a good cleaning and use a light weight oil.. that’s where I would start.. enjoy you journey

Ben Edmonds wrote:Here’s my new ZB. Bought it from Mike DiAlesandro and then took it to
Tommy Cass for a tune up so now she plays as good as she sounds.
Serial # 0528

That's exactly like my first PSG. Gorgeous.

Richard Sinkler wrote:

Ben Edmonds wrote:Here’s my new ZB. Bought it from Mike DiAlesandro and then took it to
Tommy Cass for a tune up so now she plays as good as she sounds.
Serial # 0528

That's exactly like my first PSG. Gorgeous.

Richard, notice the inlay on the neck. Not many ZB’s had this as far as I can tell?

Mike

You're right. Mine didn't have neck inlay.

Thanks to ZB aficionado Eric Dahlhoff, I'm now the happy caretaker of this 12 string ZB, #1060:




It's been a lot of fun seeing so much of the history of this rig in this 20+ year ZB thread- many prior owners posted info on its journeys around the country. Eric was kind enough to provide a summary, and I found even more details re-reading this thread several times. It's a rare bird that's travelled a lot in its years since leaving Scranton. Per a post by B Greg Jones, it was Invoiced on Feb.11th 1967. Fun to know!

I needed to raise it a bit to fit me, so made some new stainless pedal rods rather than adding more extenders. Eric had the overall set-up dialed in very nicely, so that's all I needed to do to get playing.
It's fun having the low strings on the extended E9. Thanks Eric for the opportunity to be the next caretaker!

Brian,
That's a beautiful guitar, congratulations.

And yes, Eric is a very knowledgeable fella when it comes to ZB guitars, and how to optimize their setup and playability.

Here is a factory SD-11 I have acquired with abalone style inlay. The 11th string is tuned to E, with no changes on it.

Brian, I am so glad you're enjoying that beauty
I think it's the prettiest one I've ever seen. The only reason I sold it is because 12 strings is just too many for my brain

Mike, I've learned some really good info from your various posts about ZB's. The word CUSTOM in the logo is absolutely true! There are so many variations that came from the factory, let alone the 50 years of owner mods.

My 11-string single neck #0456

Thanks Mike and Eric!
The 12 string is a real beauty. The wood has some nice flame and figure, and I love the two tone natural / brown finish and ZB tone.

Mike, your SD-11 is very cool. The faded green has lots of character. Up close, the abalone style inlay must really contrast nicely with the wood. It's cool that it's a factory SD. It sure looks like it's in great shape!

Eric, I love your 11 string too! Really nice work on the refinish and rebuild. It looks really sharp!. I'm definitely having fun with the 12 string. I'm not sure my brain can handle it either- but I'm pretty determined! I sure appreciate how nicely you have it set-up, and its's been great learning ZB info from you!

Before purchasing Eric's ZB -12, I spent a lot of time reading through this amazing thread, and became more and more intrigued by Zane Beck's unique design. Both of you have been regular contributors, and I sure appreciate how freely you and others here have shared your wealth of information. While I've been playing music for a long time, I'm pretty new to playing PSG, and this forum has been an invaluable learning resource. bOb's work in creating and nurturing the forum is a remarkable accomplishment, and it's great that his legacy continues thanks to all that are involved in keeping it going!

A nice S-10 I had and sold long ago.

That's a beauty Russ!

Welcome me to the ZB Club! I bought Mike D'Allesandro's SD 11 above. I was hoping someone could tell me it's build year. It has serial number 0661.


Thanks!

Jim

ttt

still hoping someone is surfing the Forum and can help me with serial number dating...


jim

Hi Jim, check out the date/serial number info in page 94 of this thread - especially the Jones, Bloomfield and Hatton posts. Extrapolating from the import record post info, and the comments that the Bakersfield numbers got into the 600’s before the move to Texas, it seems like your 0661 may have been built around 1976-77? There’s also other posts in this thread with bits of date/serial info that might help to narrow the likely build year of yours. Nice rig!

Does anybody know if there's a way to archive this thread so I can pull it up and search through the whole thing all at once?

There's a bunch of great info and tips on posts and replies all throughout that I've found from scrolling through random pages but have no way of knowing how to get back to them.

I have a Mac, and use Safari browser. I've been able to open each page of the thread, then from the Mac menu bar use File>Export as PDF to save the entire page. You have to repeat this for each page, so it takes a while. Labeling each saved page by page number helps to navigate through it.

I suppose the saved page files could all be grouped into a multipage single PDF document from there using Adobe Acrobat, and possibly re-paginate so that it could be printed, but I don't have Acrobat and haven't tried it. This ZB thread is an amazing source of info!

My personal ZB that I built. New mechanics. I've played and owned many types of guitars. For me, it doesn't get any better than this

This one showed up sad and neglected… Playing and sounding nicely … I've never seen a ZB with this inlay, looks more like an early Sho~Bud Professional cabinet.