My Little Tribute To Tom Brumley

David Mitchell · Post by **David Mitchell** » 29 Feb 2020 7:33 am

1969 ZB D-11/10 Tom Brumley built in Bakersfield, Ca. while he owned the company. Original song I spontaneously composed while the tape rolled called "Tom's Honky Tonkin'". This ZB was almost impossible to play. The pedals were so stiff they could barely be pressed and the knee levers were so far apart the incredible hulk must have owned it before me. I had to almost stand on my head to move the E lower lever. It is what it is. Killer tone however.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bbl6nJGLHws[/url]

Clyde Mattocks · Post by **Clyde Mattocks** » 29 Feb 2020 6:57 pm

Man, that guitar has the bite. Lovin' it!

Rick Campbell · Post by **Rick Campbell** » 29 Feb 2020 7:47 pm

Looks like that mixture might be too lean, and the prop full rpm?

That guitar does have the tone, shame its so hard to play. Maybe it could be reworked with different springs?

RC

David Mitchell · Post by **David Mitchell** » 29 Feb 2020 9:30 pm

Rick Campbell wrote:Looks like that mixture might be too lean, and the prop full rpm?

That guitar does have the tone, shame its so hard to play. Maybe it could be reworked with different springs?

RC

Thank you Rick! I'm afraid it's too late for that. I gutted it about 3 years ago. I called all the ZB authorities to get a rebuild but all were too busy at the time so I converted it to an all pull with the help of Kevin Hatton and his unique conversion parts. Still good but doesn't have quite the ringing sound as the original.

Larry Dering · Post by **Larry Dering** » 3 Mar 2020 3:55 pm

It sounds great but apparently it was working you to play it.

David Mitchell · Post by **David Mitchell** » 3 Mar 2020 4:48 pm

Larry Dering wrote:It sounds great but apparently it was working you to play it.

It was working me to death to play it and I'm use to playing some real dogs. It's probably because it was so hard to play it had such a great tone. I think all the work a player puts into it contributes to the tone.
Kinda like an upright bass. You can only get out of it what you put into it. They said Stevie Ray Vaughn got some of the best tone ever recorded but pros said they couldn't even play his guitars because the strings were abnormally high and super thick. Part of the tone is all the work.