ZB Universal, Serial #001.

A friend gave me an old ZB in payment for some work I had done on his regular guitar. It was a 'basket case', with most of the undercarriage having been removed. It had sat around my shop for a few years, until another friend saw it and put the pressure on it to build it up for him. Fortunately, the cabinet, neck, tuning key block, pickup and endplates were not damaged. I did have the cabinet and neck refinished, but did not disturb the original staining of the wood. These old ZBs had spectacular cabinetry.

I chose to install an MSA changer in it. That required the making of a much different changer holder that would accept thinner bridge (fulcrum/cam) pieces. I machined those, as well as a new bridge block. All hardware for the undercarriage was hand-made (when viewing the pictures, blow up the undercarriage to reveal the customized bellcranks). I also hand-crafted a ball-bearing nut roller (three, actually, before I got it right)... 28 pieces of metal, not counting the 12 hand-grooved rollers! (am I nuts, or what?!?)

When 'finished' I discovered that the guitar detuned badly. Note the 'Rhodes strut' that runs the full length of the cabinet's underside, just behind the front apron. This is a 1" X 1/2" stainless steel bar that I secured to the cabinet at each end. I then rigged an expansion bolt under its middle and 'jacked' it out, creating considerable opposing stress on the cabinet. The detuning problem was solved!

I placed a universal tuning on the guitar, ala Jeff Newman's creation. That included 8 floor pedals (one more than Newman's copedent calls for), along with the standard 4 lateral and 1 vertical knee levers. The ZB sound was not affected by all these modernizing additions. It ended up playing better than I expect it would; in fact, 'smooth as silk' says the owner.

The guitar's serial number (#001) is a bit misleading. I felt that this guitar had not been a Zane Beck creation. I suspected that Tom Brumley built it after he bought the company from Zane. I discussed this with Tom who agreed that he probably did build it at his shop in Bakersfield. He and I concluded that the guitar was likely a 1970's model and was the first single-12 he had made (which explains the '001' serial number). A Sierra case was obtained for it. Special blocks were installed to allow it to 'fit like a glove' inside it. The legs, pedal bar, and pedal rods were locked in special brackets inside the upper case lid.

The buyer, bruce linde, still has the guitar and welcomes inquiries about it. It is one of several I have built up for bruce.