What Kevin said is true, true, true. Make sure you change your strings, oil and lube, and then check the return spring, in that order (IMO), to get the best performance from your lower lever and an in-tune return.

I'm always astounded at how much maintenance can be avoided on ZBs by just changing the strings and oiling up.

Still looking for contact info for the Beck clan, too.

I am now a ZB Custom owner. Found one about 15 miles from my house. It is the one that was on Ebay a few days ago. Got down to the last day or so and the owner decided to pull it off and we agreed on a price and I bought it home. It is a D10 8/2 that once was blue but has faded. Beautiful maple. All original and in very nice shape with the original case. Pot date code is 1968 but the serial number is a bit odd according to LC. 00781. We are not sure about the number 1 on the end. Definatly a Bakersfield guitar.

I saw you checking out David's Sho~Bud! Shame on you....looked good!

All I gotta say is... "Testify!"

Been playing my D-10 lately and compared it to the sound of my S-10 and S-11. It's the same tone!!!

All ZBest to you all -

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"I've got the 'ZB Jeebies™' !"

"Pickin' it 'old school' on the Pedizzle Stizzle"
1998 Zumsteel U12 "Loafer" 8&6 :: 1973 ZB Custom D-10 8&5 :: '69 Thinline Tele RI :: Vintage Fender 'Tube' Amplification

www.dvanet.net :: zbcustom73@dvanet.net :: www.lasttrainhome.com
:: My Tribute to the Hot Club of America in Hi-Fi
::A Zumsteel Picture Gallery:: A ZBCustom Picture Gallery

quote:

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Been playing my D-10 lately and compared it to the sound of my S-10 and S-11. It's the same tone!!!

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I didn't mean for what I wrote to be interpreted as "one guitar sounds better than another". What I meant to say was that they all share the same tone - in the same way as a '54 Tele sounds alot like a '55 Tele, and so forth.

To be sure, I have my favorite ZB on any given day, but whether it's an S-10, S-11 or D-10 (I have at least one of each these days...), they all have that unmistakeable ZB-ness to them. Incidentally, the overall tone, sustain, string definition, and voice is pretty amazing on my '67 D-10, but the '69 S-10 is heads and shoulders above my other 70s D-10.

I don't know if I can make the statement about body size and "better sound" - I just haven't found that to be the case all of the time.

But I hope this will not keep any of you away from your ZBs. (;

I've seen black (with and without holes on the edges) and white (with holes on the edges) pickup tops. Is there any timeline that these suggest? Any reason for the holes? Were black and white used interchangeably?

Was the ZB decal/sticker on the pedal bar a later (later than Bakersfield, let's say) addition?

Is the patterning seen here on on the endplates and metal parts a factory or after-factory touch?

[This message was edited by Ben Elder on 24 April 2006 at 06:35 PM.]

Larry, I suppose that it's not a hard and fast rule. I have some same-model lap steels in both 6-string and 10-string, and the 6-string guitars sound noticably better than the 10 stringers. By the same token, I have a D-12 guitar, that I've done a lot of work to and it doesn't sound anywhere near as good as it should, but then, I built a close-tolerance single neck 9-string pedal guitar, where the neck and the console were machined as a single unit. It sounded better than I thought it should have.

[This message was edited by chas smith on 24 April 2006 at 06:28 PM.]

I would have like to have gotten it, but I'm looking at the experience as a "parity". Last year I "snagged" a guitar out the "back door" of a pawn shop, and there were some unhappy people. ZB has restored the balance of the universe.