An Ex Gordon Huntley Guitar For Sale???

[Ken Byng]

That blue is almost pantone blue Bob. (Pic below on a colour swatch).

I bought a brand new blue ZB D10 that I wrongly called a Zed Bee at first, and Eric got it in his shop a few weeks after Gordon's arrived. The blue of that guitar would have been vegetable colouring, and from memory it was a darker blue than the lovely pantone colour that you refinished Gordon's old guitar in. I didn't take any colour photos of my ZB - all black and white I'm afraid. I remember that it had beautiful birds-eye maple. It was damaged by a careless bloke in a social club that I played in, so I ordered a replacement custom sunburst guitar through Eric that Zane made specially for me. It was a beauty, but didn't quite have that Nashville tone that was popular at the time. A couple of years later, and Johnny Edmed made me an offer I couldn't refuse and gave me a D10 Pro 111 Custom Sho~Bud in order to promote it. John also bought the blue ZB from me.

Frank's refurbed Huntley guitar is a stunner.

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[Uncle Roy]

FRANK AND HIS ZB.

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[steveman747]

Wow, what a great topic guys. Thanks for the replies.

[paulgasman]

Your sort of right about it being one of Gordons guitars, Bills daughter Caz and her mum told me that it was one of Gordons steels that he sold to his pal Bill.
The Governor had many instruments banjos, guitars not just steels. the old Rose Morris what happened to that one and the purple Z B double neck a beautiful guitar.
As for the brown one in the museum i think is listed as in storage, thats a shame.

[paulgasman]

My guess is that its one of the steels that Gordon bought to sell on. He sold me 2 in the 80s that he had bought, set up, had a little play with and moved on.
It was very difficult to pick one up cheap enough to make a quick profit, no internet, no ebay, it was the exchange and mart and ads magazine era,
But he seemed to find them. My mentor, my friend and my hero.

[Ken Byng]

My guess is that its one of the steels that Gordon bought to sell on. He sold me 2 in the 80s that he had bought, set up, had a little play with and moved on.
It was very difficult to pick one up cheap enough to make a quick profit, no internet, no ebay, it was the exchange and mart and ads magazine era,
But he seemed to find them. My mentor, my friend and my hero.

The ZB Student guitar below that Steven referred to is now sold on eBay. I sold shedloads of ZB Students for Eric Snowball when I was one of his agents. My only problem was getting commission out of him when I sold guitars. All ZB guitars that entered the UK were imported solely by Eric, and the one below would have been one of Eric's imports. Most UK ZBs ran through Gordon's hands at Eric's shop first and any that weren't already done were reconfigured to the 'Day' pedal and lever setup before being sold on by the various agents. Eric had several Student ZBs when he decided to pull the plug on importing ZB because the ZB brand had ceased to be manufactured in the States. There must be a good few of those Student guitars under beds or in sheds to this day. Eric later bought the odd SD10 Legrande Emmons guitar from the infamous Ron Lashley Jnr, who went out of business after failing to comply with orders.

[paulgasman]

Thanx for the reply Ken, Eric not paying you haha that rings a bell. and my he could be a bit surly at times, but he loved the steel guitar. and what a successful business man.
i saw him not too long before he closed the shop, the Emmons was still set up in his shop. nothing else just the Emmons and 4 walls. the shop has now been converted into flats. ill try to find out from Caz or her mum when Bill bought it from Gordon but my guess is that we probably wont find out where Gordon got it from, unless someone comes forward with he bought that from me, for sure he would have set it up nicely for Bill he was the master.
Regards Paul

[Ken Byng]

Thanx for the reply Ken, Eric not paying you haha that rings a bell. and my he could be a bit surly at times, but he loved the steel guitar. and what a successful business man.
i saw him not too long before he closed the shop, the Emmons was still set up in his shop. nothing else just the Emmons and 4 walls. the shop has now been converted into flats. ill try to find out from Caz or her mum when Bill bought it from Gordon but my guess is that we probably wont find out where Gordon got it from, unless someone comes forward with he bought that from me, for sure he would have set it up nicely for Bill he was the master.
Regards Paul

Actually Paul - Eric was a pivotal person in my life for various reasons. I met Jeff Beck through Eric and John Paul Jones from Led Zep was another guy that I met through him too. I didn't meet Gordon until many years later, and was never quite sure why Eric passed all of his steel set-ups over to Gordon, as Eric was an extremely competent steel tech in his own right. I guess it was a time thing, because Eric had his fingers in many pies.

I did a gig near Newbury years ago, and a young guy approached me in the interval and had dozens of Gordon's steel album collection for sale. Many were very rare. It transpired that the young guy was Gordon's son, and I ended up buying the whole collection from him.

[paulgasman]

Nice to reminisce Ken, my father worked on occasions for Eric so i met him when i was a youngster, the first time i met him he was wearing an expensive sheepskin coat and proceeded to wipe his nose on the sleeve and then asked someone if they had any baccy for a roll up. funny the things that stick in your mind, the last time that i saw him was when he was moving out of the shop and the very last thing he asked me was how to read his electric meter lol, he was a very clever man, a self made man, a one off. i think ahead of his time. how nice to have Gordons record collection, bet you couldnt believe your luck. ive still got things that Gordon gave me which i will never give away or sell, very precious to me. Gordon was my hero and it was through Eric that i met him so i owed him big time. so nice to remember Gordon and Eric
Regards Paul

[FRANK BLOOMFIELD]

Here's some photo's of when Gordon bought the blue ZB from Eric at the old shop in the Broadway ,Maidstone
back in the early '70's, '71 if I remember correctly, it actually came over from the States with the Emmons
set up as I assume by his foot position, It was the first ZB D-10 Eric imported , serial number # 0189 but not the first ordered, that was 'nicked at the American airport, I have all the photo's taken one this momentous day and the negatives courteously given to me by Eric when we called in to see him on the way back to Corfu, hope you like 'em !

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