ZB Custom Rebuild

[Steely Steve]

Just purchased a ZB Custom 10 string 3 + 4 after 30 years absence from playing Pedal.
Ripped it apart and rebuilding it now.
Any tips for re fitting rods back in. They were almost tied in a knot when I picked it up.
Sounds stunning - serial number 294S think it's around the 80's has Blue Plastic top, white pick up and Klusons side mounted to plastic top..

[Tony Russell Davis]

Try to balance the pulls so they bottom out together (or nearly). They might not attach at equal distances from the fulcrum (where it fixes to the cross-strap) and/or each fulcrum might not attach at it's middle to the cross-strap. The rods need not all be parallel and you could well end up with them looking very untidy - that's ok so long as they move without binding. The plastic top sounds like the ZB Student. Best of luck.

[Steely Steve]

Hi Tony,
Thanks for the heads up. Yes very tricky to make it look good, OCD kept me up all night on this one. I removed 3 of the Knee levers for now as they look like they have been retro fitted and don't have the same rod fulcrums.Managed to get pedals and one knee lever working, need fined tuned and settled in then will work out the other levers..
Not the best of systems but niether was my old Rotosound either. I think they only made 250 of them. It had a carburettor spring from an Austin A 40 to keep that in tune ha ha.. You can't be far from me, I am in Northallerton. We could meet for a coffee or if your in town, you can pop in and shoot the breeze over the ZB.
Best wishes,
Steve

[Zebedee]

If you are pulling two strings with one lever, then a swivelling yoke (arrowed red in the photo) needs to be used on the lever cross-shaft, to ensure both tuning bolts bottom out on the endplate.
The blue arrow indicates how NOT to do it

[Tony Russell Davis]

Hi Steve - sent you a pm the other day. BTW, Richard is a whizz on ZBs, his brains are worth picking. Tony.

[mick hearn]

ZB Student.
So you got the blue one then. I picked up a red ZB student about 4 years ago. Someone had painted over the metal work with black paint and it looked horrible. I spent some time removing all this and then worked on it for over a week polishing up the aluminium frame. Had no fingerprints after a few days of rubbing with wet and dry but it was worth it. I also moved the pivot point of the cross bars to the very back end and this lessened the amount of pressure needed to push the pedals down.

As for the knee levers - well that's another story. Still trying to work on this. When seated at the guitar by knee is right under the body so that the pressure point from my knee is close to the lever fulcrum making it painful to use them. They really need relocating close to the underside of the board but then the pull rods interfere with the pedal pull rods. Still trying to work on this one. Short of replacing the whole of the underside I am at a loss. Never mind.

Mick Hearn

[bob adams]

If you have a little time on your hands guys you can take the complexity of ZBs away.

They don’t have to have the flatted right angle nail head arrangement at the yoke on the crossshaft and the LH/RH turnbuckles, though they worked perfectly when set up at the factory most guitars have had tunings altered over the years and finish up with everything fouling. The easy fix is a rod with a ‘J’ at the changer end and threaded at the yoke. That will give you all the adjustment you need, straight rods and no fouling! The only exception would be the F raise for the convenience of keeping the’ middle position’ brazed joint on the pull rod.

NB: The rods are 1/8” and the threading and nuts 4BA

The pictures are self explanatory!

I did one for Donny a couple of years back the last pic was the underside when he got it back , as for the video, only the player lacked capability not the guitar

[Tony Russell Davis]

Nice one Bob (as ever). Steve - if you have any questions about how to follow Bob's design, pop over here, you're just 9 or 10 miles away. T

[SteelSteve]

This is interesting. I have a blue topped student ZB. It sounds great to me but setting up has been a real challenge especially for a novice steeler.