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Zane Beverly Beck (1927–1985) was an American
steel guitarist A steel guitar () is any guitar played while moving a steel bar or similar hard object against plucked strings. The bar itself is called a "steel" and is the source of the name "steel guitar". The instrument differs from a conventional guitar ...
and builder of
pedal steel guitar The pedal steel guitar is a console steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings, enabling more varied and complex music to be played than with other steel guitar designs. Like all steel guitars, it can play ...
s. He is best known for his 1952 innovation of adding knee levers to the pedal steel guitar to alter the pitch of certain strings, a feature which has become a standard on all modern-day instruments. Other inventors had patented crude knee-operated devices as far back as 1933, but none were successful. Beck revolutionized the concept into a durable and reliable mechanism and was the first to put knee levers on production guitars. He became a member of the International Steel Guitar Hall of Fame (1991). As a musician, he performed on the
Grand Ole Opry The ''Grand Ole Opry'' is a regular live country music, country-music Radio broadcasting, radio broadcast originating from Nashville, Tennessee, Nashville, Tennessee, on WSM (AM), WSM, held between two and five nights per week, depending on the ...
and
Shreveport Shreveport ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is the List of municipalities in Louisiana, third-most populous city in Louisiana after New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Baton Rouge. The bulk of Shreveport is in Caddo Parish, Lo ...
's
Louisiana Hayride ''Louisiana Hayride'' is a radio and later television country music show that was broadcast from the Shreveport Municipal Memorial Auditorium in Shreveport, Louisiana; during its heyday from 1948 to 1960, it helped to launch the careers of some ...
. Beck formed the ZB Music Company which manufactures steel guitars, later called BMI (Beck Musical Instruments).


Early history

Beck was born in northwest
Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma ...
, near Clarksville, in 1927. He became proficient in playing the steel guitar and became a staff musician on the
Louisiana Hayride ''Louisiana Hayride'' is a radio and later television country music show that was broadcast from the Shreveport Municipal Memorial Auditorium in Shreveport, Louisiana; during its heyday from 1948 to 1960, it helped to launch the careers of some ...
, a country music show broadcast from
Shreveport Shreveport ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is the List of municipalities in Louisiana, third-most populous city in Louisiana after New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Baton Rouge. The bulk of Shreveport is in Caddo Parish, Lo ...
. He was a frequent musical guest on
Nashville Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...
's
Grand Ole Opry The ''Grand Ole Opry'' is a regular live country music, country-music Radio broadcasting, radio broadcast originating from Nashville, Tennessee, Nashville, Tennessee, on WSM (AM), WSM, held between two and five nights per week, depending on the ...
. He became interested in the mechanics of steel guitars by (to use his words) "just fooling with them" and used his knowledge as a guitarist to address the instrument's limitations. In the late 1940s, he began repairing and modifying steel guitars for friends. About 1950, he was hired by
Buddy Emmons Buddy Gene Emmons (January 27, 1937 – July 21, 2015) was an American musician who is widely regarded as the world's foremost pedal steel guitarist of his day. He was inducted into the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame in 1981. Affectionately known ...
and Shot Jackson to work in manufacturing of steel guitars for their company called Sho-Bud. Beck left Sho–Bud to form his own company, ZB Music Company.


Innovation

Pedals were first added to a
lap steel guitar The lap steel guitar, also known as a Hawaiian guitar or lap slide guitar, is a type of steel guitar without pedals that is typically played with the instrument in a horizontal position across the performer's lap. Unlike the usual manner of pla ...
as far back as 1941 to make more notes and chords available to the player; thereafter, the pedal instrument became known as ''pedal steel'' to differentiate it from '' lap steel''. The pedal instrument is a console steel played while seated. The foot pedals independently raise the pitch of certain strings on the instrument by a mechanical linkage to increase string tension. Beck extended the pedal concept by recruiting the player's knees to control a separate mechanism to lower the pitch of certain strings in addition those controlled by pedals. The levers are located unobtrusively underneath the body of the guitar, protruding downward on each side of each of the player's knees ''(see photo)''. The invention essentially doubled the performer's available options for chords by using his knees to participate in controlling the instrument in addition to both hands and both feet. The knee levers work independently of the foot pedals. Each knee can move medially or laterally to move the four levers; the player learns to lean his knee against a lever and, if needed, push a pedal with his foot at the same time. Tom Bradshaw, author and music industry veteran, said some form of knee levers may have existed in the 1930s, remembering a Hawaiian guitar with "crude" knee levers stamped "patent pending". The device was the "Harmolin" invented by Arthur R. Harmon and patented in 1933 but it was not successful and the patent expired in 1950. Beck's Steel Guitar Hall of Fame plaque reads, "He pioneered the use of knee levers, and was the first to install them on production guitars". For the story of how he came upon the idea, Beck said there was a musical job he wanted but the bandleader, Paul Howard, wanted a lap steel player and did not want a pedal steel guitar in his band. Beck wanted the job, so he designed a hidden pedal he could operate with his knee without being noticed.


Commercial production

In the 1940s and 1950s several companies contributed to the practical evolution of the steel guitar, including
Epiphone Epiphone () is an American musical instrument brand that traces its roots to a musical instrument manufacturing business founded in 1873 by Anastasios Stathopoulos in İzmir, Ottoman Empire, and moved to New York City in 1908. After taking over ...
, the Harlin Brothers, Fender,
Paul Bigsby Paul Adelburt Bigsby (1899–1968) was an American inventor, designer, and pioneer of the solid body electric guitar. Bigsby is best known for designing the Bigsby vibrato tailpiece (also mislabeled as a tremolo arm) and proprietor of Bigsb ...
, Sho-Bud as well as Zane Beck. Beck's first commercial installation of knee levers was in 1952 on the guitar of
Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more t ...
guitarist Ray Noren. One year later, he added four levers to guitarist Jimmy Day's non-pedal guitar. Day was a well-known steel guitarist who had backed
Hank Williams Hiram "Hank" Williams (September 17, 1923 – January 1, 1953) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician. An early pioneer of country music, he is regarded as one of the most significant and influential musicians of the 20th century. W ...
and
Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one of the most significant cultural figures of the ...
and had played on Ray Price's classic hit, "
Crazy Arms "Crazy Arms" is an American country song which was a career-making hit for Ray Price. The song, released in May 1956, went on to become a number 1 country hit that year, establishing Price's sound, and redefining honky-tonk music. It was Price's ...
". Each lever lowered one of four individual strings on Day's guitar by a
semitone A semitone, also called a minor second, half step, or a half tone, is the smallest musical interval commonly used in Western tonal music, and it is considered the most dissonant when sounded harmonically. It is defined as the interval between ...
. Day's endorsement was a valuable asset for Beck's reputation. In the 1960s Beck sold the manufacturing rights to his first pedal steel model, the ZK, to
Tom Brumley Thomas Rexton Brumley (December 11, 1935 – February 3, 2009) was an American pedal steel guitarist and steel guitar manufacturer. In the 1960s, Brumley was a part of the sub-genre of country music known as the " Bakersfield sound". He performed ...
who took over the ZB Music company.
Jerry Garcia Jerome John Garcia (August 1, 1942 – August 9, 1995) was an American musician who was the lead guitarist and a vocalist with the rock band Grateful Dead, which he co-founded and which came to prominence during the counterculture of the 196 ...
of the
Grateful Dead The Grateful Dead was an American rock music, rock band formed in Palo Alto, California, in 1965. Known for their eclectic style that fused elements of rock, blues, jazz, Folk music, folk, country music, country, bluegrass music, bluegrass, roc ...
played one of Beck's guitars. It was a custom-model D10 with ten strings on each
neck The neck is the part of the body in many vertebrates that connects the head to the torso. It supports the weight of the head and protects the nerves that transmit sensory and motor information between the brain and the rest of the body. Addition ...
, C6 and E9 tunings, eight pedals and two knee levers. The pedals raised the pitch of certain strings on that instrument while the knee levers lowered the pitch. Beck was inducted into the International Steel Guitar Hall of Fame in 1991.


Notes


References


External links

Beck Musical Instruments: https://beckmusicalinstruments.com
How to Use Knee Levers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62jBVabxMFw {{DEFAULTSORT:Beck, Zane Steel guitarists 20th-century American male musicians 1927 births 1985 deaths 20th-century American businesspeople Musicians from Arkansas People from Clarksville, Arkansas