Zane Beverly Beck was an American steel guitarist and builder of pedal steel guitars.
11 Facts About Zane Beck
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Zane Beck 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.
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Zane Beck became a member of the International Steel Guitar Hall of Fame.
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Zane Beck formed the ZB Music Company which manufactures steel guitars, later called BMI.
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Zane Beck was born in northwest Arkansas, near Clarksville, in 1927.
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Zane Beck became proficient in playing the steel guitar and became a staff musician on the Louisiana Hayride, a country music show broadcast from Shreveport.
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Zane Beck was a frequent musical guest on Nashville's Grand Ole Opry.
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Zane Beck became interested in the mechanics of steel guitars by "just fooling with them" and used his knowledge as a guitarist to address the instrument's limitations.
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Zane 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.
10.
Zane Beck wanted the job, so he designed a hidden pedal he could operate with his knee without being noticed.
11.
Zane Beck was inducted into the International Steel Guitar Hall of Fame in 1991.