Our Arklahoma Heritage: Zane Beverly Beck went from the Louisiana Hayride to manufacturing pedal steel guitars

Zane Beverly Beck

Zane Beverly Beck was born on December 24, 1927, in Clarksville, Arkansas, the son of John William Beck and Anna Alberta Russell Beck. He grew up in a farming community in northwest Arkansas, where the rhythms of rural life and the sounds of country music shaped his early years.

Beck’s introduction to the steel guitar came in his youth, and he quickly developed exceptional skill on the instrument. After serving in the United States Army during the Korean War era, he returned to music with renewed focus.

By the late 1940s, he had become proficient enough to earn a place as a staff musician on the Louisiana Hayride, the influential country music radio program broadcast from Shreveport. He also appeared regularly as a guest on Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry, placing him among the working professionals of the postwar country music scene.

His career soon expanded beyond performance into instrument design and manufacturing. Beck worked for a time at the Sho-Bud Steel Guitar factory in Nashville, gaining firsthand knowledge of construction techniques. In the early 1950s he made a lasting technical contribution when he pioneered the addition of knee levers to the pedal steel guitar and became the first to install them on production instruments.

This innovation expanded the instrument’s range and expressive possibilities and remains standard on modern pedal steels. He later founded the ZB Music Company, which manufactured steel guitars under his name and eventually operated as BMI, or Beck Musical Instruments. The company produced instruments valued by professional players for their quality and playability.

In 1962 Beck married Faye Eva Robinson. The couple had two daughters and maintained a family life alongside his demanding work as both musician and manufacturer. Those who knew him described him as a Christian, a veteran, a devoted father, and a generous friend to fellow steel players.

Beck’s contributions earned formal recognition after his death. In 1991, he was inducted into the International Steel Guitar Hall of Fame. The plaque honors him as a formidable player, tuning innovator, master builder, and honest businessman who pioneered the use of knee levers and was the first to install them on production guitars.

Zane Beverly Beck died on May 26, 1985, in Little Rock, at the age of fifty-seven and was buried in the Little Rock National Cemetery. . He left behind a dual legacy as both a working musician who performed on major country stages and an innovative builder whose mechanical improvements permanently shaped the modern pedal steel guitar.