The Steel Guitar Forum

Nice work there, glad to see the final result, and thanks for sharing. Mark

Thanks for the positive comments guys. Gene has a great point if you decide to use my temporary fix, make sure you countersink that hole so you're not breaking strings. John having some spare gears is a life saver, and that way you get to keep it all original. I can always send you one of the Gotoh ...

The tuner I replaced was not the original. Someone had installed an over sized tuner with no cover so it was gouging the wood inside the pan cavity pretty badly, and it pulled right out. The brass gears are fairly soft so you could probably cut it free with some heavy duty wire cutters, or easily gr...

Butch - Here's what I did, photos attached. 1-Pried the gear cover off and removed the screw holding the gear on the shaft. I had to heat it up with a torch as it was on tight (experience kicked in after stripping out the first one - easy to do). 2-I drilled a 5/64th hole in the shaft, aligned with ...

That's exactly what I purchased, # 0933 and what I have in the photo. Later this evening I'm going to throw one in a vice and break out the torch so I can loosen the screw holding on the gear. That will allow me to re-attach it to the plate and see if everything lines up good on the tuner pan. Seems...

Butch - I've tried Stewmac's vintage Kluson style tuners and it turns out the tuner assembly tabs fit into the mounting plate perfectly. The tuner itself however sits about 1/16" inch lower than the rest, see photos. Now if I can only get the gear unscrewed from the shaft! More heat I guess, th...

Stewmac just posted a great video on this (2/29/2012) so I wanted to add that link to this thread, cool stuff, here's the URL...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SB3RVVye-gw

Thanks Hugh, something so easy, yet not for the faint of heart at all. I've order an extra decal, just in case...

Hugh - good timing as I'm getting ready to apply one of these to a Stringmaster D8 I'm refinishing. Being a decal amateur myself, any words of advice on using the decal liquid film and best procedure? I would greatly appreciate that. Thanks, Mark

Thanks again for the input here, and some smiles. All went good with the fretboard removal by the way. Trying to pry up the pins using the putty knife method was really tough as the pins were anchored in hard and are 1/2" deep. I actually found it easier to use the bevel end of a chisel (-gentl...

Ron - what did you use to pull the pins without damaging them or the fretboard? I was planning on using a mini fret puller that should work fine, just curious what you used. Thanks for the post as well as Jim's info....Mark

Evening guys - Has anyone tackled the job of removing the fretboard from a Stringmaster, or similar? I'm refinishing my D8 and curious if Fender used double sided tape in addition to the escutcheon pins to anchor it down. I'd greatly appreciate any advice you have to offer up on the subject. This is...

Nothing like some lacquer thinner to clear things up. This is dated 6/60 in both pan cavities, and now for re-finishing and parts work. This forum has been invaluable to help research the Stringmaster, unbelievable amount of information - hats off to you guys for keeping' it alive! Mark http://bb.st...

Thanks that helps a bunch! Now the hard part of course is the parts challenge we all face, trying to find someone who would actually have the blend control hardware, wiring schematic, and I would assume there's a pot in the mix there too. Thanks for the help here - your triple looks great, very nice!

Can you tell me more about the blend control? Is it variable or simply on/off? I hate retrofits like this, but hoping I can restore if possible...thanks!

Great thread here. The dual 8 is a great addition for me after playing my 1955 Deluxe 6 for a bit - still a newbee compared to you guys on steel. This has the original slider switch so I'm assuming this may be a 1954? The S/N is 3231 but I haven't seen anything on dating these (no reply from Fender)...