The Restoration of a Fender Stringmaster D8

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 3 Sep 2007 7:05 pm

Restoration of the case is now complete except for the interior. I've left the interior bare for now until the Stringmaster is completed so that I can make the instrument a tight fit. The inside will be padded and then lined with green felt. It's not an original Fender case, so I haven't put much emphasis on it.

BEFORE

AFTER

Several splits in side repaired, all joints reglued, chipped wood replaced, covered with leatherette, all original brassware thrown out and replaced. Notice the two handles. I've found that there are times when carrying a guitar case horizontally is cumbersome. The handle on the end allows you to carry the guitar upright in confined spaces.

I put another four coats on the Stringmaster over the weekend. With the number of old dings it needs a fairly thick coat. In about a week I'll start putting it all back together again.

basilh · Post by **basilh** » 4 Sep 2007 2:40 am

Abso"lutely" (pun for Alan) stunning..
Superb work Alan, be careful not to damage the 00's under the case, I had 'Sir Nigel Gresley' amongst others.
BTW the end handle is a good one for lifting on and off stages and stage lifts. (Smart rear Idea Alan)

Sam Floyd · Post by **Sam Floyd** » 11 Sep 2007 12:38 pm

Hi Alan

What a beautiful job on the case.

Do you have an update on the rest of the project?

Thanks,
Sam

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 12 Sep 2007 10:49 am

Sam Floyd wrote:...Do you have an update on the rest of the project?

It's been at a standstill for a few weeks while I worked on some other projects. I'm hoping to get round to putting a few more coats of paint on this weekend, and then when it's completely dry I can start putting the hardware back on. It seems to be really soaking in the paint !

Sam Floyd · Post by **Sam Floyd** » 17 Sep 2007 5:11 am

Alan

What did you use to take off the old glue on the case? You have me thinking about restoring the case I have for my Fender Quad.

V/r,

Sam

Todd Weger · Post by **Todd Weger** » 17 Sep 2007 6:49 am

I put another four coats on the Stringmaster over the weekend. With the number of old dings it needs a fairly thick coat. In about a week I'll start putting it all back together again.

Last edited by Alan F. Brookes on 4 Sep 2007 5:29 pm; edited 1 time in total

Alan -- what a great refin thread. I agree with pretty much everyone else that a guitar should stay with the original finishes, but as others have said, this one was soooooo far gone with butchery that a new and proper refin was necessary. Great work!

Are you close to putting on the hardware, stringing it up and plugging it in yet? Can't wait to see the latest pics.

TJW

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 17 Sep 2007 4:31 pm

Sam Floyd wrote:...What did you use to take off the old glue on the case?...

Fortunately it didn't have any on. It's not the original case; it was made by some previous owner. It was just plain pine, nailed together. I removed the nails and glued it using Elmers Woodworking Adhesive. The leatherette material I glued on using impact adhesive. If I had to do it again I would look for some thinner adhesive for the material.

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 17 Sep 2007 4:35 pm

Todd Weger wrote:...Are you close to putting on the hardware, stringing it up and plugging it in yet? Can't wait to see the latest pics...

Once the paint job is completed the rest of the restoration will take less than an hour. I've been having some problems with the paint. It's taking a lot more smoothing and respraying that I originally thought. It seems to be soaking in a lot of paint.

In the meantime I've been putting a lot of time into two other lap steels that I'm building from scratch. When I've finished them I shall post threads showing their construction.

Thanks for the encouragement.

basilh · Post by **basilh** » 17 Sep 2007 5:48 pm

You keep up the good work Alan, posting the progress reports.
It's going to be a valuable resource for reference later on.

And, it may help to prove to the customs in the UK that although the guitar LOOKS a million Dollars. it didn't cost that much..

Now, lets see ...... The $ is @ £.49 (x $600)
and VAT is 17.5% on the purchase price PLUS the carriage
The paint @ ? per can and 100 Hours of Alan's time !!

Condensed !

Charley Wilder · Post by **Charley Wilder** » 17 Sep 2007 6:27 pm

ALAN!! YOU ARE CRUSHING YOUR TRAINS!!!!!!!!!!

PS I continue to enjoy the thread.

basilh · Post by **basilh** » 18 Sep 2007 12:32 am

Charles Wilder wrote:ALAN!! YOU ARE CRUSHING YOUR TRAINS!!!!!!!!!!

PS I continue to enjoy the thread.

The case that they support looks very impressive.

And, as I said earlier, I have 'Sir Nigel Gresley' Hornby 00 Gauge, Alan's (Also Hornby double 'O' I think)look VERY collectible.

Sam Floyd · Post by **Sam Floyd** » 18 Sep 2007 7:35 am

Alan

I forgot it wasn’t an original case but none the less, a very fine job. I am not sure if the case I have for the quad is original but it has several layers of black spay paint. I will post some pictures this evening. It I was to restore it, I think I would go with a tweed cover with red interior.

V/r,
Sam

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 21 Sep 2007 7:08 pm

Charles Wilder wrote:ALAN!! YOU ARE CRUSHING YOUR TRAINS!!!!!!!!!! .

It looks like that on the photo, but the case is resting on the wall of the roundhouse, and there's about two inches between the bottom of the case and the top of the engines.

Jon Zimmerman · Post by **Jon Zimmerman** » 23 Sep 2007 6:30 pm

...So, (re: Charles Wilder) the next segment might be "The restoration of a model-train Roundhouse wall"

..I continue to admire this thread, any-whoo! JON Z.

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 1 Oct 2007 5:42 pm

Returning to the project....

There are two different types of machine tuner pans.

(They're standing on top of a lap steel I'm building, but that's another story.)
The older type pans are rectangular, and have "lollipop" tuners soldered in. The newer type are wider at the guitar end, have the Fender logo embossed in the centre, and have Grover-type tuners. Also the screw holes are in different positions.

So if you want to fit the newer tuners into an older instrument, as Basil does, the body cavities have to be enlarged slightly.

Fortunately the lip on the pan is large enough to cover the small amount which has to be removed from the body. I would imagine if someone were fitting old-type tuners into a newer body they would probably fit by just drilling new screw holes.

Here's a quick look at the underneath before the leg sockets go back in.

Charley Wilder · Post by **Charley Wilder** » 2 Oct 2007 6:07 am

Just dropped by the thread for an update. Keep in coming, Alan!

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 6 Oct 2007 5:55 pm

Next I made a cardboard cutout of the smallest aperture the new tuners would fit through, and I marked the new edges on the body will a ball-point pen.

Several hours whittling later, and we have....

And after all that, if you're going to spend several hours whittling away at hard wood with an Xacto knife, you must remember the luthiers' prime directive...

WHEN YOU CUT YOURSELF DON'T BLEED ON THE WOODWORK. BLOOD SOAKS INTO WOOD AND WON'T COME OUT !

basilh · Post by **basilh** » 23 Oct 2007 4:02 pm

A few people including a previous purchaser have been inquiring as to how the restoration is progressing, maybe Alan you can post the pics with the leg sockets installed ?
Baz

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 24 Oct 2007 7:30 pm

Certainly Basil. He we go....

Ignore the masking tape on the underside. That's just to make sure that while I was screwing the leg sockets in the paintwork on the top side didn't get chafed.

Here's the top, starting to look like a Stringmaster again.

I threw away all the old, corroded screws and replaced them with new ones. Similarly, I replaced all the pins holding the fingerboards on. I replaced the pins holding the diamond covers with tiny screws.

Next will be rewiring the pickups and switches.

HowardR · Post by **HowardR** » 24 Oct 2007 7:43 pm

Wow!.....great progress......this is such an education....again, thanks Alan......this is well appreciated.....

Paul Warnik · Post by **Paul Warnik** » 24 Oct 2007 10:41 pm

Alan F. Brookes wrote:Returning to the project....

So if you want to fit the newer tuners into an older instrument, as Basil does, the body cavities have to be enlarged slightly.

Alan-there is another way that I have witnessed as it was done to the old Fender quad that I formerly owned (bought directly from "The Legendary Bud Issacs")

If you do not want to relieve the wood to sink the newer tuner pans you can remove the old lollipop tuners from the older pan and then using a milling machine make outward cuts from the tuner post holes towards the edge-this allows the later Kluson plank type tuners to slide right in to the earlier pan as they would into a later one with very minimal removal of wood to fit-a good way to go if you have only later style tuners (for replacement) but not the pans-PW

basilh · Post by **basilh** » 25 Oct 2007 1:45 am

That's a good suggestion Paul, but in this case I had two almost pristine tuner pans and the original ones were pretty badly rusted and the chrome work was NOT good ,OR easily replated..

Thanks to Alan this guitar WILL live again and get the playing it deserves. I've often wondered just how many of the long scale ones were used by the players like Barney Isaacs and others from the "Hawaii Calls" ERA.
Sounds to me like Barney is playing one on the 1957 RCA Album "Hawaiian Guitar" (RD-27029)

Drew Howard · Post by **Drew Howard** » 25 Oct 2007 5:42 am

Alan,

I didn't know there were two styles of tuner pans.
To repeat what HowardR said, thanks for the education!

Drew

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 25 Oct 2007 5:30 pm

Drew Howard wrote:...I didn't know there were two styles of tuner pans....

Neither did I before I started the job. It's good to be able to discover these things and point them out to others thinking of doing a restoration.

I wonder what other surprises are in wait for us before the job is completed !

basilh · Post by **basilh** » 26 Oct 2007 1:19 am

I didn't know there were two styles of tuner pans.

I THINK there's THREE,
1. The oblong one with the lollipop buttons (Mk1)
2. The tapered pans with lollipop buttons (Mk2)
3. The tapered pans with Klusons, used on MOST stringmasters and All the 400/100/800/2000.

Of course number 2 maybe a red herring and just a "one Off", after all when this guitar is finished it'll be a 1953 stringmaster with 1967+ tuners and pans.

In a hundred years time some Fender historian may be totally bamboozled by the discrepancies and consider it a "Transitional Model"

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The Restoration of a Fender Stringmaster D8

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