A Poor Man's Stringmaster - Guyatone D-8

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 14 Dec 2008 12:01 pm

Yes, my Guya D-8 too is a solid chunk of wood.

HowardR · Post by **HowardR** » 14 Dec 2008 12:29 pm

My model is different than yours Doug, but the same as Casey's....mine sure looks like plywood to me.........could be birch plywood as that's a heavy (weight) ply......

Les Anderson · Post by **Les Anderson** » 14 Dec 2008 4:42 pm

HowardR wrote:My model is different than yours Doug, but the same as Casey's....mine sure looks like plywood to me.........could be birch plywood as that's a heavy (weight) ply......

Wow, mine sure doesn't look like that. I removed the tuning pan of the upper neck last spring to do a general clean up and it was solid wood underneath. The wood is very white so that's why I think it's white birch. It doesn't soak up blond stain very well neither.

I have no idea what year my Guyatone is; however, I did buy it from a lady whose husband had bought it about 40 or so years previously she said. He bought the Fender Princeton Reverb amp, new, at the same time so it must have been in the mid fifties.

Mike Harris · Post by **Mike Harris** » 14 Dec 2008 5:24 pm

Was Fender even making amps with reverb in the 50's?

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 14 Dec 2008 6:00 pm

Was Fender even making amps with reverb in the 50's?

No, the first Fender amps with onboard reverb appeared around 1963.

According the the books I have, Guyatone Co. has been in business in Japan from 1933 to the present. They branded a lot of guitars in years past, like Kent, Kingston, and they also branded lap steels (probably Conqueror, Jedson, etc.) into the 1960's. I think most of their production of lap steels and "table steels" was in the early 1960s. It looks like there were at least two versions of the Guyatone D-8. I'm still curious to know which came first, and if the company had to make changes in the guitars due to legal threats from Fender. I guess we'll never know!

BTW I strung up the Guyatone, E13 and C6/A7, and it sounds really sweet. I'm working up a recording of "Sand" in B11 tuning to post here shortly.

Les Anderson · Post by **Les Anderson** » 14 Dec 2008 9:11 pm

The Fender Princeton Reverb silverface I have was more than likely built in 1967; or so a metal tag on the inside is stamped. It has a serial # F108610 with a very small inspector initial "TS" stamped into it.

Doug I know you will experiment with that Guyatone and get used to those switches and knobs to give you the tone you want.

When I do gigs that have a lot of Hank Williams, Eddy Arnold and the other classics, I use my Guya D8 exclusively for that. My Remington does not have that 50s tone.

Another answer to your question about the forerunner to the Guyatone, they were named just plain Guya. That's what I have and is very heavy. It weighs more than my Remington D10.

The Guya Instrument Co. made many other kinds of musical instruments as well. There used to be web site about discontinued guitars of the 30s, 40s and 50s and it had a lot of info on Guya instruments.

The company used to make flutes, acoustic guitars, electric, six stringed lap and legged D8 steel guitars. Now I have no way to substantiate this; however, it has been suggested, possibly rumoured, that the musical instrument arm of Yamaha bought them out.

Casey Lowmiller · Post by **Casey Lowmiller** » 14 Dec 2008 9:46 pm

HowardR,

Thanks for backing me up on the Plywood theory. I was surprised that someone else has a guitar like mine. I'm very please with mine...I just hope I can remember how to rewire the darn thing.

Les, I meant no "racial overtones" and if you read my post about the plywood, you'll notice that I mention that I do, indeed, own a Guyatone...and I've obviously played it too. 100-1, mine is some sort of plywood. Believe me, I wish it wasn't!!!

Since I am refinishing mine, I've become quite familiar with it...not sure what the plys are made of quite yet. Before refinishing started, you could look at the sides of the body under certain lighting, and actually see the plys. The layers were very obvious due to the paint being thin.

Here are some words of caution: (1) The metal control plates on these can be kind of thin/flimsy. If someone really puts the strings under tension, it can bend or warp the control plate back where the strings anchor. It can also make some of the screws try to strip out!!!

If you remove these control plates, sometimes they have some glue on the backside that can pull your finish off. If you have a plywood one, you can actually remove a chunk of the first ply. I had that happen to me.

My guitar also started to have a separation between 2 of the plys...I believe that this is either due to shoddy workmanship, or possibbly too much tension on the body.

When I purchased mine, it was in like-new condition except for the tension induced damage to the control plate & the ply separation. It had the original case, it weighs a tone, it looks Fenderish and has some pretty good tone!!!

Casey

Les Anderson · Post by **Les Anderson** » 14 Dec 2008 11:31 pm

Holy cats Casey, by the sounds of it you really got a piece of crap.

Is there a name stamped on the bottom side of the tuning pot? Mine has the word Guya and a letter with four numbers (G0331) stamped on the bottom side. As I stated earlier, I think mine may be a pre-Guyatone: I have a Guya D8. It is without a doubt solid wood but what kind of wood I can't be certain. It has a sort of blond lacquer finish.

When I took the tuning pan off, the pan was in pristine condition: that is to say no rust, warpage or any other problem with it. It was/is chromed on both sides. The only problem I had with the guitar is the the cold weather and holding tits tuning under such conditions. I used to think it was the guitar but after doing a couple of gigs at a rodeo in mid central Canada in early May with a guy and his Mullen, my mind was changed. He had more tuning problems than I did.

Below is about all I can find on the net about Guya now days.

http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/navi ... tone&Nty=1

Once again, I am sorry to read about the mess you uncovered in that Guyatone of yours.

Rich Hlaves · Post by **Rich Hlaves** » 15 Dec 2008 10:02 am

Les Anderson wrote:The Fender Princeton Reverb silverface I have was more than likely built in

Hey Les, A little amp trivia since I'm a big advocate and fan of Fender black and silver face Amps. (brown and tweed too for that matter) Technically, there are no 1967 model year silver face amps, those where all 1968s but built in late '67 when Fender began making '68 model year silver face units. Many amps like the Princeton Reverb didn't change until the early '70s to silver face circuits and others not until later in 1968. There will also be a model stamped on the tube chart. This could help figure out what circuit design was used.

If you post the tramsformer codes, I/we can date it for you. These would be stamped into the power, output and reverb tranny as well as the choke. A tranny production code would look like this: 606-735. 606 would be the manufacturer code and 735 the date code. 7 being the year, 1967, and 35 being the 35th week of production. Begining in the the 1970s seven digit codes began to appear like this 606-7215. In this example 72 is the year and 15 in the week of production.

The same type of codes can be found on your speaker frame. a code of 220526 would be a Jensen speaker built the 26th week of 1965 for example.

Of course these are the dates of the parts and not the dates the amp was built but you can get a pretty good idea of what you have. If you pull the chassis there is most likely a date stamp on the inside near the power tranny, the date it was wired up most likely. There are also date codes on the pots and some capacitors.

All this may give us an approximate date on the Guyatone since they where purchased together. If the pots in the Guyatone have codes, that would be another method. Everything I have seen to date has been later '60s & 70s from Guyatone, Aria & Jedson.

Best,

Rich

Casey Lowmiller · Post by **Casey Lowmiller** » 15 Dec 2008 1:44 pm

Les,

I would have to dig out the electronics, providing I can remember where I put them, and see if anything is stamped on the pots. It's been forever since I looked at them. I hope I can still remember how to wire everything back-up.

The Guyas are certainly older than the Guyatones. I'm pretty sure the Guyas started off being built well & at some point, they became Guyatones and eventually they realized that they could make them cheaper & still sell them...and so they did.

As HowardR points out, they are some sort of very heavy plywood. Possibly Birch, I'm still trying to get that figured out. The thing weighs a ton!!! I wish it was made out of solid wood, but for the price I can't complain. They are certainly a cheap knock-off of a Stringmaster.

I wouldn't say it is crappy. Even though it is made out of plywood, it is fairly well made. The finish being thin & the body being plywood was fairly common for import guitars of the time. Pretty much, it is what I expected it to be and for the price I paid, I'm pretty happy.

All the issues that mine has seem to be from someone who used to high of a tuning/too heavy of strings. Combine that with cheap workmanship and it can lead to problems. Don't forget that real Stringmaster tuners stripout sometimes & Fender 400s can have issues when people don't use a factory recommend tuning!!!

Mine was a pawn shop prize and once I get everything re-done, no one will be able to tell that there was ever a problem and it will look nicer than it did when it was new!!! You can't beet that!!!

Casey

Stephan Miller · Post by **Stephan Miller** » 15 Dec 2008 2:24 pm

Les Anderson wrote: The only problem I had with the guitar is the the cold weather and holding tits tuning under such conditions.

Can't blame you for trying to keep your hands warm...

Les Anderson · Post by **Les Anderson** » 15 Dec 2008 2:45 pm

Stephan Miller wrote:
Les Anderson wrote: The only problem I had with the guitar is the the cold weather and holding "tits" tuning under such conditions.

Can't blame you for trying to keep your hands warm...

I can't believe that I typed that!

Les Anderson · Post by **Les Anderson** » 15 Dec 2008 3:03 pm

Casey, I think I got almost the same guitar that Doug has except that his is called a Guyatone and mine a Guya.

I just rechecked the pictures that Doug posted and noticed that his tuners are are recessed into the wood and do not touch the pan; as are mine; however, mine has a plated or chromed metal sleeve of some sort that the tuners fit into. I can't see that on Doug's steel. They are probably there, it's just that I can't see them. Like Doug's, I think the pan on mine is just a decorative cover.

The steel plate that holds the PUs, bridge and string end coils is actually fairly heavy, chromed steel so that shouldn't be a problem with bending or warping from over tightening. It is also well secured with 14 screws.

I know that I should be playing it through something better than an older Fender amp; however, I like the sound and tone I am getting out of it so I am satisfied with it. I'd like to post a tune or two but I don't have the equipment necessary post proper sounding MP3s.

Stephan Miller · Post by **Stephan Miller** » 15 Dec 2008 3:09 pm

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 15 Dec 2008 7:45 pm

...the cold weather and holding tits tuning under such conditions.

Yes, it's hard to do that while tuning! That's called "playing with feeling"

...I should be playing it through something better than an older Fender amp

...you mean there's something better?

I play my lap steels though a 1967 Vibrolux Reverb or a silverface Princeton Reverb. They're no good for pedal steel, in my opinion, but for lap steel they can't be beat.

Les Anderson · Post by **Les Anderson** » 15 Dec 2008 10:17 pm

Doug Beaumier wrote: ...you mean there's something better? I play my lap steels though a 1967 Vibrolux Reverb or a silverface Princeton Reverb. They're no good for pedal steel, in my opinion, but for lap steel they can't be beat.

My sentiments exactly. My little Princeton reverb may not push enough power to fill a large hall; however, I use it all the time when playing at a mall or at a small gathering such as small bars.

Michael Lee Allen · Post by **Michael Lee Allen** » 16 Dec 2008 7:00 pm

REMOVED

Les Anderson · Post by **Les Anderson** » 17 Dec 2008 11:10 am

It really doesn't bother me where it is made. If it plays good music, then it works with me. The country of origin doesn't factor into the equation

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 18 Dec 2008 8:40 am

I wonder how the Guyatone would sound through this vintage Guyatone "silverface" amp? Looks like a clone of a 1968 Fender Pro Reverb, (2) 6L6, (2) 12" speakers, trim around the grill cloth. CLICK

Michael Lee Allen · Post by **Michael Lee Allen** » 18 Dec 2008 9:32 am

REMOVED

Les Anderson · Post by **Les Anderson** » 18 Dec 2008 10:26 am

I wasn't going to mention this in this forum; however, I used to have Guyatone mic that was built specifically for chromatic harmonicas. I used it for almost 17 years before it was either stolen or I left it somewhere.

That mic had three different tone settings on it. It was a bit heavy but worked like magic.

Michael Lee Allen · Post by **Michael Lee Allen** » 18 Dec 2008 1:26 pm

REMOVED

Michael Lee Allen · Post by **Michael Lee Allen** » 18 Dec 2008 1:28 pm

[REMOVED

Michael Lee Allen · Post by **Michael Lee Allen** » 18 Dec 2008 1:29 pm

REMOVED

Michael Lee Allen · Post by **Michael Lee Allen** » 18 Dec 2008 1:31 pm

REMOVED