Fender Stringmasters

[Chris DeBarge]

My '54 had black pickup covers, pushbutton neck selectors.

[Frank Venters]

Hey guy's, does anyone know what years Fender used the slide switches on the Stringmasters, and those thick tuning key buttons?By thick, I mean about two dimes together thickness.My triple neck is the dark color. On the first neck it has a single slide switch, middle neck has the volume/tone knobs, back neck has two slide switches, and there are two pickups on each neck.I've read that some Fender steels had push button switches,some had slide switches, and etc.73's...

[Troy Cody]

If your guitar has chrome pickup covers It is a 1954.

[Jerry Gleason]

My '59 double 8 has a slide, or knife switch, black pickup covers. I've seen the round "dimes" tuner knobs on the earler Dual Pros, Customs, and single necks (Deluxe?), but not on Stringmasters.

[John Tipka]

Slide switches and chrome pickup covers were used in the Stringmasters from December 1952 through about May 1954. Pushbuttons switches appeared for about a year and then lever switches were added to D-8s and T-8s in mid 1955 to replace the noisy switches. The Q-8 kept its four pushbutton switches.

Tuner pans with the "thick dime-shaped" knobs or buttons left over from the days of The Deluxe, Dual Eight Professional and the Triple Eight Custom were used up by mid 1954 and pans with oval knobs began to appear about then. The new 22-1/2" and 24-1/2" scale length guitars replaced the 26" scale length in June or July 1955. The 26" scale on the first Stringmasters was notorious for breaking the .011 or .012 G# first strings used by the Western swing players. Hawaiian style players love the long scale Stringmaster which plays beautifully above the 12th fret. (I rebuilt a 1953 T-8 for Duke Ching which sounds and plays beautifully) Of course, the Hawaiian first string is normally an .015 E but could also be a .016 D string and, as such, either size never suffers breakage like the thinner G# strings.

John
http://www.iwaynet.net/~steelgtr/stringmaster.html

[Jerry Gleason]

I guess I should have said "'lever' or knife" switch in my previous post. As John points out, the slide switches are something different from the earliest Stringmasters.

[Frank Venters]

I have the chrome pickup covers,never did use them. Any .010 or .011 string that I use on this guitar is tuned to the second key,that eliminates the downward stress on the string at the first key.I learned that trick pretty darn fast.I'm still looking for a case for this triple neck. The original case was tweed covered with the leather bindings around the edges. It gave up the ghost after the creek running next to my property flooded, causing close to two feet of water to come shooting through the basement. Not only did it kill the Stringmaster case, but the two case I had for my flattop guitars.Anyway if any of you gentlemen hear of or come across a case for the Stringmaster, how about letting me know. I do more non-pedal steel now, and the old Emmons sits in the corner, all covered up.Thanks for all you help, I appreciate it. 73's...Takhliwarrior