Hoping some of you will be able to answer some questions about an early 50s butterscotch Fender T8 Custom I purchased earlier this week. Seems to be in great shape, all original with a wonderfully beat up case. The first thing I noticed is the trapezoid pickups are out of balance in terms of their relative volume. Specifically, the inner and middle necks sound thin, almost out-of-phase compared to the outer neck which is louder and fuller. The 'all necks on' switch works fine, although it does reduce the volume of all the pickups slightly, which I understand is how the switch typically works.
Second, the inner neck pickup cover rattles when playing certain notes/chords. I'm not really using an amp at this point to spare my neighbors so when played acoustically it's kind of annoying. It goes away if I rest my picking hand on the cover. Maybe there are some screws loose in the pickup housing? Another D8 I tried out had a similar issue.
Finally, the tone knob doesn't really roll off treble/high end. It acts more like another master volume. Maybe the cap is fried? I peeked in the control cavities and all the wiring seems to be original.
Thanks for any input from players with experience on these guitars. I figured a 60 year old instrument would need some work but hoping it's minor stuff. I'm in the deep end having stepped up from a 6 string Supro but I am loving it!
