I restored a string master a couple of years ago and kept the necks separated. I enjoyed the single neck so much I decided to build some. The tuning pans are machined from a block of stainless steel and the pickup plates are 16 ga. stainless. I decided on seymour duncan antiquity pickups and am very pleased with them. The tuner pans are designed to accept new tuners with the smaller diameter post.Exact, no play. the center beam is a little wider to hide the dish on the top of the string post. The picture is a mock up of one not yet assembled. Thanks to Leon I have pickup covers (not shown) being chromed. I am also building the cases. The forum archives has been a huge help in this project as well as the members. Thank you. Gary.
Wow Gary, that's very cool. I'll bet you could sell the machined tuner pans and stamped pickup plates to other stringmaster enthusiasts if you have a mind to and they're dimensionally correct for Fenders. Keep us posted.
Dave Potter wrote:I'm certain that I'm not the only one reading this who doesn't know what a "tuning/tuner/pan" is. Care to elaborate, for us uninitiated readers?
The tuner casing (Pan, ash tray,tuner tray) will fit fender as well as all the other parts. The center section of the tuner tray is a little wider and the holes are smaller to accommodate newer tuners. These parts have been been difficult to reproduce. I had enough fabricated for 25 builds. Wanted to see how it goes before selling parts but if a forum member is stuck I will be glad to help.
Looks like your first one is 24.5" scale from the fret markers. Will you be making any in different scale lengths? So I guess the parts are polished stainless rather than chrome plated? Not a small task fabricating all those parts. Do you have a price yet?
Thanks Bill, not there on a price. Good eye on the scale. I am open to making different scales but am focused on the one model at the moment. I still need to build cases and get the bridge covers chromed. I would also like to build a model with a Charlie Christian pickup in the future.
So true Herb. It's a different world today. I met with different machine shops and finally found someone who would work with me on this. Stamping always came around to the same question. Can you track down the original dies?
Gary Rue wrote:So true Herb. It's a different world today. I met with different machine shops and finally found someone who would work with me on this. Stamping always came around to the same question. Can you track down the original dies?
They're with Fender Japan. They have all the original Stringmaster etc. tooling. If you swing enough weight (like Michael Stevens, originator of the Fender Custom Shop) you might talk them out of one/some... or, probably not, right? Thanks for making repop's of these parts, Gary... doing good work. Now for the 10-string, like Carco's guitar... I'm ready to pay for one of those!
Thanks for the interest Jeff. Having some iphone issues but can send pictures thru cell # messages if you want to send your number on the private side. If I have time to figure out the problem I will post the tuner pan picture here. The pickup plates are stainless and the only chromed item is the bridge cover. I'm finishing the cases at the moment. The tuning pans are designed for new guitar tuners with a narrower string post. The center beam is a little wider than fender. I also drill a hole in the new tuners that's centered using a custom jig. I hope to bring these builds in at 1,250.00. These are lap steels (no legs or sockets). As for parts, I will sell them separately if the demand is there but have enough parts for 25 builds at the moment.I Have five customers waiting for one and some forum members inquiring. There is little profit in this but I love these guitars and enjoy building them.
