Show Us Your Stringmasters

Michael Lee Allen · Post by **Michael Lee Allen** » 4 Apr 2017 3:46 pm

Michael Lee Allen · Post by **Michael Lee Allen** » 4 Apr 2017 3:56 pm

Michael Lee Allen · Post by **Michael Lee Allen** » 4 Apr 2017 4:02 pm

basilh · Post by **basilh** » 4 Apr 2017 5:01 pm

A few of mine..

basilh · Post by **basilh** » 4 Apr 2017 5:14 pm

Michael Lee Allen · Post by **Michael Lee Allen** » 5 Apr 2017 7:48 am

Steffen Gunter · Post by **Steffen Gunter** » 5 Apr 2017 11:52 am

This is my '56 (Paul Seager mentioned this one in another thread). Actually tuned to C6 (High G far neck) and F#9 (Dick McIntire)

[/img]

Norman Evans · Post by **Norman Evans** » 6 Apr 2017 2:26 pm

Before

After

'57, the one in my avatar

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 7 Apr 2017 7:12 am

Norman,
Good for you, I won't play an ugly instrument either!

But a lot of naysayers will say: "Shame on you"!

Norman Evans · Post by **Norman Evans** » 8 Apr 2017 5:26 am

Erv,
Thanks. The before pics just don't really show how bad it was. I felt I had to make it better.

Terry Barnett · Post by **Terry Barnett** » 19 Apr 2017 5:09 am

Mine's a 55. You know, the push button switches seem to give a lot of problems but these guys still work just fine after 60 plus years. Who knew?

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 19 Apr 2017 7:54 am

Norman,
When I got my 1st Sho~Bud I sold my T-8 Stringmaster.
Several years later I had the chance to buy it back.
The fellow who had been playing it must have been using a claw hammer, it was in terrible shape.
I took it apart and restored it to just as good as new.

Larry Lenhart · Post by **Larry Lenhart** » 19 Apr 2017 8:29 am

Terry, your T8 looks just about like mine, but mine doesnt have the push buttons on it and I think it is a 57 ?
But at any rate, I like to say mine has "character"

The first steel I bought was a quad...this was in 68 and it belonged to my teacher, Bill Pruitt, who bought it new...it had the push buttons...wish I still had it...he sold it to me for $150.

Jeff Mead · Post by **Jeff Mead** » 19 Apr 2017 8:42 am

Larry Lenhart wrote:Terry, your T8 looks just about like mine, but mine doesnt have the push buttons on it and I think it is a 57 ?

That sounds right. By '57 Stringmasters would have had a blade switch like on a Telecaster.

Terry Barnett · Post by **Terry Barnett** » 19 Apr 2017 11:31 am

Larry if you want to make a substantial profit on your guitar...I'm willing to offer you $225.00. Now that's a one time only deal

Yeah, mine's got plenty of character too, but I'm not about to change anything. It's great the way it is. Cheers

Bill Sinclair · Post by **Bill Sinclair** » 21 Apr 2017 9:08 am

Finally getting around to posting pictures of my D8 Stringmaster ('59) and Dual 6 Professional (?). The blend pots on the Dual 6 are date coded '53 and '54 and the tag between the necks has the block letters instead of cursive. What year did they change the lettering?

Both are very clean guitars but the D8 is really clean. Been under a bed for almost all its life. Bought from the son of the original owner through friend and forum member Tommy Auldridge last year. Now that I'm getting more accustomed to eight strings, I may part with the Dual 6.

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 21 Apr 2017 10:28 am

I think Leo had those pots lying around for a while.
The style of the guitar puts it at least a couple of years later than '53-'54.

Jeff Mead · Post by **Jeff Mead** » 21 Apr 2017 10:38 am

Bill Sinclair wrote:The blend pots on the Dual 6 are date coded '53 and '54 and the tag between the necks has the block letters instead of cursive. What year did they change the lettering?

Interesting. I've only seen the block lettering on the early long scale Stringmasters (and earlier trapezoid steels of course).

I always thought the script badges came in at the same time as the second style of Stringmaster (with the black pickup covers and shorter scale length etc.) Of course the Stringmaster style Dual 6 would have been intruduced at the same time as these later Stringmasters.

Assuming your badge wasn't replaced at some point with an earlier one, maybe it's another example of Fender using up old parts after they had supposedly moved on to something new?

Bill Sinclair · Post by **Bill Sinclair** » 21 Apr 2017 10:47 am

Erv Niehaus wrote:I think Leo had those pots lying around for a while.
The style of the guitar puts it at least a couple of years later than '53-'54.

Thanks, Erv. The pencil marks under the tuning pan were hard to read but looked kinda like '58.

Jeff: I wondered about that too. A mystery.

Jeff Mead · Post by **Jeff Mead** » 21 Apr 2017 11:07 am

Bill Sinclair wrote:
Erv Niehaus wrote:I think Leo had those pots lying around for a while.
The style of the guitar puts it at least a couple of years later than '53-'54.
Thanks, Erv. The pencil marks under the tuning pan were hard to read but looked kinda like '58.

Jeff: I wondered about that too. A mystery.

Actually Bill, you can probably answer a question I was wondering about. Are the body dimensions of the D8 and D6 the same. Wondering if they used the regular bodies and just put different hardware on?

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 21 Apr 2017 11:17 am

Bill,
That seems about right.

William Hoff · Post by **William Hoff** » 21 Apr 2017 1:14 pm

I do the steel parts, and extra guitar stuff in a Yes Tribute band. My Dual 6 Stringmaster is the ultimate tool for that job.

Miles Lang · Post by **Miles Lang** » 21 Apr 2017 2:26 pm

When did Fender stop using the spaghetti logo on the front of D8 Stringmasters?

Bill Sinclair · Post by **Bill Sinclair** » 21 Apr 2017 8:22 pm

Jeff Mead wrote: Actually Bill, you can probably answer a question I was wondering about. Are the body dimensions of the D8 and D6 the same. Wondering if they used the regular bodies and just put different hardware on?

Jeff,
Good question. You gave me the incentive to finally break out the tape measure and check. A detailed response in this thread: http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopi ... 89#2622589

Cartwright Thompson · Post by **Cartwright Thompson** » 22 Apr 2017 6:03 am

[quote="Miles Lang"]When did Fender stop using the spaghetti logo on the front of D8 Stringmasters?[/quote]
I'd say early 60's but it is interesting to note that the black triple in the early 70's catalog posted above has the older style logo.

The Steel Guitar Forum

Show Us Your Stringmasters

Here's a shot from our last gig