The Steel Guitar Forum

Rick,
That is really ugly with the cover off. I think I will keep my cover on.

One of the things I do not like about the Magnatone is the set of three legs. It is much more unstable. It is very difficult to play it standing.

Aloha and Happy New Year,
Don

I totally agree! My T-8 has 4 legs, but the D-8 is only 3 and it's sooo unstable. I need to find a table/stand for it.

I have a Magnatone catalog picture from the late 50s...(1957 I think), which shows the double pick up, long scale style which is pictured above. I'm curious if anyone out there has any Magnatone catalogs from earlier years, showing the style of Don and Ricks's, with the single pickup? From my understanding, those are from the late 40's/early 50's. But, I sure would like to confirm with a catalog. Magnatone table steels fascinate me. I wonder if any quad necks still exist somewhere? Keoki Lake used to own one...I don't know how many were made, or have survived over the years...surely there are more out there that need a good home and a little TLC...

Gerald,
When I bought the steel, I did a partial disassemble to clean the metal parts, etc. As a matter of fact, the picture was taken during that process....you can tell because I started on the middle neck (the other two necks had complete string sets on them and I wanted to play it) so the tuners on the middle neck are shiny compared to the other two necks.
I did a date code check on the pots and they came out to be 1955.
I don't know of any other way to check a Maggie.
Jay

Legs and leg sockets are availabe to covert the D8 to a four leg.

I think it would be very easy to make a piece which would fit under the solitary front leg to stabilize it. I'm thinking along the lines of a socket facing upwards with a 1' flat piece of metal or even wood. Make sense?

Now, I am glad I talked about my wobbly 3-legged Magnatone in a previous post, because some your ideas have generated possible solutions to alleviate the problem.

I don't want to change it from a 3-legged to 4-legged because I think that would affect the value, but Mike Neer's idea is a solid idea for me.

Aloha,
Don

Jeff Au Hoy re:

I had a '57 Fender Stringmaster D-8. Played it for about a year, then got the double pickup Magnatone D-8 which I immediately liked better for its tone and string spacing. Dumped the Fender. Then recently I got the Stringmaster itch again. I think a lot of it was me buying into the hype. Got myself a '53 Fender Stringmaster D-8. Now I'm realizing I don't care for the Stringmaster sound at all. I'm sure now that I prefer the Magnatone sound over the Fender. The Magnatone's a great instrument.


Jeff, you probably don,t remember, but I heard you @ a Waikiki hotel bar in the first week of November.

We talked for a few minutes.......Anyway, I can't recall your equipment, but whatever you were using........don't change a thing, Your tone was killer that night.

I love my Stringmasters. I also love my Magnatone Lyric D-8. They have very different vibes. I use my Stringmasters for country and western swing that I do for a living and my Magnatone is used for playing at home. Different styles seem to require different sounds, but if they are good sounds, you can live with all of them.

Here's an "embedded" MOT Magnatone pup... that I'm about to rebuild for a friend of mine ...

Air coil

To the surgeon of steel guitars,

Surgeries or operations always appear kinda ugly or gory, but are very much appreciated after they are over for the results they normally bring.

Thanks Rick for the informative pictures.

Aloha,

are those clear volume/tone knobs original? I have old Fender knobs on mine like the clear ones a lot better. Anyone know where I could find them and also a set of keys to match? Mine aren't bad but will need replaced someday. The knobs look so much cooler than the old white fenders

are those clear volume/tone knobs original?

I believe they are.

I have one tuning key starting to become a problem with slipping. Any suggestions out there?

Aloha,
Don

Don Kona Woods wrote:

are those clear volume/tone knobs original?

I believe they are.

I have one tuning key starting to become a problem with slipping. Any suggestions out there?

Aloha,
Don

Replace the tuners with faux Klusons that are generally available and preserve the originals, which are going to be nearly impossible to replace. As far as a repair goes, I'd probably start my thinking along the lines of a small amount of epoxy. You could also make new buttons from clear lucite or plexiglass, maybe. You'd have to polish them pretty well to get them to be transparent after the cutting and shaping, though. The faux Klusons have the same footprint as tuners on my Magnatone. At least you can delay making a repair and spend more time getting information about it.