Help with questions on a D-8 fender steel has 3 legs

Bill Taft · Post by **Bill Taft** » 17 Feb 2008 8:25 pm

Can someone help me date an older fender stringmaster D-8 I think it is a stringmaster 34" long has 2 pickups on each neck and it looks like someone added leg sockets need to know as I might sell or trade for a SD-10 with pedals. here is my email-btaft@socket.net if you need a photo send me your email I dont know how to run this machine good enough to upload so I would have to send one picture at a time.
The steel is brown with 2 diamonds on the front and 2 small diamonds on the back and a metal plate between the necks reads fender fuller california.
Thanks for any help

Clyde Mattocks · Post by **Clyde Mattocks** » 17 Feb 2008 9:10 pm

Bill, if you will remove the tuner pans, you will find written in crayon, the month and year of assembly of your guitar.

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 18 Feb 2008 8:14 am

Some pictures would help.
To my knowledge, there were no D-8 Stringmasters built with 3 legs, just single neck models.

Bill Brummett · Post by **Bill Brummett** » 18 Feb 2008 11:36 am

Erv Niehaus wrote:Some pictures would help.
To my knowledge, there were no D-8 Stringmasters built with 3 legs, just single neck models.

That's correct. I have an original Fender Catalog from 1954 that shows all their products of that time. All the Stringmasters had 4 legs. (In the '54 catalog, there are no single neck Stringmasters listed.) Incidentally, all of the Stringmasters in '54 are the 26" string length. (I have a T-8 like that). The catalog also implies that the 26" was the first generation of the Stringmaster. I know they later went to 24".

Also listed are the "Custom" T-8 Triple neck and the "Dual Eight and Dual 6 Professional models. These had a 22" string length and used the trapezoid shaped "diamond head" pickups that the strings go through. (I have a D-8 of this model) All of these models use 3 legs. There was also a "Deluxe" model like this that was a single neck, 8 string. It had 3 legs.

They aslo made a single neck 6 string "Student" guitar that had no legs.

Based on this oficial information, I would guess that the guitar in question is a "Dual 8 Professional" and not a Stringmaster

Bill Creller · Post by **Bill Creller** » 18 Feb 2008 7:57 pm

If it has two pickups on each neck it isn't a Dual-Pro. Maybe the leg sockets were only replacements for the originals?? Fender used welded steel chromed sockets, and the aftermarket types are usually machined from aluminum. If you remove one of the sockets you may find out if the recess in the body is original, or added later.
Maybe it's a "mystery guitar"

If it has two pickups per neck and had no original legs, it really WOULD be a mystery.
On the other hand, maybe its made up of two center necks from a T8 or quad, which would have no evidence of leg sockets.??