I hate to do this after all the restoration I did but I need to move this beauty or Santa is gonna have to explore the exciting world of bank robbery to get the job done this year. Here's the facts: I got this ax about 4 or 5 years ago and it was a mess - large square holes hacked all the way through it between the necks,re-finished poorly maybe a couple times,holes drilled here and there,etc. But it was all there and it worked and sounded great. If there was ever a guitar that deserved a restoration this was it - there was no argument to be made to leave it as is - none. It was way over that line. So I stripped it,had a master cabinetmaker square up the holes and inlay matching swamp ash into the cavities. I then prepped,filled and sanded for weeks till every inch of the guitar was perfect and then had it refinished by Pat Wilkins
http://www.wilkinsguitars.com/index.html who is the best in the biz in L.A. Pat and I poured over other aged Stringmasters,Strats and Teles and then he mixed up a special color "faded banana pudding" just for this project. I also had all the metal parts re-chromed by Astro Plating in Van Nuys and miraculously found 3 new old stock 24" Stringmaster fretboards on E-Bay that had never been on a guitar. What you have now looks like a brand new guitar that's been under the bed since 1956 without a hint of a trace of the previous damage. The way Pat sprayed it,it lookes just a little faded around the edges like an old guitar except there's no dings or scratches whatsoever. All tuners are smooth,tight and work perfectly,all the electrics work as they should and it's got
The Tone. It's truly been re-born. Non-original very nice custom built case. A lot of time,cash,love and labor went into this thing - more than I can ever recover with mere money. Obviously it wouldn't appeal to a hard core collector but for an actual steel player - a show band player who craves something like this - behold:
This is the horn I played onstage with The Riders Of The Purple Sage and on Red Simpson's CD "The Bard Of Bakersfield" and a slew of other records.
Right now it's strung up E13,G11 and Murph's C6/A9
Lots more pictures on request including full coverage of every step of the restoration which I will also include in the purchase.
It will truly be a merry christmas for whoever ends up with this guitar.
I need to get $2500 firm for it on this forum or it's going on Ebay next week starting at $3K. If it doesn't sell,I guess I'm supposed to keep it.
my goodness, that's beautiful.
If you want to have an ongoing discussion, please email me, don't use the Forum messaging which I detest! 
