The Steel Guitar Forum

Hey there- I'm new to the Forum and have been playing lap steel for a couple of years. Currently I own a mid-60's 'entry level' 6-string steel, not even sure of the brand as there is no obvious indicator on it. I am considering buying a Fender Dual 6 Pro from a friend. I included a couple of pics so you can get an idea of the cosmetic condition.

Tonally, it is blowing me away, and I like the prospect of using two necks to have both a Major and Minor tuning at my disposal. He is asking $1000 for this Dual 6, which I am told is from 1950/51. Any opinions on this price? I've read very few discouraging comments about these steels in general and have to agree that it sounds phenomenal.

I've never played an 8 string steel of any sort, but am considering looking into one of these instead of this Dual 6 as it seems the extra two strings would make for a much more versatile instrument...Any guidance/advice would be greatly appreciated.

Tyler

I would think the D-6 is sort of a rare bird--I don't know that I've seen more than 1 or 2.

I would say the pricing can be all over the place on these guitars. That steel looks real nice with it's original finish. As long as the electronics are all functional with no problems, I think the price is fair.

I have a T-8 that was a refin, but it sounds great and I bought it for a nice low price. I'm very happy with the sound of those trapezoid pickups.

Aren't those the tuners that are real hard to replace/fix if they go bad?

They are easy to fix--they're not sealed. You do have to be careful with string gauges, though. I suggest consulting a chart of suggested gauges for each note of your tuning. These tuners will strip.

Mike- I did restring it using a chart I found online, but is there a trusted one you can recommend?

Anyone else out there have any recommendations about the pricing of this steel? I greatly appreciate any input.

if you want a D6 - i dont think you can beat this for $1000, like Mike said, these are rare, and on top of that, the vintage guitar guys snap these up whereas they dont care at all for the D8 model...
i doubt you'd find a playable, org cond D-6/8 for much less than $800 unless it was a random yard sale.

- i will add that the first thing you should do before stringing it up, esp if its been sitting for years, is pull the tuner pans and check, clean & re-lube the gears - over time, the 60yr old factory lube will harden and fail and if there are ANY cracks in the brazing where you can wiggle the tuner, you must get that fixed, thats why these fail, the tuner comes loose from the pan and causes the gear and worm to wear out. I've had 2 strip out on me and it aint cheap to fix these.

discouraging comments? not on these steels! - outside of ANYTHING you buy that is 50+ years old comes with its risks, but IMO, thats like saying you can only get 1 sound out of a '51 blackguard Tele...

I have a Fender Custom T8 which was restored by the late John Bechtel. John painted it a beautiful silver color or pewter color as it is actually called. Rick Alexander had it at the time of his death. Anyway like Mike said the trapozid pickups are awesome. The T8 Custom sounds better than my stringmasters. I haven't had any problem with the tuners and I have not been careful about string guages but I will from now on. I guess I have been lucky. You can't go wrong with the tone of these guitars. The wide string spacing feels good to me also.

I have a '52 D6 and I absolutely love it. When I received it, modifications included a Model T gas pedal chained to the 1st two strings & a rough black paint job. I removed the pedal assembly & planned to refinish it. I've decided against refinishing it because it plays & sounds great as is. I'd snatch that one up before your friend changes his mind!

I have a 56 D6 Stringmaster style Fender in good condition. All origional parts and case. I paid $1200 for it 2 years ago which was high but not that many daul 6's around. I would not sell it for any price at this point in my musicial journey.

Mike Neer wrote:They are easy to fix--they're not sealed. You do have to be careful with string gauges, though. I suggest consulting a chart of suggested gauges for each note of your tuning. These tuners will strip.

Has anyone written a "how to" on this? I have a '48 Dual Professional that was acquired with one tuner bent - not broken - at a 45-degree angle. (I would love to know how that happened, but I suspect that the three legs may be a root cause.)

I also bought into the "irreplacable" thing and have been tuning that string carefully for 20 years now.

Bill, have you tried to "unbend" the tuner? I don't know that it would be easy to replace the one tuner.

Mike Neer wrote:Bill, have you tried to "unbend" the tuner? I don't know that it would be easy to replace the one tuner.

LIAR! You said it would be easy.

Actually, I have done nothing. I assume that bending would require some heating, and I was afraid of doing some additional damage by the heating.

If you want to try bending it back into place (no guarantees), hold a soldering pencil to the shaft. That way, you are keeping the heat away from the other parts of the assembly.

Trying to straighten a bent tuner is very risky. They usually break, even if heated... so I was told by my local guitar repair shop. I would say just live with the bent tuner, if it works okay.

As far as those Fender lollipop tuners, the very early ones were welded to the underside of the tuner pan and could not be removed or replaced easily. Later lollipop tuners were held in place by a screw and could easily be removed.

What are the most desirable products for cleaning and re-lubricating the tuning gears? Things to stay away from?

Thanks