The Steel Guitar Forum

Considering picking up a dual pro because they look sweet and (IMHO) have a little more bandstand appeal than my deluxe-8... and I could use an E neck for hank tunes.

Wondering if anyone has experience comparing the playability of the two instruments... my deluxe-8 is so speedy, I love it for twin guitar/single note runs and solos. Are dual pros similarly speedy? How does the string spacing compare?

All input appreciated, thanks.

From your picture it looks like you like to keep your right hand close to the bridge. If you like to do string muting at the bridge, those big trapezoid pickups on a dual-pro will get in the way. They do sound and look great though. They don't seem to bother Kayton Roberts.

IMO the trapezoid pickups have a more raw sound than the string-over pickups. Think of Santo's tone on the original SleepWalk. He played a Custom (T-8 with traps) on that record, in spite of the album cover showing him playing a Stringmaster.
Like Bill said, if you do a lot of picking/muting close to the bridge, you'll find that those massive string-through pickups are in the way. You won't be able to lay your hand on the bridge to mute the strings. My video of "Bouquet of Roses" shows this pretty clearly ---> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGmHedfrA0w

thanks for the input guys. doug your playing on that reminds me so much of my favorite little roy wiggins records -- you nailed it.

Thanks, Adam. Little Roy played a lot of "ting-a-ling" picking on early hit records like Bouquet of Roses by Eddy Arnold and others. When I was a young player I didn't like that sound because I thought it was "dated". But now that I'm older and wiser I like it, and audiences really notice the ting-a-ling picking and they like it.

Adam Nero wrote:thanks for the input guys. doug your playing on that reminds me so much of my favorite little roy wiggins records -- you nailed it.

Yup, just awesome playing by Doug.

Personally, I like the Pro much better almost across the board in terms of playability and tone. But that's just me.

Mike Neer wrote:Personally, I like the Pro much better almost across the board in terms of playability and tone. But that's just me.

thanks mike. a couple very fairly priced dual pros have popped up in the last few months... hope another one happens soon.

I'm tempted by the Fender Pros as well. Anyone know if they were made in different scale lengths?

Joe Burke wrote:I'm tempted by the Fender Pros as well. Anyone know if they were made in different scale lengths?

Also curious about this.

As far as I know, all of the D-8 and T-8 Fenders with trapezoid pickups were 22 1/2" scale length.

By the way, the name "Dual Professional" only appeared on the early D-8s, the ones in the late 1940s and maybe early 50s. Especially the early ones with no legs. Today we call all of these D-8s "Dual Pro", but most of them do not say Dual Professional on them. Most just have FENDER, Fullerton California on the tag.

Adam Nero wrote:thanks for the input guys. doug your playing on that reminds me so much of my favorite little roy wiggins records -- you nailed it.

Yup, just awesome playing by Doug.

Thanks Scott!

Kayton does cool muted marimba fx on a Dual Pro with traps. Having owned both a triple custom and a Stringmaster, I prefer the traps. The action was equivalent. The swamp ash custom had incredible sustain unplugged. Not sure if walnut dual pros differ.

I wouldn't say that my walnut Pro has great sustain. The notes die quickly IMO ...as compared to my Stringmaster. What I like about the guitar is the brash, stinging sound of the trapezoid pickups. It's not a mellow sound. It's a more "in your face" sound. I keep going back to Santo's sound on SleepWalk. Another thing worth mentioning... both of the trap pickups on my Pro measure over 11K ohms. That is quite strong for a pickup of that era.

I too prefer the sound of my Dual Pro and Custom Triple to the Stringmaster.

I learned on a Gibson BR-9 so don't use palm muting anyway so the trap pickups aren't a problem for me. I keep the bridge covers on my Stringmaster too.

The dual pro's volume and tone control are in a more ideal location and tone is hard to beat. The the wider string spacing helps a little with slants on the lower frets.
I personally like the smaller size, and the 4 legs of the Stringmaster, I can play a double neck on my lap with any problems and the 4 legs seem more stable. The Stringmaster has a nice tone, but the Dual Pro's tone IMO is quite a bit better. Doug's description is spot on.

Mike

I like the Dual Pro's tone over the Stringmaster too. I feel like it is more touch sensitive and that makes it more interesting to me. But it depends on what you're after in a sound if you'd think it is better or not.

Thanks to Adam for asking this as I am also interested in the dual pro...I have stringmaster T8 and I really love that steel, but I would also like to try the dual pro.