The Steel Guitar Forum

I'm looking at doing a trade with a forum member on a '53 Stringmaster, and it appears to be one of the early models with a 26 inch scale. My understanding is that this scale length has some positives and negatives, but the one I'd like to learn more about is what bar slants are like on a 26 inch scale?

For reference, I'm mostly a blues player and primarily play squareneck dobro in DADF#AD. The slants I tend to use most are one fret apart on consecutive of adjacent strings. I'll occasionally use a two-fret slant across the top three strings, but I'm not great with them yet.

Can anyone comment with their experience barring at this scale length? Does anyone use a longer bar to get around the stretch? Just curious.

Thanks
Justin

If you have been playing a standard Dobro the scale difference should not present that much of a difference. The lower frets are where the slants will show the most.
There is a certain pride in playing a piece of history that helps to overcome any warts and flaws. Like driving an old sports car, there have been improvements and changes that may make it seem "obsolete" but it is so cool to be a member of the classic guitar club any challenges melt away.
These very early Stringmasters have switches and tuner maintainence issues that every 60 or so years should be adressed but don't freak or replace anything that stops working, it can easily be dealt with.
Good luck.

Makes sense. What does it mean that this model doesn't have a blend control knob?

I agree with these guys. The longer scale length - even longer than my 24+ inch scale 8 string - is no real problem but will require some adjustment if you want to do 3 fret slants in the very lowest range. You may need a slightly longer bar than the one you use on the Dobro, but maybe not.

Overall that Fender looks like a sweet piece of musical history.

It's hard to play slants in tune below fret 5 on a long scale Stringmaster... slants on adjacent strings, that is. The string spacing is fairly tight on a Stringmaster, which doesn't help.

The Stringmaster shown here is an early one... chrome pickup covers, early style of switches, and no blend control. There's something odd about the body... this looks like the inner two necks of a Quad. Possibly refinished too.

A positive: the longer the scale length, the longer the sustain.
From the picture, I see nothing odd about the guitar other than the original finish is gone and the bridge covers are missing.

Doug Beaumier wrote:It's hard to play slants in tune below fret 5 on a long scale Stringmaster... slants on adjacent strings, that is. The string spacing is fairly tight on a Stringmaster, which doesn't help.
.

I'll agree, maybe your description of "hard" to play slants in tune below fret 5 is more accurate than my optimistic "will require some adjustment" !

Thanks guys, this is great information!

Speaking of string spacing, I haven't played a Stringmaster yet, but used to own a '54 Dual Professional. Can anyone comment on the string spacing between the two?

From an old Forum thread:

'54 Stringmaster
at nut: 2 3/16"
bridge: 2 7/16"

Dual Pro
at nut: 2 3/16"
bridge: 2 11/16"

Thanks Doug! Love your videos ☺️

Thanks Justin.

I'm new to this forum and am amazed that so many professionals are posting here. I really appreciate it.

David M Brown wrote:I'm new to this forum and am amazed that so many professionals are posting here. I really appreciate it.

Well said, David. I couldn't agree more.

Here's a follow-up question: I've read that 26" long-scale steels sometimes need lighter strings to prevent breakage for some tunings. Can anyone comment on how big of an issue this is? I'm coming from playing open D, open E, or low/high-G. I'm thinking I would like to set up one of the necks for E7 or a step lower for D7, and don't have plans for the other neck yet. Am I likely to run into any issues with these tunings? Just trying to get a feel for what to expect.

Doug Beaumier wrote:There's something odd about the body... this looks like the inner two necks of a Quad

What makes you think that?

As far as I know the only way you could work out that the necks were the middle two from a quad would be by looking closely at the leg sockets (which would have been added), the logo on the front and the hole drilled for the wiring to go to the 4th neck etc.

I can't think of any clues you could pick up by looking straight down on the guitar as in that picture.

Justin Lee wrote:Here's a follow-up question: I've read that 26" long-scale steels sometimes need lighter strings to prevent breakage for some tunings. Can anyone comment on how big of an issue this is? I'm coming from playing open D, open E, or low/high-G. I'm thinking I would like to set up one of the necks for E7 or a step lower for D7, and don't have plans for the other neck yet. Am I likely to run into any issues with these tunings? Just trying to get a feel for what to expect.

You can put whatever tunings you want, just make sure you use the correct gauges (buy individual strings, not off the shelf sets).

If you used the gauges on this page you wouldn't go far wrong. Use the thinnest recommended string in each instance as you have a long scale guitar.

http://www.hawaiiansteel.com/learning/gauges.php

Jeff, thank you for the link to the tuning page, that was exactly what I need 👍

Since it was mentioned that something may look off about this guitar I figured I'd post the rest of the photos I've seen of it. Aside from the fact that it appears to have been stripped of the original finish, I'd be curious to know what you guys notice about it.

I only mentioned it because I've seen so many orphan Stringmaster necks and they look a lot like this. Just a thought I had. Seeing the additional pictures makes me think it's probably an original D-8 and not part of a quad.

The only thing I notice are the missing bridge covers and it appears that when the finish was stripped a replacement logo (Fender) decal was applied to the front.

Thanks for the qc Erv! Sounds okay to me.

As far as the high string goes, I was able to get a high G# on mine if I turned it up to pitch gradually. The G shouldn't be a problem

The case is larger than an original case for a D8 SM.

The case does look like a triple from the photos

I think it all depends on where the legs are placed.
On the original Stringmaster cases, the legs were placed in the cover.
On cases, like those made for pedal steel, the legs are in a compartment alongside the guitar. That would require a wider case.