I need a little vintage Fender advice

John Rosett · Post by **John Rosett** » 13 Feb 2017 11:05 am

I have a 1951 Fender T-8 custom that was cut down to a double neck. Last year, I got an original Dual Professional body, that I believe was earlier, and had boxcar pickups, and my plan was to refinish it and put the parts from the cut down guitar on it.
Well, I am done with the finishing, and getting ready to reassemble the guitar. The first problem that I noticed is that the nail holes in the fretboards don't line up with the holes on the body. Then I noticed that the tuner pans don't fit-the edge at the very end of the guitar is wider than the T-8, and will require some wood removal before the pans will fit. It looks like I can just remove about 1/4" of wood at the far end of the holes, and the pans will drop in, but I thought that I'd stop here and ask for any advice and /or insight on this project.
Were the tuner pans different on the boxcar pickup guitars and the trap pickup guitars? Was there a scale length difference? Any other thoughts? Thanks!

John Rosett · Post by **John Rosett** » 13 Feb 2017 11:33 am

I measured the distance between the tuner pan mounting screw hole nearest to the nut, and the center mounting screw hole for the pickup base plate, and the D-8 is about 3/16" further apart than the T-8. ?????

Bill Quinn · Post by **Bill Quinn** » 15 Feb 2017 10:43 am

Possibly the bridge on the boxcar is in a slightly different position when positioned on its mounting plate , as compared to a trap pickups bridge on its mounting plate.

Dave Mayes · Post by **Dave Mayes** » 15 Feb 2017 2:49 pm

The first tuners had a shorter nut. They also had a wider tuner shaft stabilizing block in the center of the pan....not sure what it might have been called.

Some forum member also mentioned the early roman numeral fret boards were a little different as well. Were they shorter, or were the fret marker positions off a little? Don't recall.

Hope this helps.