The Steel Guitar Forum

The Fender quads thread seems to have run its course, so how about showing us your T8, either customs or stringmasters...here is one that I just sold, and kinda regret doing so.




and a custom I probably should have kept also:

Here's one I had about a dozen years ago.

Mine's on the way...late 50s SM sold by a fellow forumite. Walnut finish, seen a fair amount of wear over the years. Basically a "relic" version of Doug's, it looks like! I'll treat her nicely.

Doug, I was wondering this recently, about the "bass string neck". What strings did you put on yours, they are obviously of a thicker gauge. Does anyone make sets, or did you have to just buy individually? There's part of me that would like to put flatwounds on it to get a really deep, purring bass tone with minimal scratchiness from the winding...

Nic, I have a C6 baritone tuning on the outer neck. I bought the strings individually at my local music store:

[tab]C6 baritone tuning

G .024 w
E .030 w
C .034 w to 38 w
A .040 w to .044 w
G .044 w to .048 w
E .054 w to .058 w
C .064 w to .068 w
A .068 w to .072 w[/tab]

The Fender factory bass tuning was called Amajor/minor, a combination tuning. They put that on the quads (and maybe the T-8s?). I didn't think it was all that useful, so I decided to go with C6.

So far, this seems to be the "Triples you used to own" thread so here's the Custom I sold through the forum a year or so back. Yeah, I kind of regret it but I knew I wasn't going to lug it to a gig and I barely know what to do with two necks. Sigh, it was a beauty though.

Many thanks!! I'll probably be giving that a shot eventually, using low C6.

Here's mine.









C. E.

Wow guys, we have seen some beauties so far already, and here I was afraid people would not respond...Robert Jackson has a green one that he posted on another thread-(that one was my inspiration to start this thread) ..his is really striking also...I love the pics of all of these old steels...I think the triple is the right way to go...not nearly as cumbersome as the quad, perhaps not quite the bling of the quad, but a good compromise...I like having that 3rd neck for the Don Helms E13th, even tho I know having the A6th and C6th on the same steel gets criticized for being redundant. I didnt find the triple to be that awkward to lug around, altho I am sure I would the quad.

I think it's interesting that so many of us used to own triple necks.

My Gibson triple neck.






C. E.

Here is a Rickenbacker Triple I "used" to own:



BTW,this one was really light !

Very nice! How did she sound? I came very close to buying a Ric tripleneck that was on Reverb.com recently...went with the Stringmaster because it was a better deal, and if pickups ever needed replacing, an $80 Seymour Duncan Antiquity is a lot less painful than a $600 Lollar horseshoe. Still though, the Rics have always tugged at my heart strings (bought a 4003 bass when I was 18, and a huge Yes fan).

Here's a double that converts to a triple. I guess that counts

I bought this T-8 Stringmaster new in 1954.
I played it for several years and sold it when I got a Sho~Bud Fingertip pedal steel from Shot Jackson.
Several years later, the fellow who bought it passed away and I bought it back from his widow.
By the looks of the guitar, he must have played it with a claw hammer!
I completely disassembled it, refinished it and put it in the condition you see.

Nic Neufeld wrote:Very nice! How did she sound? I came very close to buying a Ric tripleneck that was on Reverb.com recently...went with the Stringmaster because it was a better deal, and if pickups ever needed replacing, an $80 Seymour Duncan Antiquity is a lot less painful than a $600 Lollar horseshoe. Still though, the Rics have always tugged at my heart strings (bought a 4003 bass when I was 18, and a huge Yes fan).

The Rickenbacker sounded good, but in actuality not as good as my D8 Ricky does...not sure why, perhaps it was the hollow body on that T8...I think you made a good choice going with the Stringmaster...I am trying to swing a deal on one myself

Larry Lenhart wrote: The Rickenbacker sounded good, but in actuality not as good as my D8 Ricky does...not sure why, perhaps it was the hollow body on that T8...I think you made a good choice going with the Stringmaster...I am trying to swing a deal on one myself

Yeah, the R triple I looked at had kind of a hollow box frame but not the metal frame around the edges, it looked like an organ console almost with the side panels. I wondered if that kind of construction could influence sustain. Pretty guitar, to be sure, but destined for someone else!

Larry Lenhart wrote:I think the triple is the right way to go...not nearly as cumbersome as the quad,

Well, as far as the Triple Custom is concerned, I would say it IS nearly as cumbersome as a quad.

That big gap between necks 1 and 2 is almost wide enough to fit another neck and certainly my Custom T8 is pretty much as heavy as my short scale quad.

Most of my gigs currently are on my double neck but when I need more than 2 necks, I usually decide that I might as well take the quad (I use the same gig bag for either).

I agree though that, from the audience perspective, a quad doesn't look half as impressive as if you are standing right next to it.

To me the D8 seems the best compromise for portability and versatility if you're prepared to re-tune or can just do most of your stuff in a couple tunings. The quad is an impressive beast. I probably really wanted a triple, but ended up with a rare long scale quad. I still rarely use the 4th neck. Either way would be cumbersome to gig with. I'm much more likely to tote my D8 somewhere.

Westwind T9 Keyless by Roy Thomas of Pedalmaster Steel Guitars.....

Gone but not forgotten - I really enjoyed this Console Grande while I had it.

Here are two pics of my almost complete restoration of 1956 Fender Triple Neck Stringmaster

I forgot, I've got a Rickenbacker also.

Nice steel, Erv. I watched a video recently where Jimmy Day played a similar, if not exact, steel on a Jim Reeves performance.

C. E.

Thanks, C.E.
Erv