The Steel Guitar Forum

Hello,

Ive got a 1954 SM and it is missing one of the bridge covers. I was wondering if anyone knows where I might be able to find a replacement? It's the style of bridge cover that screws down.

Thanks!

Mine project is missing both of them. The cover is the same overall width as the outside of the pickup ring, 3 7/8" (98.4mm). The bridge itself is not as wide, about 3". Maybe a cover off a standard guitar might fit, unfortunately, the bass guitar ones are too wide. Not perfect, but might work, will do some measuring next Tuesday Night at the local Yacht Club Jam night.

Jim

Contact Forum Member Jimmy Hudson, last I recall he was producing After Market String Master Parts.

After that there are a few part out folks on eBay,
that receive constant complaints on this forum not about the quality or over priced item's
but because these folks apparently strip use able instruments for profit.

I got some parts from Jimmie, very nicely done and a reasonable price, but, I don't think he makes these parts for the original Stringmaster, which the two-of us have. Compared to the later ones, the parts are really almost impossible to find. I don't think any of the proprietary metal parts of the later 1955 -on Stringmaster will directly work on the earlier 1952-54 MarK 1 model. The bridge cover of the Mark 1 is completely different and Screws down, the later one hinges on the bridge rod.

I had some of the flatwrork for my Mark i, control plates, pickup rings, bridge, etc, drawn up and a few pieces laser cut out of stainless plate about 8 years ago. However , not not the bridge cover because I didn't have one, which also needs to be formed.

I dug out my Mark 1 bodies yesterday, but getting to the metal parts will take a few more days. I will see if Jimmie's bridge cover can be made to screw down, maybe with some spacers. That's why I thought a bridge cover from the normal guitar world might be made to work, not original but functional.

Check out the ones Brad Davis had made from aluminum at the end of this thread:

https://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtop ... t&start=25

As I recall, he had them made by a machinist that owed him a favor and didn't have plans to make any more but maybe we could talk him into it. I could use two on my project.

Unfortunately long-scale Stringmaster bridge covers are as rare as hens' teeth. Although I haven't checked constantly, in the past year I have seen precisely one long scale tuner pan and one bridge cover for sale on eBay. I bought the tuner pan, and I think I later sold it to Bill here.

I was able to procure an original bridge cover in a lot of parts guitars, which had the plating stripped and removed. It wasn't really usable as-is (and I needed 4), but I used it as a pattern for a machinist to create a set of 4 near copies for me out of milled aluminum for my quad. I still haven't had them chrome plated, but I think they will do the job nicely and be impossible for the untrained eye to tell the difference. UNFORTUNATELY, I was only able to get these by a special arrangement, and my machinist has since retired and could no longer access the equipment used. But short of recreating the original die and some skilled use of a press it was the only way I knew of to come close to producing these parts again. Took a specialized industrial machinist and equipment with the ability to create computer models and patterns and reproduce them in milled steel or aluminum.

The long scales were produced in some numbers, and are very special, but they only had a run of a couple years or less, so most parts are for later SM models and are generally not interchangeable. Speaking of which, I just put in a modest bid on a rather clean 53 D8 and won it, bridge covers and everything else intact. Should have it next week

Hi everyone,

Thanks for all the input. I would be open to going in with some folks to get some of the covers made. I'll just keep an eye out and maybe something will come up. It's not the end of the would missing the cover but I would love to get the guitar completed someday!

The guitar isn't complete without the covers.

Well, maybe. But it looks kinda mean and sounds just as good.

I'm still playing my quad without the covers, you get used to it, may even be more convenient depending on how you play. Puts that Fender utilitarian industrial design aesthetic on full display. Think of it like taking the bridge cover off of a Tele (if it even came with one).

And that D8 is looking good Bill!

Being the outside the box type of guy I am, I got to thinking about other hardware that could be adapted. First I thought of other guitar parts and discovered that I was going to have to measure the actual parts to see if they could be adapted. If someone tooled this it would be an act of love, there's just not enough demand to economically justify it.

Then I thought of adapting Penn Elcom speaker connector pans, have one, checked out a few others, , to small, too wide, not deep enough, won't work.

Going to look at the stainless pans used on truck boxes and ambulance door locks, I have a retired ambulance that I am going to use for carrying equipment to sound jobs.

Next was the idea of getting some small brass right angle, soldering or screwing it to one of Jimmie Hudson's later Stringmaster bridge covers, would work, maybe not look perfect.

This morning I thought of maybe a transformer cover, found a few possible donor types on line, have to do some cutting and grinding, then plating, still much easier than having some one tool the thing, might even not look to bad. The Mark 1 bridge cover is 3 7/8 (3.875) inches or 98.5 mm long.

Here's a link to one that might be close, your ideas?????

http://www.mableaudio.com/en/productview.asp?sid=501

Jim,
Interesting approach. Please report back here if you try it. I thought about trying to shorten one of these:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/GENUINE-GRETSC ... SwStdbDLwV

Open back though.

I looked at that one, initially looked nice, it's too long, kind of messy trying to take a chunk out of the middle, but maybe. The Fender bass covers look good too, but again too long. The Mark 1 body is just a touch over 4 1/2 inches wide, there's got to be something out there that can be made to fit, maybe by shortening the cover of a Tele or a Strat, just have to find one to measure.

It would not be too hard to bend up a simple Stainless Strap like cover.

Last night during my lesson my teacher was showing me what I could do in terms of palm muting right over the bridge, with the implication of removing my Stringmaster bridge covers, but ........I just can't do it. I like it just as it is!

...that said, if I had a guitar that came to me without them, it looks just fine without them and I wouldn't sweat the absence of the covers. But hopefully you'll find what you're after. I'll echo the plug for Jimmie Hudson who helped me get replacement nuts that worked better with the high gauge bass strings on the tuning I am using.