The Steel Guitar Forum

So I recently picked up a Fender Stringmaster with one 8 string neck and one 6 string neck. Weird conversion whoever did it but it looks and sounds awesome. I want to replace the strings that are currently on there. What are the standard strings that any professional lap steel player would use? I just want to make sure they're the best ones I can get. Also what tunings would work great for this? I want to cover as much ground as possible.

Thanks!

Ethan Seay wrote:So I recently picked up a Fender Stringmaster with one 8 string neck and one 6 string neck. Weird conversion whoever did it but it looks and sounds awesome. I want to replace the strings that are currently on there. What are the standard strings that any professional lap steel player would use? I just want to make sure they're the best ones I can get. Also what tunings would work great for this? I want to cover as much ground as possible.

Thanks!

First.... a picture or it never happened
You’re bound to get a lot of suggestions for tunings, and part of the fun with lap steel is the experimentation.
But, the C6 at the bottom of the 6 string tunings, and the E13 at the top of the 8 string tunings on Cindy Cashdollar’s site might be good starting points
http://cindycashdollar.com/tunings/

Here's a pic of it!

String quality is rarely a concern these days... you should be more concerned about the tunings you choose.

As others have suggested, Cindy Cashdollar's stringing and tunings would be a great place to start. I myself use C6 high G and E13 Leon on my two-neck instruments. You can use Cindy's gauges, however your guitar is a short-scale (as are mine), so you could consider going higher one step in gauge.

John Ely's string gauge charts are a great resource for choosing string gauges... the SGF normally maintains a store, but it's down right now I understand. I often use pedal sets and piece the strings together I want for my tunings.

For you, I'd choose high-bass G for the 6 and C6 high-G for the 8. Good luck.

Ethan Seay wrote:Here's a pic of it!

Wow! That looks sweet!!!

Here’s a link to the John Ely string gauge chart
https://www.hawaiiansteel.com/graphics/ ... _chart.pdf

I have so many guitars in different tuning that I used to buy Ernie Ball strings by the gauge from Musicians Friend.
I referenced the string gauges from John Ely's charts
Erv

Bought the single neck off the forum "stringmaster from the 50's. One neck is plenty for me. Also have a 7 string Melobar SXL I bought off the Forum some time ago. Lots of fun. Tune that one to G6. Sweet dreams are made of these. Happy Trails Mike C

Once you figure out guages, juststrings.com has single strings. They sell good quality 'no-name' strings at a very fair price. Excellent customer service.

I use Juststrings also. Great service and price. The forum here is a good place to shop also when the store is open again. I buy the 8 string sets. they are SIT strings. Work fine. Happy Trails. BE well. Mike C

Looks nice! The way things tend to go is...figure out what music you want to play...then figure out your tunings...then figure out your string sets/gauges.

So first, I guess, what styles of music are you playing? If you're doing Hawaiian, jazz, country, rock, blues...the recommendations will likely vary.

When my primary instrument was a T-8 Stringmaster, I would decide on which neck to play depending on what key the song was to be written in.
Erv