The Steel Guitar Forum

Hi everyone

I am restoring a fender stringmaster triple 8.My question is should I include the blend control or leave it off. What is the blend control used for.

Thanks
Dennis Voges

Yes, for sure...part of the Fender sound. The blend enables a mix of the front & back pick-ups. Others may reply with a more technical explanation, but for a true restoration, you should include the blend wheel.

The pickups are basically wired in series with the blend knob blending the neck pickup in/out. So full on, you have a two coil in series humbucker, full off, just the bridge single coil.

As to whether to include it, I would default to yes if it is a mkII style (the early ones did not have one, and had an integrated blend/capacitor on the tone knob). The only caveat is what you are restoring it for...if purely as a player, for yourself, then it's up to your preferences. On my Stringmaster I never, ever use it and leave it full on...I always want the fuller, richer tone for the way I play. So I could get away with skipping the blend knob, but most people would like at least having the option (maybe for country and western swing folks would like the brighter, thinner tone?)

I agree with Nic. Personally, I always have it full on (humbucker mode)and, because of its position under the cover, I always assumed it was a "set and forget" knob. But it's still nice to have the option. I never really understood why they went to the trouble of making and fitting the thumbwheel - the bare pot shaft works fine on its own. I think it's a cool/quirky Stringmaster feature, worth implementing.

For me it's a useful control. On my D-8, I leave the string covers off so I can reach it. For the front neck C6/13 my default setting is both pickups for a lusher tone. For the back neck E13, I often try to mimic A&B pedal sound on a Fender 400. That's where I'll start out with single pickup setting sounds, add a little bit of second pickup if the sound needs thickening.