The Steel Guitar Forum

Hello all

I am restoring a fender stringmaster and need to know how big the rods are for joining the necks and nuts. Where can I buy the pots.

Thank You
Dennis Voges

How many necks?

Did you mean how thick or how long?

I ordered 1/4” UNC Threaded Bar

I was lucky enough to have the original nuts so I ordered the exact thread but of course, if you are using your own nuts yours may be different.

I got 8.8 High Tensile Zinc Plated but have no idea what that spec actually means, only that the rods haven't broken so far (5 or 6 years).

Actually, thinking about this, unless you are using the same style nuts to hold it together, the rod/bolt might need to be a different length than the original. As you can see from this picture, the nuts extend into the guitar a but so the ends are flush with the edge. The actual bolts don't protrude from either end so "standard" nuts wouldn't work as the rods wouldn't be long enough.

You should also probably have those spacers that go between the necks (or find something similar) which help to support it (even with the rods removed, they help to hold the necks together a bit). If you aren't using them, I suspect the necks might sag a bit. I'm sure they are important as Leo wasn't one for redundant components.

Jeff,
You are absolutely correct!
Erv

For the nuts, this might work. In the McMaster Carr catalog they are "Binding Barrels" but I've seen them advertised as "Chicago bolts" and "Sex bolts". Sometimes the nuts can be purchased separately.
https://www.mcmaster.com/sex-bolts/18-8 ... ze~1-4-20/
and from Bolt Depot https://www.boltdepot.com/Sex_bolts.aspx