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Topic: Fender Deluxe 8 mid 90's tone |
Twayn Williams
From:
Portland, OR
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Posted 9 Jan 2020 1:49 pm |
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I recently picked up a Japan-made mid 90's Fender Deluxe 8. I also have a USA mid 60's D8 Stringmaster. Both are short scale.
The Deluxe plays great and sounds fine, but compared to the Stringmaster is kinda sterile sounding. Lot's of fundamental in the tone, but not a lot of overtones. The Stringmaster sounds much, much sweeter.
Does anybody have experience with this? Is the difference the pickups or the body or the pots? I suspect the pickups are the major difference, but...
I want the Deluxe to sound much closer to the Stringmaster, but before I try anything like buying a set of Lollar's or raiding one of the Stringmaster necks I figured I'd ask here 
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Primitive Utility Steel |
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Brad Davis
From:
Texas, USA
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Posted 9 Jan 2020 2:12 pm
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| Not much definite help, but a mid-60s Stringmaster I think would be alder, or occasionally maybe still ash. I've never thought about it much but I'm really not sure what wood those Japanese steels are made of. But at best that might account for only a tiny difference. I don't know how closely they copied the vintage pickups either, as far as same type of magnets or number of winds. You might try measuring their output for comparison. And also even among the originals some guitars just sound a little better than others sometimes. Vintage Fender tended to use the .050MFD PIO caps and 250k pots I think, but there was always some variation. |
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Twayn Williams
From:
Portland, OR
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Posted 9 Jan 2020 2:28 pm
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Thanks for the input! The difference is too radical to be a matter of wood or pots or caps. I think. Hopefully Still, maybe I'll try a pickup swap first, and measure while I'm in there...
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Primitive Utility Steel |
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J Fletcher
From:
London,Ont,Canada
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Posted 10 Jan 2020 6:30 am
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| Well the Stringmaster has a lot more mass than the Deluxe , that's got to affect the sound. I have owned and played both , found the Stringmaster to have way more depth to the tone. |
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Glenn Wilde
From:
California, USA
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Posted 10 Jan 2020 7:43 am
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If it's got some nice tone unplugged, i would just gut it and replace the electronic's with good stuff.
Ive never had a Fender Japan steel but ive had several Strats from there and every one of them benefited from new pickups, pots and switch. I think Duncan makes an Antiquity steel pickup and i see vintage one's on eBay from time to time. The Japanese Strat pickups were really bad, non magnetized poles with a big ole ceramic magnet glued to the back. |
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Jack Hanson
From:
San Luis Valley, USA
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Posted 10 Jan 2020 9:03 am
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| Glenn Wilde wrote: |
| ...i would just gut it and replace the electronic's with good stuff. |
Agreed. I may take it a step further and mount all the components to one of Jimmie Hudson's Stringmaster-style replica mounting plates. It should drop right into the existing rout, and it would be simple to convert the instrument back to original.
Sentell pickups in Sacramento also offers nice Stringmaster pickup sets. I installed a pair on a rat rod beater rescue instrument and they sound terrific:
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Twayn Williams
From:
Portland, OR
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Posted 10 Jan 2020 9:22 am
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The unplugged tone of the guitar is good, and I think Glenn may have hit on it. Now that I think about it, it does remind me of some ceramic pickups I've used before. The tone is lacking that alnico "zing" I think.
I suppose I'll need to unstring it and pop the pups out and have a look this weekend. I don't think I can get a replacement set before my next gig, but fortunately it's a perfectly usable sound as is.
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Primitive Utility Steel |
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Jeff Mead
From:
London, England
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Posted 10 Jan 2020 10:00 am
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| J Fletcher wrote: |
| Well the Stringmaster has a lot more mass than the Deluxe , that's got to affect the sound. I have owned and played both , found the Stringmaster to have way more depth to the tone. |
Not convinced by that. There's not a huge difference in sound between my quad, double and single neck orphan Stringmasters. |
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Twayn Williams
From:
Portland, OR
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Posted 10 Jan 2020 10:33 am
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| Jeff Mead wrote: |
| J Fletcher wrote: |
| Well the Stringmaster has a lot more mass than the Deluxe , that's got to affect the sound. I have owned and played both , found the Stringmaster to have way more depth to the tone. |
Not convinced by that. There's not a huge difference in sound between my quad, double and single neck orphan Stringmasters. |
My 60's Champ is really physically thin, almost like a skate board, but had a rich tone and great sustain, easily as much as my Stringmaster. Of course, you gotta pull the tone knob down pretty far as that bridge pup is super bright and can take the top of your head right off if you're not careful!
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