Solid koa Stringmaster-style Deluxe

Ben Elder · Post by **Ben Elder** » 25 Jan 2013 12:04 am

Fender Custom Shop creation, seen at NAMM:

Thomas Ludwig · Post by **Thomas Ludwig** » 25 Jan 2013 2:22 am

Is it a new one ?

If they make new tuning pans, they can make replacement tuning pans

Dave Van Allen · Post by **Dave Van Allen** » 25 Jan 2013 6:09 am

TUNING PANS!!!!!!!! PLEASE!!!!

Drew Howard · Post by **Drew Howard** » 25 Jan 2013 6:21 am

Wow! Big news!

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 25 Jan 2013 7:16 am

If it's Custom Shop it's going to be expensive, limited, and way better quality than that Chinese made lap steel Fender sold a few years ago.

John McCall · Post by **John McCall** » 25 Jan 2013 7:29 am

Fender does it again; it's a short scale.

Post by **Brad Bechtel** » 25 Jan 2013 7:52 am

John McCall wrote:Fender does it again; it's a short scale.

Some people would complain if you hung them with a fresh rope.

It looks great to me. I hope it's not a one of a kind model made just for NAMM.

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 25 Jan 2013 8:05 am

it's a short scale.

That works for me!

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 25 Jan 2013 8:11 am

I had 'em beat.

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 25 Jan 2013 8:25 am

Me too...

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 25 Jan 2013 8:34 am

I wonder how the Koa body will affect the tone, as compared to an original Deluxe/Stringmaster?

Tom Pettingill · Post by **Tom Pettingill** » 25 Jan 2013 9:12 am

Sweet, very cool that steel guitar is back on Fender's radar

Doug Beaumier wrote:I wonder how the Koa body will affect the tone, as compared to an original Deluxe/Stringmaster?

How it compares to an original will heavily depend on the new pickups and electronics. That said, I'd expect a proper set of pickups on a Koa body to have a big, rich, and full voice with a clear and warm midrange with smooth highs.

Mark Eaton · Post by **Mark Eaton** » 25 Jan 2013 9:52 am

If they actually introduce this - and you didn't have to take out a second mortgage to buy one - it could be a game changer.

With Fender's marketing and advertising clout, it could potentially help the independent builder who produces small numbers of non-pedal steels by bringing a renewed awareness of the instrument.

J Fletcher · Post by **J Fletcher** » 25 Jan 2013 12:02 pm

I think that it is cool that Fender built this guitar, though I doubt that it's not going to make any difference in the world of steel guitar. Except to the person that buys it.

Mark Eaton · Post by **Mark Eaton** » 25 Jan 2013 3:04 pm

The reason I brought that up was because of this, and I'm oversimplifying here in the interest of brevity: take one of the members of the steel guitar family, the dobro. There was a long slow climb to bring the instrument practically back from the dead. As we know, there were many years when they weren't even in production - like the Stringmaster. The popularity of Josh Graves with Flatt & Scruggs gave the instrument a little spike decades ago. Then the rise in popularity in the '70s was spiked by the likes of Mike Auldridge and at the same time the Dopyera family got back into the business as OMI in southern California, and a bunch of people took up the instrument, myself included along with a fair number of Forum members.

Jerry Douglas became much better known by non-dobro players when two things happened: after many years of primarily session work, he joined what is arguably the most popular bluegrass-oriented group in the world, Alison Krauss & Union Station. This was in 1998 and a few years later after the success of "Oh Brother Where Art Thou," which to date has sold something like 8 million copies of the movie soundtrack CD, a lot of people have taken up the instrument and there are many more builders than there were say 20 years ago.

The Fender Stringmaster and Deluxe were once pretty popular instruments which fell out of fashion, and production, not unlike the Dobro.

And yes, we can all find vintage Fender steels which are fairly affordable compared to the likes of vintage Teles and Strats, but there is zero publicity from the company - and why would there be? They haven't made the things for over 30 years. If they started producing them again and of good quality - not like the horrible Chinese-made Fender laps that came out several years ago, I think there would be a groundswell of popularity. Won't happen overnight - same as it didn't happen overnight for the renaissance of the dobro - but I could see it happening.

If there's some "cool guy" pictured in a Fender ad playing a new modern Stringmaster on the back cover of Guitar Player Magazine, the wheels could start turning.

Dennis Smith · Post by **Dennis Smith** » 25 Jan 2013 4:34 pm

I was dreaming of one of these back in Nov.
Ben, anymore info? Are the legs red or is that the light? Did anyone play it?
Mark, someone should get Justin Bieber or Lady GaGa to play one or do a Hawaiian song and they would start selling more steels.
Dennis

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 25 Jan 2013 4:58 pm

I may be able to find out more in a few days. The owner of the music store where I teach is at the NAMM show now. We've been a Fender dealer for 35 years and he's been to NAMM every year. He usually fills me in on any new steel products when he gets back. I'll ask him when he returns. I suspect that this is a one-off to see what the response will be.

Dennis Smith · Post by **Dennis Smith** » 25 Jan 2013 10:53 pm

Doug, have him check out the new Magnatone US built point to point tube amp. The little you can hear on the NAMM video sounds good.
Dennis

Bosse Engzell · Post by **Bosse Engzell** » 27 Jan 2013 3:59 am

Was it any price tag?

Bosse in Sweden

Stephen Cowell · Post by **Stephen Cowell** » 27 Jan 2013 7:53 am

Notice one thing missing... the hardest thing to find... 8string pickup covers!

Last I heard the tooling had been shipped to Japan for the tuning pans. I also hear that Mike Stevens makes his own p/u covers from six-string ones.

Is the world ready for a CNC tuning pan? Perhaps with Scruggs tuners, or integrated pedal pulls?

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 27 Jan 2013 10:01 am

I wish I could read what's on that sheet of paper...

I seached the 2013 Custom Shop catalog on line and found no mention of "steel guitar". Just an assortment of $5K and $6K guitars, many beat up to look like my original '68 tele.

George Piburn · Post by **George Piburn** » 27 Jan 2013 2:01 pm

It looks like $12,000 MSRP on that last line below the string.

Ben Elder · Post by **Ben Elder** » 27 Jan 2013 5:47 pm

Sorry--I had to keep deleting pics off my maxed-out (8gb) iphone this weekend (NAMM, Deke Dickerson's Guitar GeekFest and Vintage Guitar show) but a copy of the original is on my laptop at home. I'll try to take a look at the certificate when I get back there. (The ball is over and Cinderella here is back at work tonight.)

Peggy Green · Post by **Peggy Green** » 27 Jan 2013 6:09 pm

My guitar repair guy, w/ gold records on his wall,told me my Fender Deluxe pickup could disintegrate at any moment ;(. I'm 62 playing a 61 year old guitar. I'd be very interested in the Fender instrument. If I don't disintegrate first.

Dennis Smith · Post by **Dennis Smith** » 27 Jan 2013 7:07 pm

If it's $12,000. there insane! The custom shop guitars I don't get. Toys or art?
Dennis

The Steel Guitar Forum

Solid koa Stringmaster-style Deluxe

Solid koa Stringmaster-style Deluxe

Msrp