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Topic: A Quad Odyssey |
Bill Sinclair
From:
Waynesboro, PA, USA
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Posted 18 Jan 2018 8:03 pm |
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Last year I decided I wanted to see how I fared with a long scale guitar so I bought a stripped Fender Stringmaster Quad body with the intention of building a D8 and maybe two singles with reproduction and do-it-yourself hardware. The necks came with no hardware except for the diamonds and leg sockets so I felt like I could do some experimentation. Long scale (26") Stringmasters share almost no hardware with their 24.5" and 22.5" brothers and the chrome covered pickups seem to be pretty scarce. I put out a plea on the forum for parts but didn't get any response so I started putting together brass rod, string ferrules and other items that I thought would work. About that time Jimmie Hudson advertised that he was making stringmaster-compatible bodies and bridge plates and he was also carrying the Kluson repro string pans and tuners for the shorter models. I decided to give his parts a try and did some routing on the inner neck to make the parts fit with pretty good results. I found that by using shorter machine screws and springs for the bridge, the later control plates can be made to fit a long scale neck and maintain the 26" scale. There's no room for a blend pot though. In the picture below you can see the four necks with the mods done to the inner neck at the top of the picture. Tomorrow I'll detail those mods and later I'll detail what I did with the two necks in the middle. Gonna get some sleep. To be continued.....
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Mike Neer
From:
NJ
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Jeff Mead
From:
London, England
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Posted 19 Jan 2018 6:26 am
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Looking forward to seeing the story unfold. That orphan neck is looking pretty good.
Any reason you chose the thinnest neck to fix up? |
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Bill Sinclair
From:
Waynesboro, PA, USA
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Posted 19 Jan 2018 7:24 am
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| Mike Neer wrote: |
| A Quadyssey. |
 Somebody had to say it.
I've already spent most of my pennies, as you'll soon see.
Jeff,
The two middle necks are the correct thickness for the D8 I intended to build. The inner neck didn't need refinishing whereas the outer neck definitely does. |
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Dustin Rhodes
From:
Owasso OK
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Posted 19 Jan 2018 9:00 am
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| Mike Neer wrote: |
A Quadyssey.
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Ha first thing my brain went to when I read the title. |
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Erv Niehaus
From:
Litchfield, MN, USA
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Posted 19 Jan 2018 9:07 am
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The real challenge will be to come up with the correct tuning pans and the lollipop tuners.  |
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Robert Jackson
From:
Pennsylvania, USA
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Posted 19 Jan 2018 9:57 am What A Project
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If ANYONE has the TUNING PANS, BRIDGE, ETC let me know.
I’ll pay top dollar, don’t really want to deal with EBay |
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Howard Parker
From:
Maryland
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Posted 19 Jan 2018 10:32 am
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Bill,
For a horn and harp dude you certainly jumped into the deep end!! 
Howard |
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Bill Sinclair
From:
Waynesboro, PA, USA
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Posted 19 Jan 2018 11:26 am
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| Howard Parker wrote: |
Bill,
For a horn and harp dude you certainly jumped into the deep end!!
Howard |
Been treading water furiously for about 3 years now. Can't say as I've leanrt to swim yet.
Here's some more pictures of the neck I built up with the control plate and tuners I got from Mr. Hudson. I had to route a bit to make the tuner pan fit and to make the longer pickups fit. The pickups were made from a pair of Chinese 8-string humbuckers. I split the coil on one of them and stole the magnet from the other so that both single coils would have a magnet. Actually sounds pretty good although I'll be replacing them with repro stringmaster pickups at some point.
The diamonds were cut out from plastic and covered with aluminum tape. Looks okay from a few feet back. At some point I'll cut some diamonds from aluminum for a more permanent solution. I wanted to see what it would be like with 3/8" parallel string spacing instead of the narrow spacing the long scales normally have so I made a brass nut and strung it as a 7-string. Interesting experiment but I'll probably put a regular string master nut with 8-strings on it before long. Once I confirmed those parts worked I was going to order the same setup to build my D8 but then something else happened. To be continued....again.
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Bill Sinclair
From:
Waynesboro, PA, USA
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Posted 19 Jan 2018 11:31 am
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A 1953 nickel (the year of the guitar) over the wiring hole. The original finish is really good on three of the four necks. |
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Jeff Mead
From:
London, England
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Posted 19 Jan 2018 12:07 pm
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| Bill Sinclair wrote: |
The diamonds were cut out from plastic and covered with aluminum tape. Looks okay from a few feet back. At some point I'll cut some diamonds from aluminum for a more permanent solution.
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For my orphan neck, I cut the diamonds out of pickguard material and I was pretty happy with the result.
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Andy Henriksen
From:
Michigan, USA
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Posted 19 Jan 2018 12:25 pm
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| Why ferrules in the string slots? |
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Bill Sinclair
From:
Waynesboro, PA, USA
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Posted 19 Jan 2018 12:29 pm
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| Andy Henriksen wrote: |
| Why ferrules in the string slots? |
I decided to make it a string-through since I was experimenting. I believe Jerry Byrd had Fender do that to his custom Stringmaster. I'm sure their approach was more elegant than mine. |
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Andy Henriksen
From:
Michigan, USA
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Posted 19 Jan 2018 12:44 pm
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| Bill Sinclair wrote: |
| Andy Henriksen wrote: |
| Why ferrules in the string slots? |
I decided to make it a string-through since I was experimenting. I believe Jerry Byrd had Fender do that to his custom Stringmaster. I'm sure their approach was more elegant than mine. |
Ah! That makes sense and should have been obvious, since otherwise you wouldn't be able to string the thing without taking the plate completely off! |
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Bill Sinclair
From:
Waynesboro, PA, USA
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Posted 19 Jan 2018 2:21 pm
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| Andy Henriksen wrote: |
| That makes sense and should have been obvious, since otherwise you wouldn't be able to string the thing without taking the plate completely off! |
Well, I could have routed beneath the slots but I already had the ferrules so what the heck.
Now let's see, where was I? Oh yeah, I was going to order the same setup to build my D8 but then something else happened...
Brad Davis started a thread about his long scale quad and Russell Davis responded to his plea for parts. Brad's thread is a very informative read, by the way, so I've linked it below.
https://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=318888&highlight=stringmaster+paint
Brad bought Russell's long scale parts necks, took what he needed and then sold them to me. Pictured below. I didn't get all the hardware in these pictures, but most of it. I also bought a couple of dead pickups from Russell's remaining stash. I now had enough original hardware to build two complete D8's. Well, almost. Six of the nine pickups I had were dead. These were parts guitars, after all. The talented Tom Brantley came to the rescue and three weeks later I had enough working pickups to build my two D8's.
The plan was to use the two center necks from the quad for one and the red-stained double neck (previously a T for the other. The bedazzled T8 was pretty ugly and had chunks of wood missing so it seemed beyond redemption. It's growing on me though, I actually have plans for it that I'll discuss later. Gotta go. Tomorrow I'll post pics of the first D8 build.
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Erv Niehaus
From:
Litchfield, MN, USA
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Posted 19 Jan 2018 2:27 pm
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I bought a T-8 Stringmaster new in 1954.
I sold it later on but then had the chance to buy it back.
When I got it back, it looked like it had been played with a claw hammer. But it's surprising what you can do with some plastic wood. I refinished it and you couldn't tell where I did the body work.
Erv |
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Brad Davis
From:
Texas, USA
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Posted 19 Jan 2018 3:24 pm
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| Cool, can't wait to see what you've got going on Bill! |
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Bill Sinclair
From:
Waynesboro, PA, USA
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Posted 20 Jan 2018 10:35 am
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Jeff,
I really like the look of your pickguard diamonds. I need to develop better routing skills and give it a try.
Erv,
I've definitely been inspired by your claw hammered Stringmaster restoration story. Part of the reason I bought the stripped quad though, was because at least three of the necks wouldn't have to be refinished!
Brad,
Yep, you thought you'd seen the last of all those necks you sent my way!
On to the first D8 build:
The original translucent cream finish on the two inner necks of the quad was really quite good with just a few chips here and there. I measured and had a decal made for what would now be the front neck and plugged the wire hole with a dowel. Bought some 1/4"-20 all thread and cut it to the right length to join the two necks. Got a 3" forstner bit and cut the holes for the leg sockets. Soaked the two best tuner pans in naptha, cleaned the gears with a toothbrush and lubricated them. Thankfully, they all worked. Replacing those soldered on tuners is a real pain. BTDT. Used the two working original pickups on the inside neck and two of the Brantly rewinds on the outer neck. I don't notice much difference in the sound. The rewinds are probably a little stronger.
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Bill Sinclair
From:
Waynesboro, PA, USA
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Posted 20 Jan 2018 11:01 am
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I filled and covered the dowel and tried to blend some blonde finish paint to conceal it (see closeup). Someone with more patience could do a better job but I was pretty happy with it and anxious to play it! When I attached the legs, I discovered that the legs on those early stringmasters extended at a lesser angle than I was accustomed to and just felt unstable to me. I procured a two sockets from a later model and put them on the outside neck and it felt much better. So, there it is, my first D8 build and the partial resurrection of a '53 Quad. All original Fender parts except for the pots, knobs, jack, rewound coils, some screws and (ironically) the Fender logo. I had it set up in my music room for about a month enjoying it and getting acquainted with the longer scale when something else happened... More tomorrow.
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Brad Davis
From:
Texas, USA
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Posted 20 Jan 2018 11:04 am
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Wow, that looks great! Nicely done Bill.
There's just something special about long scale Stringmasters, man I never get tired of playing mine.
Because I swapped out a few small pieces of chrome I'm guessing there's a little bit of my old quad in your new D8 |
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Bill Sinclair
From:
Waynesboro, PA, USA
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Posted 20 Jan 2018 11:32 am
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| Thanks, Brad. I've been meaning to ask you how much trouble and costly it was to have those bridge covers made for your Quad. Your machinist interested in making some more? They look really good. |
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