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Author Topic:  Identify FENDER lap steel
Michael Greer


From:
Ontario, Canada
Post  Posted 23 Feb 2019 7:34 am    
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Morning

Appreciate if one of the Fender experts can identify this double neck Fender.....is it a stringmaster , dual etc ?

Also are there enough identifying features to put a year to it.

What's capture my attention is the "backyard engineering" to add a pedal likely as pedal steels were coming on the scene.

I wondering also if anyone who used one of these lap steel conversions can comment about how they actually performed.

Thanks


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Cartwright Thompson


Post  Posted 23 Feb 2019 7:57 am    
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Dual Professional
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Nic Neufeld


From:
Kansas City, Missouri
Post  Posted 23 Feb 2019 7:58 am    
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I'm no Fender expert but that's a Dual Professional. The single necks are branded "Deluxe", the triple neck "Custom" as I recall. Stringmasters are the ones with the twin "strat-like" pickups wired in series. Interesting pedal mod...

I know at least with Stringmasters you can usually look under the tuning pans and see a pencil'ed in month/year to date them. You can also look at pot codes but that's much less accurate (often they'd be bought in large lots so a '55 pot might end up being built into a much later guitar).
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Todd Clinesmith


From:
Lone Rock Free State Oregon
Post  Posted 23 Feb 2019 8:00 am    
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Hi Michael, This looks like a Dual Pro converted /"pedaled" by Shot Jackson.
Is this yours ?

I imagine it has the top part of the Bud Isaacs change.
E
B > C#
G# > A
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Michael Greer


From:
Ontario, Canada
Post  Posted 23 Feb 2019 8:49 am    
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Hi Todd

No its not mine....yet...

I have requested some additional photos of the underside as some of these conversions look like they were done with a hatchet.

If it was done by Shot that would be great as its probably a tidy , well done job that could actually work.

More of a historical piece than a gigging guitar.

If you don't mind could you share the complete 8 string tuning that Bud Issac used

Thanks
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Doug Beaumier


From:
Northampton, MA
Post  Posted 23 Feb 2019 9:01 am    
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Those trapezoid pickups have a raw, cutting tone IMO. Santo Farina played a T-8 with those pickups on "Sleep Walk". That's a pretty good example of the trapezoid tone. Some players say it's hard to block the strings due to the bulk and positioning of the pickups.
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J Fletcher

 

From:
London,Ont,Canada
Post  Posted 23 Feb 2019 11:12 am    
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Interesting guitar , there are 2 plungers in the front tuner pan that you can see in some of the other pics .
The owner is asking a lot for it. Is there a case?
A nice Dual professional in original condition would go for less. Just my take on the matter.
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Todd Clinesmith


From:
Lone Rock Free State Oregon
Post  Posted 23 Feb 2019 11:31 am    
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Michael,
Bud's tuning had two pedals. The tuning was, high to low E,B,G#,F#,D,B,G#,E

Pedal 1 raised the high B (2nd string)to C# and the G#( 3rd string) to A

Pedal 2 raised the bass end . D to E , B to C#, G# to A

Bobbe Seymour had a Shot modified Fender guitar for sale at one time. I tried searching the archive for it, but to no avail. The one I remember was a Dual Pro as well, and had the pedal attached to the 3rd ( and added) 4th leg where this one is. I cannot remember what the mechanism was, but I would imagine a plunger. The pedal appears to be a Sho Bud pedal in the photo you provided. From what I have heard, Shot did a handfull of mods like this to Fenders before ( and possibly during) the Sho Bud start up. I know he modded a few Bigsby's with wood neck inserts.
I would think if it is Shot done,and in working order, it would add value to the guitar personally . I love guitars like this, and probably geek about them more than the average player though.
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Jon Zimmerman

 

From:
California, USA
Post  Posted 23 Feb 2019 2:17 pm     Geek Re-assessment ⛑
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An early 50's Stringmaster D8 has been on the back burner too long. I was intent on putting it back to original BUT ..this early mod has my head in a tilt, since a gaping hole exists where a missing pickup used to be, and parts of a roller (unk maker) actuator are there, barely. Hmm.. rather than glue-in a shard of Louisville Slugger to fill in the hogged-out square hole..? Wheels are spinning ..restoration preservation or perversion diversion?
Might just be that gaping hole in my head.
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Guy Cundell


From:
More idle ramblings from South Australia
Post  Posted 23 Feb 2019 4:05 pm    
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Todd Clinesmith wrote:
Michael,
Bud's tuning had two pedals. The tuning was, high to low E,B,G#,F#,D,B,G#,E

Pedal 1 raised the high B (2nd string)to C# and the G#( 3rd string) to A

Pedal 2 raised the bass end . D to E , B to C#, G# to A



This is a photo of Isaacs' changers on his Bigsby from an old SGF thread.

Todd, who do you think did this modification? Was it Bigsby?


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Todd Clinesmith


From:
Lone Rock Free State Oregon
Post  Posted 23 Feb 2019 6:42 pm    
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Guy,
Yes that is Paul Bigsby's work. I imagine it's not a modification, but the way it was originally built and set up .
The guitar that motivated a whole bunch of players to take saws to, and put holes in there Fender guitars, to make shift the "I have to have it" Isaacs changes.
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Bill Creller

 

From:
Saginaw, Michigan, USA (deceased)
Post  Posted 24 Feb 2019 2:43 pm    
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I restored a dual-pro a few years ago. Never liked that instrument. Re-chromed the parts etc. Gave it to Bobby Ingano last year, to get it out of my office, and he gave it to Jeff Au Hoy, who seemed to get along with it OK..
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Mark Roeder


From:
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
Post  Posted 26 Feb 2019 1:41 pm    
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So the first Bigsby pedals were plungers, didn't know that!
He must have went to cables pretty soon after that
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Clyde Mattocks

 

From:
Kinston, North Carolina, USA
Post  Posted 27 Feb 2019 6:57 pm    
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That sure looks like Shot's work to me, especially the pedal. Also Shot would sell his parts to others who wanted to do their own installs. I did several using his parts.
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