Fender Stringmaster D8 question

[Patrick Bailey]

Greetings! Pat here, this is my first post.

Just recently, a friend of mine graciously gifted me this Stringmaster D8 that he acquired from an estate sale. Its a 24" scale. It plays fabulously. I usually play a Dual 8 Pro, this is a whole other thing.. A good thing! I had a few questions if anyone cares to chime in!

-The body is completely bare wood / un-finished. Did they originally come like this or did someone at some point strip the finish off of it?

-Is there a source for a replacement blend knob / thumb wheel?

-It came with all 4 legs, but mysteriously they are all missing the adjustable part of the leg..(1st pic below). Is there a good resource for replacement legs or even just the missing parts?

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[Glenn Wilde]

Wow, what a cool gift. It would have been painted from the factory but now you can paint it any color you want. The legs might have the same threads as a microphone stand, I've seen these used to replace legs on other steels.

[Anthony Parish]

Cool instrument. George Boards makes 3D printed replacements for the thumb wheel knob. Otherwise, they are hard to find and tend to be expensive if you do find one.

https://www.georgeboards.com/

[George Piburn]

https://www.georgeboards.com/catalog/#Thumb-Wheel

This is the direct sales link.

[Patrick Bailey]

Thanks all for the info!

As far as painting it, I got a quote of $499 from one place.

Any other known folks out there that do re- finishes?

[Eric Dahlhoff]

Patrick I sent you an email re: blend wheel.

[Michael Kiese]

Aloha,

Gary Sill at Sill music supply will be able to supply you with new legs.

https://www.sillmusicsupply.com/Steel-G ... _1060.html

He is a very kind man and easy to work with. Nice to chat with over the phone.

I just made an order of 3 sockets and 3 legs for a project of mine about 3 weeks ago.

If you can measure/confirm the thread size you need for your Fender steel, he can machine it with the same tread.

Just work it out with him. It was a pleasure working with him. Highly recommended.

[Patrick Bailey]

Ah great to hear Mike, I actually reached out to him via email. Might just get a new set of legs from him.

[Michael Johnstone]

As far as refinishing that thing - I once had a 1956 T8 someone had stripped and hacked up. I did the wood repair, sanding and had to get a few parts re-chromed at a plating joint, had one of the pickups rewound by Jason Lollar and scrounged up a Fender decal off the internet somewhere. I took the necks apart, fingerboards off (carefully) and had Pat Wilkins do the paint job. We poured over photo books of old and new Fender Teles and Stringmasters and came up with that "banana pudding" color. It took all summer but worked out great and was a beautiful ax when I got it all put back together. Pat Wilkins is in the San Fernando Valley if you're familiar with LA.

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[Jimmy Roy]

if you can dig up some old style mike stands(not tripod type) they should have the same missing parts you need. Same thread and all! They can usually be picked up fairly cheep