Is it me? Are Stringmasters' tone not as lush as lap steels?

David DeLoach · From: Tennessee, USA

I've got a 1957 T8 and a 1960 D8. I love these instruments for playing Texas Swing, Patsy Cline, Hank, etc. But I'm just not crazy about the tone of these guitars when compared to my 1940 Rickenbacher Panda, 1940 Gibson EH-185, 1938 Oahu (with a horseshoe pickup), or even my 1948 Gibson BR9.

I can get really lush, beautiful tone on my lap steels. On my Stringmasters, I feel its more like playing a Telecaster on the bridge pickup.

As in most things related to me and playing steel, I suspect this is operator error, and not the instruments' fault.

Yet, even going back and watching Buddy Merrill play his Stringmaster on Lawrence Welk, I'm just not crazy about the tone he gets.

I play a lot of my songs as solo steel - no other instruments. If I'm playing county/Western Swing in a band, the Stringmasters are cool, but solo I'm just not feeling it.

Again, I suspect its just me. Very Happy

David
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Erik Alderink · From: Ann Arbor Michigan, USA

I have a '53 MKI T8, and it has plenty of body and low end. While it's not going to sound like my Console Grande or Blankenship, it can sound plenty full on its own. I will admit that there is lots of Tele / Strat vibe to the tone, but it's not very thin unless I have it in full treble (bridge pickup only) settings. I play through a Deluxe Reverb, or Epiphone Electar amp mostly.

One thing that you may want to play with is different picks / strings. I prefer John Pearse Pure Nickel pedal steel strings, and I use somewhat heavier gauges on all my guitars (15-54). Picks and strings are cheap comparatively, and can affect tone significantly.

Very rarely will a player find one guitar that covers all the tonal ranges that they desire. That's somewhat why we all end up as gear hoarders to some degree.

In the end though, no matter what I'm playing I end up sounding just like me (for better or for worse), and I get paid the same.

Bill McCloskey · Posted 1 Nov 2020 7:42 am

Is it just me, or do I really need to buy a lot of steel guitars because they all sound different and all sound cool?

The answer is yes: you need a lot of steel guitars around. Each one is unique.

Allan Revich · From: Victoria, BC

Jack Hanson · From: San Luis Valley, USA

Steels are like Lay's potato chips. You can't only have one.

Paul Strojan · From: California, USA

I agree I have a Hudson stringmaster clone and I find that the cover plate resonates taking some of the sustain away. I am thinking about drilling holes in it and making it a string through body.

Ricky Newman · From: Ontario, Canada

I lean towards Gibson/Ricky/Clinesmith myself but neither of these guys sound too thin to me...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=whFL_bHkgAA

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IN8GuKBG2T8

David DeLoach · From: Tennessee, USA

David Matzenik · From: Cairns, on the Coral Sea

The sound of steel guitar recordings change in the 1950s too. Its like everything got really twangy. Santo and Johnny, perfect example. Give me the 1940s every time.
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Douglas Schuch · From: Valencia, Philippines

In the two videos posted by Ricky Newman, as noted, those are Dual Pros - they use a very different pickup - a string-through design, which is known for giving a more vintage tone.

IMO nothing affects tone as much as the amplifier (excluding the player, of course). If you want a vintage tone, you probably need a vintage style amp. I have a VHT Special 6 - this is a hand-wired tube amp very much like an old Fender Champ, but with a bit more control over the gain. They are very affordable as they are made in China to a US design. I bought it primarily to play blues harmonica through it, but discovered it works great for my Fender Deluxe Pro with the trap pickups - far better for a vintage tone than my modern Quilter I use for pedal steel.

Good luck sorting it all out.
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Ricky Newman · From: Ontario, Canada

I stand corrected!!

Gene Tani · From: Pac NW

I've never seen a stringmaster, is the pickup basically the same design as a tele pickup? Mounting it on a solid steel plate like a tele is supposed to give warmer tone. I had a Rukavina pickup, similar design (I think) moved away from the bridge, I like the sound but it's still got the cut/attack, really not lush

Thin/tall winds vs larger coils/shorter height bobbin https://www.tdpri.com/threads/thin-tall-coils-vs-wide-flat-coils.605597/
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Kevin Glandon · From: New York, USA

I have two Stringmasters as well as a many other steels like Rics and Gibsons.
Iâ€™ve found that the Fenders get very rich warm â€œHawaiianâ€ tones if you use the blend control under the bridge cover. When the blend control is set to where both pickup are on you get the fattiest warmest tone the guitar is capable of. If you have it set to where one of the pickups is on, you get a thin bright tone. If you search on YouTube the are many Hawaiian players using stringmasters and they get some very lovely warm rich tones. Jeff Au Hoy is one of those players that comes to mind.
The amp you use also contributes to the tone as others here have said. But.....Iâ€™ve seen many of my Hawaiian steel guitar idols use tiny practice amps like the Roland Cube with a mic in front of it and they still manage to get a warm rich tone..
Anyway, thatâ€™s my two cents.
PS One more thing that Iâ€™ve found useful....the tone control. On most of my steels I find the tone control very useful. sometimes I just need to cut the highs out a bit. This often adds to the richness of the sound Iâ€™m after.

Jack Hanson · From: San Luis Valley, USA

I've never played a Fender that compared to a Ric or a Gibson (Skylark excluded) in the "lushness of tone" department.

My Studio Deluxe sounds pretty good, but I purchased it as a carcass, and installed a far superior pickup than what it matriculated from Fullerton with.

It's my understanding the Stringmaster/Deluxe/Champ-style pickups are closer to Strat pickups than Tele pickups. The student model Champion pickup is similar, but not identical to, the Tele/Broadcaster/Esquire bridge pickup. Which is why there are so many Champion carcasses offered for sale by the online guitar cannibals

Stephen Cowell · From: Round Rock, Texas, USA

If you tighten the four screws behind the bridge your tone will firm up... the looser these screws are, the more thin and 'platey' the tone will be. If your SM has push switches, replace these screws before tightening them... Fender got a bad batch of these in '56... I still have a '56 D8 waiting for broken screw extraction. The Deluxe single-neck doesn't have these four screws and will sound thinner as a result.

Making the strings through-body will help a lot... Junior Brown's Guit-Steel has them through-body.
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Jeff Mead · From: London, England

I've found that this works for me - setting the blend control to "humbucker mode" (both pickups full on) and slightly rolling off the tone control (there is a point where the tone changes to a more bassy tone and I wind it back up just till the treble kicks in again - hard to describe but you'll know it when you hear it).

I still prefer my Dual Pro with the trap pickups for recording but I'm well pleased with my Stringmasters for live shows.

I've got a BR-9 too and it gets a lot of use (well, it used to when we still had gigs) and I think my Stringmasters stand up well in comparison when adjusted the way I like them.

Mike Christensen · From: Cook Minnesota

I have a "single neck" SM I got just before covid. Jason Lollar fixed up my pickups for me. I do not care for the santo and johnny tone so I used a 500 ohm tone pot. I now get a wide range of usable tones have plenty of lushness or whatever I want with POWER. Jason was great to deal with.

Miles Lang · From: Venturaloha

I have 2 Stringmasters, and I find scale length really makes a difference. My Champ and Rick 59 have the shorter 22.5â€ scale length, and they sound very lush, as you describe.

My 24.5â€ Stringmaster was not as lush and fat.

Then I found a 22.5â€ Stringmaster and it was a lot more buttery and lush than the 24.5

Stephen Cowell · From: Round Rock, Texas, USA

Buddy's tone on the Welk show is compromised since he had *all four necks* on at once... this is ultimate tone-suck. Only turn one neck on at a time for best tone.

Make sure your blend pot (under the bridge cover) is cranked all the way up. The tone you're describing is as if the pot is all the way down.
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