Fender 1000

Richard Saylor · From: Oregon, USA

Got a chance to buy a great looking Fender 1000. What are the pros and cons? Tuning stability, ease of setup, etc.?

Bob Carlucci · From: Candor, New York, USA

Insanely heavy- no knee levers, unless someone put them in.. I have had 3 of its single 10 neck brothers the fender 800 model, and one S8 400 model, and although I loved those guitars, to me they were so much more clunky and unwieldy than my more modern steels that they stayed set up at home.. They are huge, heavy steels that are a bit cranky with a lot of inherent looseness and sloppiness designed in.. They sound great to my ears, but you will fight them a bit to get the sustain most steels get.. They are cool, will always be in my top 2 or 3 favorite pedal steel guitar of all time, but for playing out live,,, not so much.. Probably be fine if you have a gig where the guitar stays there week to week. There's a reason you see VERY few played live these days.. Its not sound, thats really sweet, its everything else... Best word for them is the one I used earlier-unwieldy.... bob
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Donny Hinson · From: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.

Tuning stability is perfect. Never any cabinet drop! Adjustments for “feel” and number of changes are very limited, but changing setups is a snap. Also, the older, long-scale models are string breakers unless you tune something other than the standard E9th. Fun to play, neat sound, but like Bob said, they’re big, heavy and bulky.

Playing one is kinda like driving a Ford Model A or cooking on a wood stove; you do it for the love and appreciation of the simpler technology of yesterday. It’s just…different.

Lee Rider · From: Fort Bragg, California, USA

Gene Parsons plays a Fender 800, has since the late '60's when Leo gave him his first one (which he still has). He just built up another one out of old parts. He has it tuned to D9 with 7 pedals and 4 knees. One of the best sounding pedal steels I have ever heard, not clunky, plays great and zero cabinet drop! Gene has a knack for making them work as well as any pedal steel. He has been a mechanic and metalsmith forever, so that helps.

We rehearsed today and he did an absolutely killer version of Bela Fleck's tune Big Country on the 800....

My friend Pat Ickes plays a Fender 400 and it really sounds and plays great. He is also a mechanic. If you can get them set up properly and do maintenance they are great guitars!

Thanks

Lee Rider
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Bowman SD10 push pull 3x5, Modified Hudson PedalBro, Sarno Tonic preamp, Evans FET 500. with Altec 418B, Standel Custom 15, '67 Showman with D-130F in cabinet, Ganz Straight Ahead, custom Wolfe 6 string dobro, '52 Gibson Century 6.

Richard Saylor · From: Oregon, USA

Thanks for the in-depth replies! The 1000 sounds a bit like my 1954 Studebaker pickup. Cantankerous, unwieldy, and impractical; but what a joy to drive to the meets. I have a Sho Bud Maverick to cover the impractical part (great sound though) and a Williams U12 for everything else. I will probably pass on the Fender, but, as you can tell, I have Pedal Steel GAS, probably like the rest of you. Thank you Mr. Rider for the story about Gene Parsons. I've always admired his work, both musical and mechanical. I have bought several of his B Benders and cut bodies for them. Wow, Fleck's Big Country on an 800...to be a fly on the wall!

Dave Zirbel · From: Sebastopol, CA USA

Dustin Rigsby · From: Parts Unknown, Ohio

Tim Whitlock · From: Colorado, USA

The Fender 1000 is admittedly a specialized instrument and not the best choice for the modern E9 style, which I never cared to learn. My thing is C6/A6 western swing with some Mooney and Isaac isms on the top neck. It's the perfect steel guitar for that, short of a Bigsby.

I have owned two 1000s, a 400 and a 2000. My favorite is my '58 1000 which has been my primary steel for almost 25 years. I prefer the early iteration with the straight bar bridge and Jazzmaster style pickups. All of the later versions I've played, with the Jaguar pickups and moving bridge had problems with string buzz. They get grooves worn into the bridge saddles that cause annoying sitar-like string buzz on the high strings. I also think the radius of the saddles are too large, so the string buzzes as it comes off the saddle at too shallow of an angle.

It should be noted that the early version of the 1000/400 do not work well with E9. It has a long 24" scale. resulting in greater tension on the strings. They break the G# string every time unless you use a very light gauge string. For that reason a lot of players tune down to D9 which works fine with a standard E9 string set. The later versions with the moving saddles were 22 1/2" scale, and handle E9 just fine.

Lastly I will say that the Jazzmaster pickups on the early version can be spikey with more modern style amps like the black and silver face Fenders. I find they play much better through a tweed amp. For that reason I had a tweed Tremolux clone custom built, which turned out to be the perfect pairing with my '58 1000. My theory is that this guitar was designed for, and tested with, tweed amps of the same era, and that is what they sound best through. The later version, with the Jaguar style pickups, sounds quite good with more modern amps. Hope this helps! Here's a clip of my 1000 in action:

https://youtu.be/L8BN2xJM-Lo?si=k0ywOGxPjT7-GMVp

Doug Beaumier · From: Northampton, MA

Nice clip, Tim. I enjoyed that. That boo-wah effect at the beginning of your solo... are you using a volume & tone pedal for that? I noticed that you didn't use the tone control for that.
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Tim Whitlock · From: Colorado, USA

Lee Rider · From: Fort Bragg, California, USA

Nice playing Tim and great tone!

Best

Lee Rider
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Bowman SD10 push pull 3x5, Modified Hudson PedalBro, Sarno Tonic preamp, Evans FET 500. with Altec 418B, Standel Custom 15, '67 Showman with D-130F in cabinet, Ganz Straight Ahead, custom Wolfe 6 string dobro, '52 Gibson Century 6.

Doug Beaumier · From: Northampton, MA

Tim, is your new tone control like a stutter button? …basically a spring-loaded kill switch?
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Tim Whitlock · From: Colorado, USA

Doug Beaumier · From: Northampton, MA

That’s a pretty cool mod.
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Ethan Shaw · From: Texas, USA

Tim, that sounds great! And as a fellow 1000 player, I totally agree with everything you said.

Ethan Shaw · From: Texas, USA

And Donny's right about no cabinet drop. It kind of drives you crazy playing something that does after you're used to none.

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