Fender Stringmaster

The 1953 MkI models had twin pickups that had stamped Chrome covers with no blend control. The pickups were blended via the tone control; Full off being Bridge Pickup and as the tone control was advanced the Neck pickup was progressively activated. Later the MkII had two single-coil pickups on each neck with black plastic covers, the blend achieved by a small wheel attached to a pot that sat just behind the bridge, introduced in 1954. The bridge pick-up was always on, and the neck pickup could be fed in to taste using the blend pot. Because the pickups were wired with reversed polarities, blending in the neck pickup caused the pickup configuration to be "hum-bucking". Basically the pickup design was a Humbucker split in half and mounted as two interconnected units. A neck selector switch controlled which neck's pickups were 'live'. On earlier 1950s models, the neck selector was controlled originally by slide switches and later by push-buttons. A single tone and a single volume control served the entire instrument.

The original 1953 models had a long scale length, at 26". From 1954 the scale length was reduced, and two shorter lengths were available, 24.5" (31 frets)and 22.5" (29 frets). To determine the guitar's scale count the markers past the 24th fret; there are 2, 3, and 4 markers for the 22.5", 24.5", and 26" guitars respectively.

A single neck version was also available, called the Fender Deluxe, in both six and eight string versions. These guitars are not Stringmasters but use a very similar neck design neck and the same electronics configuration and are often categorized with them. All models of Stringmaster and Deluxe were simply called steel guitars in Fender publications; since the domination of pedal steel guitar non-pedal guitars like the Stringmaster are often referred to as lap steel guitars.

The name Fender Deluxe was a common Fender model name, also used for an unrelated series of Fender combo amplifiers produced from the 1940s to the present day, see Fender Deluxe Reverb.

• Extract from p. 32 of the 1972 Fender guitar and bass catalogue, describing the Stringmaster twin and triple neck models then available.