Carter Starter Question from Left (handed) Field

Emily Keene · From: Washington, USA

For complex reasons that I won't bore you all with, I want to resume my pedal steel career (after forty years). but these days I will need to pick left handed. I still want to use my left foot for the pedals. I USED to have a Sho-Bud single ten but sold it to go to secretarial school, and I'm pretty clever with gadgets and tools (if I say so myself) but I have never seen the parts of a Carter Starter in person, so I'm hoping that someone who has can tell me if such a conversion is possible hardware wise. I know I would have to move the cross rods for the bell cranks and likely shorten and re-thread the pull rods. Thank you, emily

P.S. I'm retired, so don't suggest I have one built or professionally modified-I've got more time and patience than money! Smile

James Holland · From: Alabama, USA

Im a lefty, and play a lefthanded steel. I have wondered about trying a right hand guitar, by sitting on the opposite side, and moving the pedals and pedal bar accordingly, and moving or extending the knee levers. . The pedals would be under your right foot and the strings would be reversed, but i think that's the quickest diy conversion option. Any other option is going to be pretty hairy, and probably require fabrication of new parts. Keep me posted though, because Id like to have a D10 that is swappable from right to left, and back to right.

Chris Brooks · From: Providence, Rhode Island

Emily, how about looking for a lefty on the used guitar market? They do come up every now and then and probably would be a better instrument than a Starter; and be a lot easier than trying to make a conversion of a righty to a lefty.

And you could place a notice here under the Wanted section.

(I do appreciate the cost aspect!)

Jon Light · From: Saugerties, NY

As one of my steel guitar clients knows quite well, few things make me whine more than his lefthanded guitar. My brain simply does not handle it well. So as I attempt to visualize what you propose, I get tied up in knots. There are puzzles that I just can't work out. But here's my starting point, with possible/probable holes in my thinking.

I've worked on a couple of C-S's .
Referencing the photo:
It seems that you could remove the aluminum hardware at the bottom and remove all the cross shafts. I believe he other end (top) of the shafts are seated in holes in the cabinet. The strip of wood is the pedal stop. You'd need to move the stop to the other apron. But I don't know that you could drill holes for the shafts low enough on the other apron, as close to the underside of the top as you need them. You may need to fabricate another strip of aluminum to hold the other end of the shafts. Would the pedal stop work then? I don't know. I don't think so. You'd need to engineer a solution.

Where my brain hurts is trying to figure out what happens with the levers when you remove them and mount them toward the other apron. Do the reversing levers still work? Or are they backwards now?

If it were my situation, I'd work this puzzle into the night.
Thankfully it isn't. So I'm popping open a beer and firing up a joint.

Richard Sinkler · From: aka: Rusty Strings -- Missoula, Montana

Trying to do that with a Carter Starter would be a waste of time and maybe not even possible. I don't think James' suggestion of playing from the front side would work. I believe the legs come out of the guitar at different angles for front and rear. Then the pedal rods would angle back to the front apron that is now next to your stomach, and be in the way of being able to use the knee levers. An impossibility in my opinion.

I agree that the best plan would be to find a ready made left handed guitar. To do the modifications you would need to do might take tools and machinery you wouldn't necessarily have access to. You might actually make it totally unplayable or very poorly playable. A poorly playable guitar would discourage you and probably cause you to quit as has happened to many players before. And with the modifications, you probably couldn't sell it very easily if at all.
_________________
Carter D10 8p/8k, Dekley S10 3p/4k C6 setup,Regal RD40 Dobro, Recording King Professional Dobro, NV400, NV112,Ibanez Gio guitar, Epiphone SG Special (open D slide guitar) . Playing for 54 years and still counting.

Jon Light · From: Saugerties, NY

re: front/rear legs at different angles......maybe yes, maybe no. I'm looking at a couple of pictures and it is not obvious. Just can't tell.

And my reply, above, is entirely about this exact process, changing front to rear and sitting on the other side.

I am taking the OP at face value. The mission is to convert this Carter-Starter to a left handed guitar if possible because no other option is affordable at this time.

Unfortunately, everything I said in my post above is wrong. Flipping the pedal cross shafts around, front-to-rear apron will turn them into lowering pedals instead of raise pedals. Since the bellcranks are welded on, they cannot be inverted 180°.
The very thing that makes the C-S a reasonable platform for tinkering -- too cheap to worry about destroying its value -- also makes it a poor candidate for customization -- too cheap to have practical design flexibility.

So for the same reasons, I'm not optimistic that the levers can be converted. Turn them around and raises become lowers and vice versa. But maybe exchanging them with each other can get you somewhere.

Also, the lowering finger comb will need to be flipped around since it can only accommodate lowers on the designated strings.

But I see no solution for the pedals, at a quick glance.

Paul Strojan · From: California, USA

It sounds to me like all you would need to do would be to add a pickup on the left side of the guitar and overlay a reversed fret board.

Jon Light · From: Saugerties, NY

Fred Treece · From: California, USA

Bobby D. Jones · From: West Virginia, USA

A left hand guitar would be needed to set up the guitar you want to play left handed. Then move the pedals to the left to match the pedals of a right handed steel.

Some guitars have a lighter built, Narrower up and down rear aprons compared to the front apron. The front apron on a guitar has to be built strong enough to take the down pulling force of the pedals. So body does not have to much bend when pedals are engaged. Commonly called cabinet drop.

The strings are tapered from the changer to narrower at the Nut end. Which would make for very close string spacing where picking.

Emily Keene · From: Washington, USA

Thank you all for your answers, advice, and pictures. I have made the decision not to purchase the Carter Starter offered for sale and to instead embark on my own build. Though I'm no Paul Sellers (check out his YouTube videos to see an amazing traditional English woodworker) among other things, I built my kitchen cabinets, and though I won't claim to be "luthier", I've done some pretty major repairs on violins and guitars-and set up more banjos than I can remember, and though I'm no machinist, I've had to "fabricate" a lot of metal parts over the years-and to top it all off, I spent ten years driving an old Peugeot that averaged one repair every twenty miles (the transmission linkage used the same kind of ball & socket joints as my Sho-Bud pedals-and I once had to tie the linkage together with a shoe lace to get home from a gig). I've put some palm pedals on my reso to practice on during the build, and I think I can make something that works well enough for MY purposes. I've just turned 70 and my gigging days are long over, so this will be something to keep me off the streets and out of the bingo halls. I'm sure I'll have more questions, but in the meantime, thanks again!!-emily

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