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Topic: Carter Starter: the wayward knee lever |
Mike Harris
From:
Texas, USA
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Posted 22 Nov 2024 6:47 am |
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After years of playing lap steel, I'm looking to (finally) get started on a Carter Starter that I got in trade years ago. It's my understanding that one of the knee levers is set up other than the Emmons setup. My questions are 1) why did they do this? and 2) can I alter it so that it conforms to the Emmons setup?
thanks,
Mike |
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Jon Light
From:
Saugerties, NY
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Posted 22 Nov 2024 7:27 am
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Never could figure why they did the RKL 5th string B > A# lower.
Truth is, I don't hate it. But it certainly is adrift of 'standard' for a 4 lever guitar.
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| 2) can I alter it..... |
That's tough and pretty much no, but sorta maybe. I mean it depends on how deeply you want to go hacking. That lever has one single welded-on crank right in the middle. What is it you'd like to do? Raise String 1? You could bend a rod over to the first string. You can't lower the 6th string. You could hook another rod onto the same crank and raise String 7. Or you could conceivably bend another rod to String 2 to raise it although you'd need to see if the spring tension on #2 for its lower works ok with a raise, too.
Also you cannot add a 9th string lower to RKR. That changer finger comb is not cut out to allow lowering 9.
As we all know, the C-S is not an ideal vehicle for customization (understatement). But that does not mean that you can't do some stuff. |
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Tucker Jackson
From:
Portland, Oregon, USA
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Posted 22 Nov 2024 10:33 am
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As we all know, the C-S is not an ideal vehicle for customization (understatement). But that does not mean that you can't do some stuff. |
Right. I'm sure you know that this was by design -- Carter went into the business of mass production of the Starter student guitars to be sold in Big Box places like Musician's Friend (called Guitar Center, today) for about $699. It was affordable, designed to be a gateway drug to pedal steel so that once addicted, the player would upgrade.
They correctly sensed that they were opening themselves up to headaches if they made it easy for folks with no experience in steel mechanics to mess with the Starter (or mess it up, since it's easy to do). So they short-circuited that outcome and just made a fixed copedent, complete with bellcranks welded to the guitar.
Their logic was that the new player needed to get the basic 3x3 changes under their belt first (and beyond that, there is no real standard or "Emmons setup" for what changes might be on a 4th or 5th knee lever, just some 'more common' and 'less common' ones). After a year or two when they wanted more custom changes, the player would probably be wanting to upgrade to a professional model anyway. And hopefully, that pro model would be a Carter. So from the beginning, the idea was that the Starter would not be a fully-realized pedal steel. Instead, it would be offered at a rock bottom price so folks could just try it out for a while to see if they were going to be into it before spending bigger bucks on a pro model. It serves that purpose reasonably well, IMHO.
But as Jon said, if you really want to hack it, it's possible. That B to Bb change you have on the Starter is quite common... but it's more common on guitars with 5 knee levers. I would keep the guitar as is, since 95% of the steel music you hear, especially classic country, just uses the core 3x3 changes. |
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Bob Sykes
From:
North Carolina
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Posted 22 Nov 2024 4:19 pm
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You can drop string 6 instead of 5. Here's how I did it.
https://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=203183&highlight=
The only issue I have is if I synchronize the B pedal pulls, tuning is not stable (changing hole on bellcrank away from factory hole)
I just do without the first string raise. I miss it sometimes 
_________________
Carters Starter, D10 8+7, SD10, Chandler RH-2, Rogue RLS-1
ISO Sustainus Ad Infinitum |
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Jon Light
From:
Saugerties, NY
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Posted 22 Nov 2024 4:31 pm
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Ah. Nice! Definitely advanced level hackery.
All C-S work I've done has been on clients' guitars. If one of them wanted me to do this sort of job on theirs, I would talk them out of this level of $$ investment (because it would not be a cheap job). If they are jonesing for a more complete steel guitar, it's time to get a pro model or invest their own time & sweat, working on their own guitar. |
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Stew Crookes
From:
Paris, France
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Posted 22 Nov 2024 11:21 pm Re: Carter Starter: the wayward knee lever
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| Mike Harris wrote: |
After years of playing lap steel, I'm looking to (finally) get started on a Carter Starter that I got in trade years ago. It's my understanding that one of the knee levers is set up other than the Emmons setup. My questions are 1) why did they do this? and 2) can I alter it so that it conforms to the Emmons setup?
thanks,
Mike |
About 20 years ago I started on a CS for about a year, and honestly the changes that matter the 'most' are the ones on the pedals and the other 3 knee levers... It was the perfect entrance to pedal steel for me, so it worked exactly as Carter intended!
I suspect you'll get more mileage out of investing your time in playing the thing rather than tweaking it and no matter how loaded your guitar is, there'll ALWAYS be a change that you feel like you're missing out on (like the Franklin pedal etc) so might as well get comfortable with the feeling that you're 'missing out' on a change since it doesn't go away 
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Music mixer, producer and pedal steel guitarist
stewcrookes.com |
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Mike Harris
From:
Texas, USA
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Posted 23 Nov 2024 11:11 am Carter Starter: the wayward knee lever
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| Well, I had no idea how much I did not know about all of this. Thanks to everyone for a lot of very helpful information. Now all I have to do is learn to play the thing. After all, how hard can it be? Wish me luck, I'm gonna need it. |
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