Dan Beller-McKenna
From:
Durham, New Hampshire, USA
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Posted 27 Jun 2024 2:21 pm |
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Really nice 1998 Carter D-10, 9x6, triple raise/triple lower in very good condition. I find myself with four D-10s and I need to pare that down by at least one, so sadly this one has to find a new home where it will get played regularly as it should. I recently pulled the changer and underside for a cleaning, replaced a few parts, and have it back together with a relatively standard copedant. It’s dialed in, playing smoothly and sounding great. Over the past three years I have played it on a few dozen gigs and it never let me down mechanically. I briefly had a single coil pickup on the E9 neck (first a Steeltronics then a Truetone) which caused more hum than on the Sho Buds or Fessys I have had, so I went back to a humbucker, a GL 10-1 that sounds excellent with this steel. I never messed with the BL 710 on the C6 neck, which has always sounded great.
This guitar previously belonged to Chris Allen Burke in southern California. From what I understand, Chris, who died in 2011, was a good steel tech, and this was one of his working steels on which he made several modifications, some of which were still on the guitar when I purchased it three years ago, only one of which I have kept. I am pretty sure the guitar was not owned by anyone in between, despite the ten-year lag.
Cosmetically the guitar is in very good shape. There are some scratches in the aluminum, especially on the polished pedal bar, but nothing egregious or that shows from more than a couple of feet away. I have never cared for the Carter fretboard, so I had my friend Bill Holbrook (a great steel player AND sign maker) make up new ones for me as you see in the pics here. (For what it’s worth: PSG Parts has b&w Carter boards available.) I also replaced the original logo sticker (which Chris Allen Burke, who went by CAB, had altered to read CABTER) with a raised Carter badge.
This steel came to me in a flight case that I never used and recently sold. I will ship it in the pictured no-name case, which is in okay shape and fits the Carter perfectly.
Other things worth mentioning:
The “extra” pedal is #4 on the E9 neck, raising strings 1 and 2 (to match strings 3 and 4).
The sixth lever is a C6 LKL, currently lowering A to A-flat on strings 4 and 8.
I have an extra split tuning rod on LKR that lowers G#-F# to get G-natural in combination with the B pedal.
There is a 1” lift kit on this steel. Easy to remove if necessary.
The colored nylon tuners originally went with compensator rods. I took those rods off and have repurposed these nylon tuners; the colors don’t mean anything currently.
The LKV does not have the normal bend in the lever as seen on most Carters. Don’t know why: that’s how it was when I got it. Still functions fine.
There have been other levers on the guitar that have been moved or removed. Upshot: between Chris Allen Burke and me, there are several holes in the underside where knee levers used to be. On the upside, if you wanted to add a C6 LKR (for which I have some of the parts), the holes are already there.
Chris added a tone pot and defeat switch, mounted on the back apron. As on my Super Pro, I find this to be useful for what it is, but it goes into muffled dark tone pretty quickly after a turn of about 30 degrees.
$3100 plus shipping and packing costs. Needless to say, a local sale would be great. Willing to travel a reasonable distance (up to 100 miles) to meet someone half way to deliver the sold guitar.
Last edited by Dan Beller-McKenna on 29 Jun 2024 2:31 am; edited 1 time in total |
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