Growler Steel and Carter Starter ?'s

Jeff Silverman · From: Pennsylvania, USA

I bought a carter starter a few years ago during covid as I've always wanted to play. As I've gotten even marginally better, I run into limitations with the carter. I have the E to F lever mod which helps, but other than that, it feels like I am really fighting with the guitar, specifically the LKR and RKR levers.Is there anything I can do to make it easier, from a mechanical standpoint, to play?

As well, I know a Steel upgrade is in my future, Growler guitars seem to be the only 3x4 in my price range, will that be more of an adjacent move from the carter? Or do I stick it out even longer and buy a Justice 3x4.

Thanks!

Patrick Timmins · From: Seattle

Hi Jeff. Congrats on starting the PSG journey!

I have a pedal steel repair shop in Seattle. I've had pretty much everything come through the shop now. I have had several Carter starters through as well as 2 growlers. One really old example of a growler had a pretty poor build quality, but a newer one seemed a lot better, but I would say, at best, they are adjacent to the carter starter. The square aluminum legs are not fun to deal with. One customer had me make inserts so he could use regular adjustable legs on it and a new custom foot pedal rack. He wound up spending $900 just to make the guitar more useful, stable, and easier to set up. I like the idea of the knife edge changer on the ShoNuff guitars built by the same people but haven't seen one yet in person. They sound good on line. They do have a model with adjustable legs and the knife edge changer, but that one is $2895.

I would recommend going with the Justice, one of Doug's Stage One Encore models (if you can get on his wait list) or best, a Mullen Discovery. But that's getting up to 2.5k. I have a few friends that tour with a Mullen Discovery. Mullen makes it very easy to add options so the guitar can grow with you, extra knees, split tuning plate, etc... I know it may seem expensive, but it's a good deal for what you get.

Patrick.
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Jeff Silverman · From: Pennsylvania, USA

Hey Patrick,

Appreciate the insight! Seems like that stage one wait list is never ending. Will definitely look into the Justice though. Kicking myself because I should have just gotten a Justice in the first place knowing now how the carter feels.

Also what is a knifes edge changer? The standard shonuff models are in my price range 1.5kish and seem like really nice guitars.

Patrick Timmins · From: Seattle

The knife edge changer (or blade changer) utilizes a sharp edge that the changer finger pivots on instead of an axle running through the changer fingers. There is a short writeup here: https://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=381592&highlight=blanton
The old fender 400 up to the fender PS210 and some Blantons utilized this type of changer. I'm not sure what material the Shonuff guitars use for the changer finger, but the old Fender 400 used some type of very hard tool steel (difficult to drill) plated with chrome and they sound phenomenal. I have rebuilt several of the Fenders and there has been no wear on the fingers of any of the units I have seen. I don't think that would be true if the knife edge fingers were to be made from 6061 aluminum.
The square bolt on legs on the Growlers are kind of a pain in the rear to deal with. The pedal rack on the units I have seen is also fairly flexible and moves around a bit when playing giving it kind of a mushy feeling (not the most solid of stops) which is why a customer had me make him a custom aluminum pedal rack for more rigidity.
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Microphones, Recording, and lots of pedal steel guitars!

Jerry Overstreet · From: Louisville Ky

My 70s Fender Artist D10 with the Super Pro mechanics has a knife edge changer along with Fender's pan tuners. It sounds great and never breaks a string. Some of them are grungy and rusty Embarassed

but they still sound good and just do not break.

I believe this was Gene Field's idea when he was working with Leo.

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