It has mother of pearl inlays on the front. It does not have the polished knee levers or pedals. Sunburst custom paint over Birdseye maple. The pedal board is a different construction from the other two Carters I've had in the past. I'm not sure if that's a custom shop trait, or if Carter started making all their pedal boards this way, as I have never owned a late model Carter. (By "pedal board" I mean the metal thing that holds the 5 pedals.) The serial number is #01018828734.
A little history: I bought this guitar about a year and a half ago from a Canadian forum member. I don't remember his name. When I received the guitar there were a couple of things that I believe he should have told me about prior to us closing the deal. Before I could even sit down on this guitar, I had to move the right two knee levers back to factory placement. These two levers had been positioned as far back on the body as possible. . . as well as everywhere in between the factory position and the final adjusted point. As a result, there are several mounting holes that have been drilled, mostly in the wood, and a couple in the metal frame. This adjustment was also attempted to the other side, not nearly as drastically, but had been returned to the original position and the holes were filled with some kind of wood filler. By the way, I used a toothpick to remove the holes that were filled on the right side prior to re-adjustment. These modifications don't appear that they were done by a professional whatsoever. The holes are not butchered, but the entire scene is a sloppy job. This is my 3rd Carter, and I've never run into this scenario. These holes are clearly shown in the last few pictures. Sorry. . .
2nd point: There were some kind of knee lever "wraps" that were covering 5 out of the 5 levers. I removed them. They left a foamy residue that remains on the levers that can be removed with orange oil/goo gone without any kind of damage to the knee levers. They're not overly sticky.
Finally, the front two legs are Carter Steel Guitar legs, and the back two are some other kind of legs. I've had a couple of Sho-Buds, and the legs looked like these. So, two matching Carter, and two matching "other" legs. All 4 are in great condition.
Those 3 points aside, this guitar is really gorgeous. It stays in tune exceptionally well and plays as good as any Carter I've had. As I was cleaning the guitar up, I decided to leave the undercarriage holes as they are, leave the residue on the levers, and not try to track down 2 more Carter legs. Instead I'm offering the guitar at a lower price than I would have otherwise.
This comes in a great handy dandy flight case with wheels!
Here are two recordings in which I played this steel guitar:
"One Drink Away" https://www.box.com/s/aiik09ypkwv9c6o1b0i4
"The Bottom Line" https://www.box.com/s/dlw8p4hafvxqo4z9bia6
The price is $2,000 and I will ship this guitar free of charge to the continental United States.
