The Steel Guitar Forum

Hi there!

Having loved the sound of steel guitar for years, I've finally decided to learn to play. It's a bit daunting of course, but fascinating, and I expect to have an enormous amount of fun for many years.

As it happens, my decision to take up the steel coincided nearly perfectly with the discovery that a friend of mine has a Dekley S10 she wants to sell.

It has three pedals and one knee lever, and while considering it against other options the most essential question I have is about expandability. I don't know enough at this point to be able to look at its undercarriage and say "Aha! Yes, this is outfitted to take 2 or 3 or more knee levers."

I guess the basic question is: Are *all* Dekleys capable of adding knee levers? So that even if this only comes with one, I'll be pretty sure that in the future I'll be able to buy, scrounge or fabricate new ones for it?

I just don't want to back myself into a corner, if you see what I mean.

So that's my first question, my first post, and I look forward to sticking around learning a lot

Cheers!

i have owen three dekleys d-10 for years now. they
are very well built steels. you could add 4 more knee;s levers to it but, since they no longer make
dekley's any more parts are hard to come by. but,
you can add older m.s.a parts to it and it and they
will fit niceley. i am useing my 1982 dekley d-10 8+8
this weekend for a gig... hope this helps

p.w

dekley's are good solid steels. lots of people on the forum can help you with parts...show a pic of the underside sometime and everyone will have ideas.

Just make sure it's not the student model if it is adding pulls may not work. But if it has the standard changer you can, but as being a dealer for them back in the late 70's and early 80's I don't ever remember the standard steel coming with just one knee lever, which makes me think the steel in question could possibly be the student model.
Bill

Jim Smith knows better than anyone, he help build them.

Thanks for all the info so far.

Is there a way to tell from the serial number whether it's a student model or not?

Edit: Aha... i just found this thread here: http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?p=1268336

I'm going to be looking at the guitar again tonight. I should be able to get a better idea then. I'll take the opportunity to get a few pictures as well.

I had the current owner email me the serial number - I haven't had a chance yet to go look at it today - and this is how it's described:

I found two numbers on the guitar. Both are on the same piece of metal at one end of the guitar. The first is SK103-2, in larger raised letters, probably molded with the part. The other is obviously etched in afterward, but it looks like they may have had some trouble. It looks something like 0001-00051, but some of the zeros overlap. If I had to guess, the intended number is 1-0051, as the rest of the markings don't quite line up.

Based on the picture of the manual in that other thread, I take it that this is probably a student model? Which means it cannot be expanded?

Edit: I downloaded and read the manual, and now understand that the first number is the part #. So I guess the current question is: what implications are there - playability, quality, expandability, etc. - with this instrument apparently being a student model?

If you think you are going to stick with it, wait for a $1200 or so 3x4 Shobud or equivalent to come up in the Instruments for sale section....If you have a real interest, you will grow out of 1 knee lever around the time it would take to save up the extra $600-700 more to buy a guitar you could possibly play the rest of your life.

Thanks, Gavin, for the sound advice... it's much appreciated.

But! It's pretty much a done deal at this point. I've handed her half the cash and will pay it off shortly.

The odd thing is that while I still think it's got a student model serial number (I'll just have to look more closely when I get a chance), it seems to actually be an 010 model. It's got the build and specs shown in the catalog for that year ('79, I think) for that model.

As soon as I get it - and get a new string... #3 is broken - I'll post pics and start trying to see what can be done with it. Definitely going to start by getting a few more levers, and I'm pretty sure I'll have to replace the pot in the pedal.