The Steel Guitar Forum

I have a Carter D10, Emmons setup. My dilemna is that I have developed fairly bad arthritis in my left hand and cant really hold the bar very well on the E9th neck anymore. I'm not really much of C6 player, but I can hold the bar better on the front. I would like to know if anyone has switched the setup of the necks, has any other suggestions. I'm just not ready to stop playing yet. Dave

David...What you are referring to I believe is known as the, "Chalker Setup" (named for steel guitar great Curly Chalker). If you have ever viewed him on Hee-Haw when he was the staff player, you may have noticed while backing a guest he would be playing his E9 licks on the rear neck (closest to player)...Changing a setup around to that extent could prove costly and time consuming. Just a suggestion; why not a single neck E9 on a single frame, this should achieve the same result?

More folks than Mr. Chalker set up their guitars like that. It really makes good ergonomic sense if the E9 gets the most use, and the standard is probably just left over from D8 non-pedal when C6 was a workhorse tuning, or maybe because the heavier strings are closer or ????...who knows.

I don't think it would be too costly, but probably time consuming is right on.

Unless there is some specific rod bends, IMO the pedals would transfer pretty easily. If we think about it, there may be a few rods that can just be shifted within the neck.

The left knee levers are probably going to need moving to use the last 3 pedals to the right. So that might cost some to hire a professional to reinstall those. I've moved pedals and changes around some, but never installed a lever or another shaft into the body, etc.


Good luck and hopefully it will help you keep picking.

David it's been awhile since I worked on a Carter but if I remember right the cross shafts run all the way across the body. You can change it and still use the first 3 pedals on the back neck and knee levers the same because you can move the bellcranks where you need them.
If you are going to do it yourself make sure to make a rodding chart before you start.
Shoot me a email if you have any questions

thanks for the input guys. I think that I'm going to see if I can find someone that would trade me for a decent single neck.

I agree with Robert. The standard pedal positions should still work fine. No need to move them. Just move the bell cranks (pull bars as Carter called them) to the bottom neck. Chalker had his E9 pedals in the standard positions that we all know and love . I personally think having the neck I play the most (E9) on the top neck is more comfortable to me. May be because I am a little large in the belly, but playing the bottom neck is a little bit uncomfortable.