The Steel Guitar Forum

Any idea how to remove a Carter pedal stop Alen screw the previous owner had use a wrong size wrench and knackered the hex ,it is not a problem because the guitar is fine as it is, but I would like to replace the adjuster with a new one if I can remove the small grub screw. .



Thanks

Jimmy.

Sounds like a job for the basic "Easy-Out," or screw extractor.
I have lousy luck with them myself, and have started just going straight to a machine shop. Should cost under a tenner of your UK pounds.

I don't think a easy out would work. Might not go in far enough to grab the edges. Here is another suggestion. If you have enough room to get a dremel, or another brand of small grinder, with a cutting disc on it. Grind a slot across the head, and use a regular screw driver. Or a small pair of vice grips. Just another idea. Ronnie

I had a key head for a vintage Emmons guitar with some tiny 4-40 screw shanks still in the threaded holes. The former owner had tried to install some tuners that didn't quite have the correct bolt pattern and had twisted the heads off of a few of the screws while trying to tighten them down.

I took my key head to a very experienced "old school" machinist friend. He simply used a left-handed drill bit in his mill to unscrew the broken shanks out of the key head! Brilliant

I don't know if you can just drill it out and run a tap through it. Might be easier to remove the back apron and take to a machine shop. It's not as scary as it sounds. It's kind of a pain getting all the cross shafts back into there holes. This also a good time to clean out and re-lube the cross shafts and their holes.

Lynn I worked with that old time machinist for many years, he know's his craft. The left handed drill is an old trick in the machinist field, it "grabs" what ever material it can, bites into it and out comes the screw in most cases. Sometimes more drastic measures must be taken, but this is a good place to start.

Those screws were absolutely unmovable in the one carter I (briefly) owned. Al Brisco told me they were put in with loc-tite at the factory. As part of a pattern, this had something to do with my getting rid of the guitar.

The only loctite on my Carter is the one pedal stop on the pedal I put on after I had the guitar for a while. They used something that they probably hit with a hammer to peen a dimple into the bar the set srews are in. This causes the hole for the set screw to narrow a little. I have no problems moving my pedal stops and have not stripped any. They may have started using loctite sometime after 1999, or after, when my guitar was built.

I've never had a problem adjusting any on the four D10s I've owned !

Thanks guys for your input, all sorted what I did was cut the end of a Torx key that was a little bigger than the set screw taped it into the head of the screw then used my mole wrench and out it came new set screw {a little bit longer than the old one}, Job done

Jimmy.

John Swain wrote:I've never had a problem adjusting any on the four D10s I've owned !

Me either ! But I have only owned 3.

And Yes, one that I am restoring now has a few "set screw" issues from the previous owner, not the factory. Reverse drill bit is an excellent answer to the issue stated above.

Jimmy Gibson wrote:Thanks guys for your input, all sorted what I did was cut the end of a Torx key that was a little bigger than the set screw taped it into the head of the screw then used my mole wrench and out it came new set screw {a little bit longer than the old one}, Job done

Jimmy.

Mole wrench??? That's one I've never heard. Chances are, we have them over here, but they are probably called something else. -Jake-

Those are Vise Grips here in the US, I thInk.

Yes Ken same tool different name in the UK.



Jimmy