The Steel Guitar Forum

Hello all you Carter players out there,

I have a Carter SD-10 in great shape being shipped to me.
Emmonds copedent.
Four pedals, x is a Franklin pull.
Five levers, with vert between LL & LR.

Can I get some feedback on how these Carter guitars rate as far as materials and mechanics., also I am new to the Franklin pedal usage.

Thank you for any expert/seasoned advise & opinions.

Respectfully,

Robert Halligan.
New Member

Welcome Robert! Sounds like you found yourself a real nice one!?
Good luck to ya

A pro Carter is a fine guitar, about as good as anything out there.

(But...there will always be some gear-snob that thinks it's not as good as what he plays.)

Welcome Robert...I believe mine is 2004 model. It's a stock SD10 with 3x5. Even with the full sized body and pad, it's a pretty lightweight steel guitar. I'm not a builder or PSG tech so I can't really comment on the materials.

I can tell you that I like the tone of it, and I can hear the loud & clear sustain of the guitar while unplugged. It may be because of the "Body Contact Technology" that Bud Carter employed in the later models. One other thing: If you like smooth and soft pedal action you'll enjoy your Carter.

I can tell you that Carter's are built very solid, with fine woods.
I would not let mine go for any amount of money.

Carters are fine Instruments, I have owned and played 4 of them for years. No bigger Carter fan than me.

You are asking, so here is my response. If there is any issue it's that the parts used in the all pull system are very small and easy drop and lose. This would only be a mild nuisance if indeed you were taking it apart to make changes otherwise the player would never know.

Very nice lightweight guitars as rugged as all get go. I carried my D10 around SET UP in my van to gigs for probably 7 or 8 years. Never had an issue.

I do not own a Carter today but would have no problem grabbing another if the deal was good !

regarding the Franklin Ped, thats a different question and has nothing to do with the Steel, it's a great change .

Send me a PM and I'll point you to some projects which use the FP.

enjoy !

I've had 4 of them, they'll hold their own against any brand on the market today. Built by master Bud Carter, that for me pretty well sums it up.

I've been playing mine since 1999, and I love it.

Put me down as a Carter fanboy!

h

Reading these posts I get the feeling that nobody wants to give any design credits to John Fabian, who was a master engineer and process engineer. Yes Bud Carter was indeed a master craftsman but together they built and designed the Carter Steel.

great guitars...

I ordered the first Bright Red one they made. Then got a Black SD-10 that I just recently sold. Both great guitars. Bud and John made a good match. They were perhaps the most successful guitar technicians ever and John was a very good business man. May they both rest in Peace. J.R.

Tops

I liked them Cartiers a bunch. I would have liked to have had a Emmonds but it wasn't to be.

Right now I play a Willioms.

My trimbling finger musta hit the enter button twice.

I only played one once, & it was OK playing & tone wise, but didn't blow me away. Then again; half the steels I play that aren't mine don't blow me away. I was considering buying it, But, it was in a music store, didn't have my own picks, wasn't plugged into a steel amp,no effects, etc, so it wasn't a fair comparo. The only complaint I have heard about Carters was that the mechanical parts were kind of fragile or flimsy & things (dogbones) broke underneath sometimes. Have heard this about some Sho-Buds, too. This is only what I have read; I have zero experience with Carter mechanics.

I liked that it was very light & physically small. And, they are reasonably priced.

Not even knowing about this thread, Monday night we compared a Carter to my SKH Emmons which is a fine sounding guitar. We used same gear and just swapped out guitars. The Carter sounded as good or better than the Emmons. Different traits of course but sounded great. I actually think that they sound better than some of the mainstream guitars that are being played now. Just my 2 cents. I'm done.

Rich,
Go here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3d4HEJM4UU and compare his Carter to any guitar out there. The player is Tim Lusby. Check out Sara Jory with her Carter, also on YouTube, Try Al Brisco's CD "Pinkin Up Dust". There are many other players who can stretch them out and sound great.
Best regards, Jay Thompson

I have 3 PSGs that are keepers.
A 1970 Emmons, a 2006 GFI, and a 1999 Carter.
All excellent for their own reasons.

Since Jay mentioned Al Brisco, check out his tribute to Ralph Mooney, recorded live, direct to an amp (no other effects) : https://youtu.be/y14CKpmv3qU

If I am not mistaken, Tommy White recorded his instrumental CD on a Carter. He is pictured on the jacket seated behind a D-10.

If Mr. Carter only made a couple hundred Carters, instead of thousands, priced them $500-$1000 higher, all while keeping the exact same standards, I wonder what the demand would be?

Josh Killian wrote:If Mr. Carter only made a couple hundred Carters, instead of thousands, priced them $500-$1000 higher, all while keeping the exact same standards, I wonder what the demand would be?

Good point, they may well bring what a Franklin brings.

One up for my buddy Dale Rivard, from Canada... Every time I hear him on his Carter, I think I want one too... He may even be playing through his 68 Fender Twin in this... here he is on both necks at a seminar he did recently... it’s the first song right at the beginning...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhrcP9e_y1A

Rich Upright wrote:I only played one once, & it was OK playing & tone wise, but didn't blow me away. Then again; half the steels I play that aren't mine don't blow me away. I was considering buying it, But, it was in a music store, didn't have my own picks, wasn't plugged into a steel amp,no effects, etc, so it wasn't a fair comparo. The only complaint I have heard about Carters was that the mechanical parts were kind of fragile or flimsy & things (dogbones) broke underneath sometimes. Have heard this about some Sho-Buds, too. This is only what I have read; I have zero experience with Carter mechanics.

Playing any Pedal Steel in a music store that has not been properly set up will most likely offer the exact same conclusion.

Regarding the parts, they are not cheap and flimsy, they are small. Its a very rugged well designed all pull system with small parts. Small is not the same as cheap and flimsy.

Play ability, excellent, these guitars can be set-up as well or better than any other Steel on the market. The action is tight and very precise.

Tone ? Uhmm...When I played my Carters I have had people tell me my "Push Pull" sounds awesome , and thats with George L pups not even single coils !

Looking back over the last year, I sold my 9+8 D10 Carter and now I totally regret it. It was a solid workhorse that I had with me for just shy of 10 years.

Josh Killian wrote:If Mr. Carter only made a couple hundred Carters, instead of thousands, priced them $500-$1000 higher, all while keeping the exact same standards, I wonder what the demand would be?

Nothing at all wrong with your wondering and it can raise interesting thoughts about market values and perceived (and real) rarity and other intangibles and their effect on the those values but---

re: Carter, it bears mentioning that John Fabian's business model was about economies of scale with mass produced parts and multi-guitar assembly lines (no, don't think Detroit--that's not at all what I'm saying).

So one of the major things that made Carter as successful as it was (I have no idea if they were profitable but they certainly were a PSG market force) is this vision of manufacturing large quantities of parts and creating the ability to deliver a lot of quality new guitars in very little time. They shot for 30 day delivery on a non-custom order, IIRC. With some memorable whining by a couple of people who couldn't cope with the fact that stuff sometimes happens.

Design and engineering is entirely its own subject and I'm not addressing that here. Bud & John were innovative. Not everything they came up with was a home run but some of it was.
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