The Steel Guitar Forum

Hello all so i just bought my first, its a used carter starter 4 levers 3 pedals.
everything looks okay except the far left knee lever was really loose, so i tightened it up , just a allen wrench thing, no biggee, but i dont like where it sits, im just thinking its wrong somehow the pedal doesnt hang straight down, and im thinking the part of the lever against the body is in the wrong place maybe?

Take alook tell me if you see anything out of whack here.

I had a cater starter and the knee levers were the weak link. It looks to me in the last picture that the screw under the KL is supposed to be the KL stop, at least that was the issue on mine. I moved the location so the screw head was under the end of the KL and functioned as the stop.
I could be wrong but that was my experience.
RH

I had a similar situation here. Replace that round head screw stop with a flat head and it should help to keep that knee lever from slipping. The angles seem to be what they are.

Your carriage looks a little different from my starter in that area. Mine is a later model (2010 or so), maybe yours was an earlier model? I'm just thinking out loud with that.

Here are three pics of my LKL lever.
Notice in the 2nd picture, my lever comes down dead center of that set screw (stop). In your picture, the lever looks like it's missing that "stop" to the inside. Maybe moving that set screw is all that is needed?







Please correct me if I narrowed in on the wrong lever and I will take some new pictures.

I made new stops for a Carter starter knee leavers. It’s. Very easy fix. Know I don’t no if you’re knee leaver placement is off I cannot tell from pictures. But that said they are desent steels when ever thing is up too snuff.

Johnie King wrote:I made new stops for a Carter starter knee leavers. It’s. Very easy fix. Know I don’t no if you’re knee leaver placement is off I cannot tell from pictures. But that said they are desent steels when ever thing is up too snuff.

i think i see the issue, whomever had this frist moved the bar so it sits higher on mine, yours is in the top hole mine is in the second
, as a result it is wider between thr two levers. i have a feeling if i move the lever up to the top hole like yours is. it will sit straight vertically.

nope i was wrong, the Allen screw wont even fit in the top hole. oh well i guess im destined to have a KL that doesnt sit straight vertically.

Steve Hudson wrote:nope i was wrong, the Allen screw wont even fit in the top hole. oh well i guess im destined to have a KL that doesnt sit straight vertically.

Don't be afraid to make the hole bigger if you need to
Doing a little work on these things is not taboo.... actually, it's often required.

It looks like the cross shaft is just rotated too far away from the changer. You need to reset the range of motion so that the bell cranks (and lever) are more vertical at rest like they are in Sean's picture. Back out the that lever stop screw to the end point of that lever's range around where you want it to be (or replace the screw while you're at it as others have suggested) then just tighten the tuning nuts on the rods attached to those bell cranks to re-tune the pulls.

Hi Steven: I agree with Ian it may be that the person that owned the steel before you may have wanted or needed more distance between the Knee leavers and with the starter the only way to get this is to use longer rods from the lever fingers to the changer. I think if you look closely you can see what I'm talking about but be carful about changing the length of those rods too short will be worse than too long.

Barry

I never noticed it at first, but yes - I think Ian is correct. My bell cranks are nearly vertical, yours are not. As Ian says, you should be able to correct that by tightening the tuning nuts and resetting the stop screw.

I can't imagine that someone actually put longer rods into a Starter, but I guess anything is possible. My guess is that it was just a poor setup

Ian Worley wrote:It looks like the cross shaft is just rotated too far away from the changer. You need to reset the range of motion so that the bell cranks (and lever) are more vertical at rest like they are in Sean's picture. Back out the that lever stop screw to the end point of that lever's range around where you want it to be (or replace the screw while you're at it as others have suggested) then just tighten the tuning nuts on the rods attached to those bell cranks to re-tune the pulls.

i dont know what you mean by that levers stop screw. do you mean the round head phillips screw that the lever sometimes rubs against underneath?
If so when you say back it out to the end point of that levers range, i dont understand this either.
my teacher will be over this saturday im sure he will understand what you meant more than I for sure.

Steve Hudson wrote:i dont know what you mean...

Yes, it sounds like it will be best to have someone else take a look. The stop screw is the one circled below. Backing it out shortens the lever's range of motion in that direction, sets the maximum point when the lever is fully engaged. Re-read the explanation above, if it still doesn't make sense to you then yes, you should probably just wait for your friend. Good luck!

Steve,

If you want to take your guitar out to Tommy Cass in Bladwinville Mass he can certainly figure out what's going on with it. PM me for his number if you want it.

Leo