1970s Dekley S-10 10-String Pedal Steel Guitar

I bought this off of a friend of mine (in a bit of a ragged state) who was reducing his collection. He also had a tab with me for some repairs -- so maybe bought/traded is more accurate? I love pedal steel as a sound but my brain works in simple open tunings like D, G, C, E, or "bluegrass" G, so something like this with its mix of chordal "banks" within its tuning is completely beyond me. I've played simple 6-string pedal steel now and then, though, so I understand the operation of the device.

Anyhow, I've cleaned it up a bunch, restrung it for classic E9th tuning (but with flatwound strings on the wound courses for a "retro" sound), and arranged the pedals and knee levers to achieve most of the Emmons copedants. I've actually taken a photo of the chart for what's all being bent by what.

It's a very easy steel to adjust as far as what each pedal or lever does, but it's important that for sharping the note, the pull-bars need to be at the "upper" (closer to the bridge) part of the adjuster tab and for flatting the note, the pull-bars should be towards the "lower" part. I disconnected all of the pull-bars and readjusted all of them so they were setup more logically and, as a result, the whole thing functions a lot better.

It's also a very stable steel and maintains its tuning well and plays nicely, too. It's all-original throughout, to boot, and comes with the proper hex-driver for adjusting the pedals, the copedents chart, and a nice old D'Addario bullet bar of the big size used by steel players (not the little Hawaiian-style bullets like I use). Said bar conveniently snaps-in to clips on the underside of the aluminum chassis.

Condition, you say?

It's pretty good overall but the "fretboard" has some dings and scratches and the tolex is coming unglued at the very bottom of the chassis. I've used black duct tape to hold it down and wrap it over into the inside of the instrument. There was electrical tape on it before that and that was more gross. I've oiled all the moving parts and, mechanically, it's working 100% and ready to go. The pickup has tons of output and sounds great. There's wear and tear to the legs and leg mounts (grunge, scuffs) but, ya know, it's an old instrument that was clearly gigged and loved its entire life.

Considering the riveted-on Kluson tuners and simple looks, I'm guesstimating this to be a mid-late '70s Dekley and definitely on the earlier side for the company. It's entirely possible it's an '80s model, too, but it seems like most of the '80s ones have Grover sealed tuners and wood veneer for the bodies.