My truck is very tempermental about starting. My friend said it is because of the elderbrock carb. could that be true?

Could be. Edelbrock carbs (if its the one Im thinking of) are based off of the old Carter AFB carbs. The carb may have a set of jets and metering rods that dont match up with your motor. You should be able to buy a Strip kit for the carb consisting of numorous combinations of metering rods and jets. If your carefull you do not have to pull the carb to change jets and the metering rods are really easy to change. They are vacuum actuated and are located under a flat plate on either side of the carb by the flat surface where the air cleaner seats on the carb. You may also have a simple choke problem. What size is your motor. Did you purchase the carb to go with that motor or is this one you got second hand? If you got the carb second hand it could be the jetting or metering rods. If the starting problem is really the carb get a kit and start playing. You should be able to use the spark plugs as a factor of running rich or lean. Pull a plug and see if its black, white, light grey, or brown. If you have one of the generic shop manuals like Haynes, they have a spark plug condition chart in most of them.
Thats the best I can do in print without going into serious detail.

Hope this helps...

Try ad justing the choke if this dont help try a small carb spacer this will help the fuel and air mix better before entering the cumbustion camber. also make sure the carb your using has the proper cfm raiting and jets for the motor you have, if its a 460 I would recomend No smaller than a 600 and no larger than a 750.

That is nonsense. How old is your Friend?