I have found a stick for sale, but not sure whether its right for me. I'd be grateful if some questions could have your experience applied to them, thanks!

Its an old stick, in the low 1000's and estimated as around/over 20 yrs old, thus it doesn't have an adjustable truss rod, or bridge.

It is currently set up with light gauge strings in MR, however I would be setting it up differently, in Deep Baritone Melody tuning, as my plans are pretty much to take the bass role with it, thus for many songs I need a low B available.

Firstly, I'm worried that the intonation will get distorted by using a different tuning and there isn't anything I can do about it.

Secondly, at the bridge the strings go over the screws and hook the ball ends behind the wooden notches. I'm perhaps just over concerned but is this trustworthy??? Has anyone got any "horror stories" of accidents with these old fashioned style "bridges" or is it possible to fit some kind of adjustable bridge to the old models?

Unfortunately you may have intonation and setup issues trying the Deep Baritone tuning, because of the lack of truss rod and non-adjustable bridge. The bridge itself should be solid though.

Emmett can retrofit the new bridge on an old stick, although it will stick out over the end- no biggie except you won't have anything to set it on.
You'll need it to get the intonation right w/ DBM. The adjustable truss can be put in at the same time. An older stick will prob. have neck straightness issues with any string change anyway, and you need straight for opptimal playing. The old bridge is trustworthy in classic tuning-nothing "pops out" or anything like that. Very stable. I have an '83-never a problem. But it needed the truss rod-and a new stickup and a go over this past year by Emmett. It probaly plays better than origanal. Hope this helps.

Marty

Hmm, having considered your views, I'm a little put off buying it. Adding up the price of the stick; journey costs down to London to check it out; shipping the stick to and from America (plus any insurance costs that would incure); then the cost of the repair work on top of that. It starts to look like I might as well wait till I can splash out on a new one, at least then I'd get all the asthetics to my liking as well as everything new and set up properly. Nevermind...

Thanks again for all your advice, its very appreciated!

Thor, another Stick wll come up soon.

I only caught the bug in December, got on the waiting list in January and bought a secondhand one from a forum member two weeks ago. There were several Sticks for sale during that period (including a graphite 10 string with midi in the UK!) that I could have chased so be patient but be decisive when the "right" one appears.

If you're shipping a wooden instrument a long distance (ie the States to the UK) you should only consider one with a truss rod in my opinion. Mine moved far enough to become unusable within about 8 days. A quick tweak of the rod and it's straight as a die again.

I also wouldn't worry too much about tunings- I got myself tied in knots about which tuning to start on and how difficult it would be to change once started but now I realise (unless I've got this wrong - stranger things have happened) that the tunings are actually all very similar apart from the pitch relationship between the two sides of the neck. So I'm just going to play the Classic 12string tuning that's on the stick until those strings are shot and then I'll put on the Matched Reciprocal set that the previous owner included and see how I like the hand relationships in that tuning.
This is of course another pointer for only buying a Stick with an adjustable bridge - you can swap tunings and stringsets with ease.

Anyway, listen to me - I've only had it for a fortnight and you'd think I was an old hand.

Cheers

Ed

This will also serve to make you adept at Stick tweaking...a handy skill, I'd say!

Okay guys! Thanks for putting up with my barrage of questions but this is the last technical querry as far as I can see for a while, and its real simple.....

-Having played a friend/aquaintance's stick the other day, it became apparent that I could not learn right handed, no matter how people opposed it when I last brought it up! Anywy, I forgot to look properly that evening but my problem is: With the old fashioned brass screw style nut are the grooves shaped for a specific string gauge, or would I have no problem fitting the strings in reverse order, with the thickest bass string in the slot for the thickest melody string?
A prompt reply would be appareciated this time, thanks for your continual advice

If you're talking about a newer Stick with an adjustable bridge, it can take any string in any position. Kinda ingenious.

http://www.stick.com/instruments/construction/bridge/

Thor,

You certainly know yourself better than anyone else, but I'm left-handed and I play with the strings in the standard position. Since each hand has to do much of the same thing (on different sets of strings), you're going to have to develop both of them. I do understand that, for most people, the right hand is a bit less "active" (the most notable exception being Steve A. ) but I really think it's just a matter of getting used to it.


I believe Emmett & Co. offer new Sticks with the bass and melody side reversed for left handers. Not sure what's involved, but assuming they do offer it, it's highly likely you could send any used Stick you bought in for a tune-up (always a good idea) and request that the work be done.

Jim