So, after a bit of trepidation, I am the proud owner of Stick #1821, Padouk I think, 10 string classic tuned.

I am coming from 40+ years of playing mostly bass, in all it's ramifications, most recently upright Jazz for the last 20 years or so. I dig the new and weird, and as an engineer (EE) here in the Detroit Metro area (Novi Michigan to be exact) I love to tinker, invent, dabble... or in other words... I can't seem to leave well enough alone.

I've had my stick for 4 days, and I've already completely disassembled it (except the interior of 'The Block') and re-assembled and re-adjusted. I've also built a leg rest, as I have a sprained ankle and am supposed to be elevating it.

I have no instrument mod fear typically... I have built several musical instruments, mostly basses of course, and do repairs for friends on their cheap stuff. I recently built a "Titanium Tapper" which has a very unique sound (who would have thought titanium had a sound?!) but it's really just an 8 string long scale guitar built like a rail.

My current sound processing stuff consists of a Markbass CMP112 combo, and the 4x6 bottom, a solid state Fender Princeton, and the new love of my life, the Line 6 HD500X. I use various other IOS stuff, and have a very small recording setup in the basement, consisting of a purpose built PC I put together, running Pro Tools, and Reaper, with an M-Audio 2626 rackmount I/O. I also dabble in hand percussion and Kalimba, own a You Rock Guitar and an ION All Star guitar, and a really sweet Squire Strat I've done a mod on. I play a fretless home made 4 string with a Super Glue finished fretboard, and own and play an NS Design NXT 4 EUB, a Palatino 500 EUB, and I just sold my doghouse which was a nice Roma Hybrid 3/4.

However, it's time for a change, and the Stick is it. I'm currently in a tapping band with a guy named Dave Kneeves who taps the Megatar (forgive me, I understand that word may be taboo in this neck of the woods) and using the Titanium Tapper I built. It was not my first tapping instrument, one of these days I'll load a pic of my FrankenTapper... that should inspire more Stick sales I'll bet!

Anyway, hello, and wish me luck!

Welcome agfrag (real names are always nice too)

Don't be afraid to adjust the truss as needed. It's designed with that in mind, not like most other instruments with centrally embedded trusses. Don't make any other adjustments until you're sure the board is straight, otherwise they won't be helpful.

This video shows you how to adjust the truss on your instrument:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fx8LQS7Et1g

The nut should be adjusted so that the strings clear the first playable fret well enough for good playability (another plus in the Stick's design).

The pickup module should not be higher than the tops of the frets.

I think that is something we cannot change once the inscription is done. Or...open a new account.

On my side I'd like to have my real name here but it looks impossible to change on my present account...

This is where the signature comes in handy....

If, in fact, your Stick is Paduk, you need to be aware of it's peculiarities, should you decide to sand it yourself for (whatever) reason. Paduk is a very beautiful wood, extremely hard and durable, but the saw dust is like toxic waste. The saw dust is extremely fine and will irritate your skin like fibre glass fibers, in a way that no other wood seems to do*. You practically need a hazmat suit to work comfortably with this wood. It's also murder on tooling due to it's hardness.
I'd love to see pictures of your Stick; don't think I've ever seen one made of Paduk.

*I built a craftsman-style coffee table out of Paduk about 10 years ago. First and last time I'll ever work with that stuff. Beautiful table though....

Updated Sig, I am wondering about the padouk. I'll email Stick Enterprises and ask. And yes, it is nasty, but as my studio, my woodshop, and the furnace are all within 15 feet of each other, no walls, I use extensive dust control. Over all these years, I've never had a problem with it, but have heard of bad experiences. Plus, unless you acetone the crap out of it, it turns dark pretty fast and the orange tint goes bye bye.

One reason I am suspect of the padouk call I made is the weight, the entire instrument comes in at 6.81lbs, and that is pretty light for padouk, more like something from the lighter side of the mahogany family, like sapelli or similar.

Greg, the frets line up close to perfect, thank heavens. And as a result, I am ok with the action now. My only issue is short fingers, but the narrow neck on the 10 string (3 1/8in) is a blessing!

-Dave

Ask Manny. He'll do it for you, like he did for me.
Welcome, agfrag!

The time has come for me to say what all the regulars have already anticipated: it is fEARful time! It sounds like you have the chops to build the True Three Way crossover option. Consider the following models:

1. fEARful 1212/6/1 (4 ohm load, easy to tilt and roll)
2. fEARful 15/6/1 (slightly less full lows, same sensitivity, 8 ohm load)
3. fEARful 12/6/1 (still less full lows, less sensitive, 8 ohm load)

Number 3 is plenty for a lot of gigs and great for home practice; the other two are mostly a matter of form factor.

All of the fEARfuls will have deeper, more accurate lows than you are likely to have heard from a bass cab (and many PA rigs): it is just a matter of transport and whether you prefer to be loud easily or quiet easily. You can use your HD500X as a preamp and summing mixer to feed a Crest ProLite 2.0 (widely available between $300 and $400), which will give you gobs of headroom (and a five year warranty). That power amp with my number one recommendation will go as loud as you ever need go, unless you have to compete with two Marshall full stacks.

If you do not want to build the cab yourself, get in touch with Dave Homer at Gigmaster Soundworks. Tell him Robstafarian sent you.

That would be the Dave trifecta: you, Dave Homer, and Greenboy (i.e. yet another Dave).

There's a group of us that meet monthly, every third Thursday of the month at Oz's Music in Ann Arbor, about 8:30PM. Are you near A2?

Thanks...