Stickist.com
https://www.stickist.com/

New Railboard owner (ETA: 2 days)
https://www.stickist.com/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=9810		 Page 1 of 2
Author:  jdt [ Sun Jul 05, 2015 6:01 am ]
Post subject:  New Railboard owner (ETA: 2 days)
My Railboard is supposed to arrive Tuesday, yay! Thanks for all the helpful suggestions in this forum. I found it a challenge since I've never played any electric instruments so I had to get up to speed on the whole ... signal chain ... thing. I have a lot to learn.

Here's what I ordered and why:

  • Railboard, bronze R-Block, black open gear Hipshot tuners, exposed dots.
    Bronze was not my preferred color, but my options at the time appeared to be 2-ish months for a bronze stick, or upwards of 6 months for the color I wanted, and I'm not getting any younger so went with this. If I had it to do over again I wouldn't get the exposed dots. There weren't any linear marker epoxies I liked (that would complement the bronze stick) which is why I went with the open dot at the time, but if I did it again I'd to with bare linear fret markers and then fill in later if it bugged me.
  • Raised matched reciprocal tuning, medium gauge
    A stick in the sand based on listening to hundreds stick postings on the internet. I wanted some kind of MR tuning because it appeals to various symmetric software engineer type OCD things, and I don't have any old school guitar training to unlearn (my background is more piano, cello, various brass instruments).
  • SKB hard shell case.
    Because I'll be putting this thing in the back of my truck twice a week for interstate travel. I baby all my equipment, I can't imagine NOT having a hard case for it.
  • Various books - to learn
  • Allen and Heath Zed10FX mixer.
    For phantom power, well reviewed preamp capability, basic entry to USB computer music interfaces (to which I am also new), and general higher quality device that will prepare the way for me to get the sort of quality sound I'll be looking for while starting with pretty much just headphones attached while I learn. I was on the fence about this versus something cheaper, but decided to go for quality on this particular piece.
  • Behringer Europort MPA40BT portable pa.
    This isn't part of my intended high fidelity plan, but I wanted *something* so that when my significant other wants to hear what I'm playing I can share, in a form factor I can haul around easily. There was a thread where at least 3 other stickists said great things about this speaker (even while people give Behringer the thumbs down all the time on general principles). I can also use the bluetooth connection for various bits of messing around (including for family iphones etc). I can also use this without the Zed10FX too. In short, fun and portability while I get started. Mostly I plan to use headphones for practice while I figure out what my real preferences are when faced with my current travel schedule.
  • Pair of XLR M/F cables for mixer to speaker connections.

I'll never be playing for anybody but myself and a living room of occasional victims, half of whom aren't even human.

When I have the luxury of taking my stick into the local guitar center to hear some different speaker sounds with it then I'll think about some more serious sound for my living room. My short list is a Crown XLS 1500 amp but I don't have one for speakers. I've posted questions about whether studio monitors might be the way to go (since I mostly play for myself and want as clean/pure a sound as I can get in a ~500/800 for the pair set of speakers). I'd really like equipment that can encourage 41Hz resonance of the low note if I can, in living room sized quarters. Suggestions welcome. With the Zed10FX and in general I'm trying to leave my options open for signal separation in bass/melody signals. Here's hoping I haven't already screwed up with the Zed. Really a challenge for an electronic music newbie.

I'm looking forward to getting started and completely blowing to smithereens anything I think I've learned in the last few months. I may as well set up a tent for UPS in my yard, I've timed pretty much everything but one book's arrival for the next three days (so I can try it all together and send it back if anything isn't working).

Great community here, thanks for your help.

- Dave
Author:  Robstafarian [ Mon Jul 06, 2015 10:22 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: New Railboard owner (ETA: 2 days)
Congratulations, Dave! You have a great deal of fun ahead of you.

I do not think you screwed up choosing the Zed: with your budget, even a little bit beyond your initial budget, it is difficult (or impossible) to do better. Regarding the power amp, I strongly recommend getting the newer Crown XLS 1502 rather than the 1500 (I summarized the new line here): this does not change my speaker cabinet recommendation.
Author:  kevin-c [ Tue Jul 07, 2015 2:44 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: New Railboard owner (ETA: 2 days)
Congrats Dave! Stoked for ya.....

cheers,
kev
Author:  Balt-A-Sar [ Tue Jul 07, 2015 3:04 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: New Railboard owner (ETA: 2 days)
jdt wrote:
...Bronze was not my preferred color...


...Hi Dave, congrats, and welcome in the stick world...

...I for myself think that bronze is genial color for a Railboard, (I have a blue one, same
tuning and gauge like yours)...

...but have a look for all the Railboard colors and it's hard to choose one of them,....
anyway...

...don't think to much about amplifiers and electronics, it's IMHO waste of time,
because a Chapman stick sounds genial with almost every equipment...

...and because the first thing is to learn how to play and master this wonderful instrument...
Author:  Robstafarian [ Tue Jul 07, 2015 4:36 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: New Railboard owner (ETA: 2 days)
Balt-A-Sar wrote:
...don't think to much about amplifiers and electronics, it's IMHO waste of time,
because a Chapman stick sounds genial with almost every equipment...

I disagree most strongly: such research is critically important when one has a limited budget.
Author:  kevin-c [ Tue Jul 07, 2015 5:19 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: New Railboard owner (ETA: 2 days)
I think what Balta is saying is that you dont need anything else but a crap amp to get up and running. That high end stuff can come later....
cheers,
kev
Author:  jdt [ Tue Jul 07, 2015 6:45 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: New Railboard owner (ETA: 2 days)
Thanks all for the help and encouragement.

I spent my available hours today unpacking and testing things out, so far all I have are these observations:

  • The bronze color is actually much darker than the pics I viewed on the web, whether because of ambient lighting or not I don't know. I'll try to post some representative pictures later, I took some today. Anyway, it's a very pleasing color. The pictures I'd seen previously where a little bright and orange-y, this is closer to a brown.
  • The strings seem maybe a little, I don't know, loose? As in, there's kind of a "ker-sproing" sound sometimes, though I know most of it is my inexperienced tapping. I notice the top truss rod nut is completely loose (spins easily with my finger), so maybe I need to tighten it. I need to read the maintenance docs first. (Is the nut supposed to spin freely? )
  • I was surprised that I needed to turn up the gain on the zed10fx inputs to pretty much the same level with or without phantom power, makes me wonder if I'm doing something wrong.
  • Any tips for guys whose bellies get in the way of the right hand bridge/back? Certainly motivation to lose weight. I'll have to see if loosening the neck strap some more will help, though there are only about 3 holes left. I plan to make a lap bar this weekend. I liked the standing just fine however, it's a nice change after being glued to my seat all day for work.
  • The hard case clamps very tightly on the instrument, I have to press pretty hard to close it. I trust this is a feature and not a bug that is bending my strings in undesired ways.

Overall, first day was a blast, time to take some vacation from work I think so I can spend more time with it.

My wife managed not to cringe at the absurd amount of space I used up in the house today for boxes, devices, books, etc. +1 for good egg for her, especially since half my stuff was in her office.

Instrument #6610. It's a nice number, easily remembered.

Dave
Author:  Alain [ Tue Jul 07, 2015 7:41 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: New Railboard owner (ETA: 2 days)
Pics?
Author:  jdt [ Wed Jul 08, 2015 6:10 am ]
Post subject:  Re: New Railboard owner (ETA: 2 days)
I plan to post a whole series of pics to help future would-be stickists in their order planning process, will post a note when they're up. (For example, exactly what cables you get, etc).
Author:  jdt [ Wed Jul 08, 2015 8:44 am ]
Post subject:  Re: New Railboard owner (ETA: 2 days)
[Edit, let's try that again without the img tag which seems not to work for me, so I've just attached the pics.]

Here are some pictures of the bronze instrument for color. The darker photos capture how the color appeared to my eyes in the poorly lit rooms where I was using it yesterday.
The darker color seen through the plastic is even closer to how it appeared to me.

Attachment:
WP_20150707_008.jpg

Attachment:
WP_20150707_018.jpg


Other photos, for example using flash, made the broze color appear much lighter than my eyes perceived it.

Attachment:
WP_20150707_010.jpg


So I suppose in bright room it'll look like the latter photo. Dunno, haven't had a chance to be in a bright room this week.
Page 1 of 2 All times are UTC - 8 hours [ DST ]
Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group
http://www.phpbb.com/