Well, if you're trying to be a bassist, that isn't that big of a deal, right?

If those pickups can produce a good bass tone on the bottom 4 strings with the appropriate strings, why shouldnt they be able to do the same thing with the top 4, yeah?

I'd contact Emmett. I'm sure he'd be happy to put together a set of 8 NS Stick "bass" strings for you. I wouldn't just use an off the shelf set of bass guitar 6 string strings. I'd trust Emmett to make sure you have a set that really works. And yes i'm sure the pickups will bring out all the low end available all the way up to the smallest string.

``I'd contact Emmett. I'm sure he'd be happy to put together a set of 8 NS Stick "bass" strings for you.....``

I`M THE NEXT IN LINE ....

Interesting - I was just noticing tonight how pronounced the timbre shift was in dropping a double-stop in a phrase down a 4th (from the C and F strings to the G and C strings). I might just need to look into this as well.

I gain more respect for Emmett every day--he obviously had to select string gauges that transitioned from the "fat" bass range up through the low guitar range that leaves the "sparkle" up top.

Heath, don't know if you made your choice yet, but yesterday I just remembered something about Chris Squire that may solve your issue.
I'm thinking since you have a four string and Stick, getting a six-string bass will just be more overlap in the same bass realm. Try this:

Stick, NS-Stick, retune your 4 string bass to BEAD (Squire has a few of these tuned that way)

Stick, NS-Stick, retune your 4 string in fifths, like Percy Jones/Michael Manring: CGDA

I tried the fifths tuning for a few weeks on my four string, makes some interesting chords, but scalar bass lines become quite a stretch. Fifths tuning can be fun perfoming live if some other bass player is trying to figure out just what in the world instrument are you playing

Sorry for the thread resurrection, but has anyone dropped the hammer on this yet? I need to order new strings myself, and am wondering about the heaver fundamental/string-tension trade-off of a set like this.

Funny, after all this I did some searching and found this post by Don on Stickwire:

http://home.ease.lsoft.com/scripts/wa-HOME.exe?A2=ind0903&L=stickwire-l&P=R3876&1=stickwire-l&9=A&J=on&K=1&d=No+Match%3BMatch%3BMatches&z=4

To summarize, Don was seeking a little more body to the melody strings for plucking, and apparently the heavy gauge NS set provides this (to see the gauges it looks like a more massive set almost all the way down).

Seems like he was pretty pleased with it.

In the End I found and Fell in Love with a Musicman Bongo 6.
Maybe one day in the next few years when I have a bit more money I'll get an NS.
I really didn't have a choice, the instrument just told me I HAD to buy it. And so far it's worked out very nicely.

Thanks for all your input, I'll be checking back at this thread in a few years when it's tine for an NS!

Cheers,
Heath