Ash body with dark bamboo neck and black fret markers (because I fell in love with that combo in the picture on SE's website) and custom tuning:

low to high
Bb
F
C
G
C
F
A
D

Bass in fifths, melody in fourths with a guitar major third interval. I'm calling it "Ryan's 5/4/3 Tuning".

Everything about this instrument is gorgeous and precise. The fret rails are like the ends of a tightrope or something, they just grab the strings and give me amazing leeway with intonation. Ned Steinberger really outdid himself with his enhancements to Emmett's design. The damper is ingenious, and the curved lapbar is perfect for seated playing... it almost doesn't need a strap.

The pickups sound very clear and articulate. Plenty of midrange, which is what I prefer. On the melody side, the pickup covers are actually sanded down a bit to allow the strings to almost touch them, and the result is a very even-sounding distribution of volume. Though, since even in mono mode there are separate volume controls for each side, this can be tweaked extensively.

Playing it in the traditional almost-vertical Stick orientation is not immediately intuitive, but with some practice I should be able to find a "sweet spot" angle that allows full two-handed access without bending my right wrist too much (Don Schiff seems to always have his right hand in an awkward position, from the videos I've seen).

I'm not a bassist, so I can't comment on the slap/pop capability, however finger bass playing is super smooth. I briefly tried playing with a pick yesterday, which was cool, but I'm more interested in tapping on this thing. I'd written a lot of tapping songs on my regular guitar, usually in drop-D, and since the same intervallic relationship holds for the top 6 strings of my NS, the transition was a breeze.

Originally I was thinking of running it through my VG-99, which has two parallel signal paths, ideal for a stereo instrument. Now I think this beast deserves its own rig, and a serious case of G.A.S. has befallen me!

So, thank you Emmett, Cambria and everybody else at Stick Enterprises for this lovely piece of art and craft.

Congratulations! But....

Heh, I know, I'm gettin' there! I spent all of last night and most of this morning just playing the thing, so not much time for shutterbugging. But like I said, my instrument looks identical to the one of the same construction on stickenterprises.com. I'll snap some pics later, though, all the same...

lol that's quite allright...I know when I got my NS I had a real hard time putting it down! Play first...pictures later. Have fun!

Oh--and about the hand-angle...I try to slide my NS as vertical as possible, and actually ended up wearing it *very* low (lower than I thought would be comfortable at first), so that the 12th-fret/midsection of the instrument where I tap more is around my stomach with the instrument as vertical as I can place it. Right where my arms are nearly parallel to the ground--not much wrist angle at all there--it's very comfortable. Whenever I try to raise it up it just doesn't feel *right.*

The wrist angles *are* tighter when I'm playing "multi-mode" (alternate tapping/plucking/slapping) and the instrument is at 30-45 degrees or so, but slinging it lower seems to help for that too.

Sometimes when I sit at a stool I'll prop my left foot on the footrest and let my right foot set on the floor, and I can prop the NS nearly vertical, lap bar against my left thigh and the bottom/strap-button curve of the instrument resting on my right. It's wonderfully stable and I get a near-stick angle playing that way. If I had only one gripe I'd say I wish I could get it as straight up-and-down as a string bass/stick, but then it wouldn't be able to sling down as a multi-mode instrument as well then, would it?


Remember--I'm a rank amateur. YMMV. I'll probably find out I've been doing it all wrong when I finally get the webcam gear I need to take a real lesson. Keep in mind too--I'm a bassist, so this all may not be very idiomatic coming from a guitar background.

And thanks for the assessment of the rails. Really starting to give me G.A.S. again...and my amp/effects rig isn't even complete yet!

Happy day crumbledfingers! Congratulations.

Here's a pic:


And a video I posted to Reddit tonight:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_GGSAQNpMw[/youtube]

So much wonderment and joy! Though you wouldn't be able to tell from my facial expression (a little nervous there, I think).

Gratz!

Sweet...super nice looking NS there bro. May it bring you much joy.

x2 And nice posting, btw!

I really like the look of the natural finish/bamboo neck NS's coming out of this latest production run. I'm thinking I might prefer that to my first choice in a (future) half-fretless--that crazy-deep dyed blue!