Hi guys,

I'll try to make this as little as a "newbie with lots of questions!" kind of post as I can...

I recently became the very proud owner of a Stick (Yay!). Ever since I knew about the stick I’ve been wanting to learn to play one; however, I never even had the chance to see one in person. This recently changed went I found one used and went immediately to pick it up in person, I had to take a 3hr train ride and it was worth every second. On top of that, I think I got a killer deal on it!

It is an all black stick "graphite" injection molded polycarbonate from 1989, #2609, without a truss-rod, screw-type bridge and nut, 25 frets with dot inlays on frets 2-7-12-17-22 and what I understand is the “Stickup” pickup with a volume control for each side (melody/bass), stereo output and adjustable poles. I believe it is a 34” scale length as it does not have an X fret. It has a non-adjustable belt hook, an old leather shoulder strap, a hard-case and a copy of the Free Hands method printed in USA-May 1989. It came with a spare set of medium gauge strings, a used set of light gauge and some assorted strings.

I find the Stick very comfortable to hold and play, as a guitar and bass player I like the sounds that I’m able to get out of it so far. I’m using 10-string classic tuning, but coming from a guitar with 10-52 strings, I find the current strings a bit thin, so I’m thinking of either changing the string gauge and/or the tuning.

Questions:

• On the melody side, only the 5th string is wound, the other 4 are plain; on the bass side only the 10th string is plain, the others are wound. Is there a set of strings where all bass are wound and only 2 strings on the melody side are plain?

• I noticed the lowest string (6th C1) is much thicker than the other bass strings. Is it possible to combine gauges and make a”hybrid” set inch which the difference is not that large?

• Coming from a guitar and bass world, I find the 5ths tuning a bit odd and difficult to adapt. Would it be a good idea to tune it in mirrored 4ths and see it as a guitar+bass or Should I stick with the classic tuning and treat it as a different instrument?

• If I install the "heavier" medium gauge strings, the fretboard may slightly bow and I may not be able to intonate it 100% accurately. Will this be a problem? Have you done something similar?

• If the heavier strings would present a problem. Would it make sense to tune half-step down to release some tension? Or tune it to (deep) matched reciprocal to release tension from one/(both) side. With 25 frets I would still have 2-octaves of range in each string, but I rarely go beyond the 19th.

• I'd love to send the stick to Emmett and have a truss rod, 3D bridge and flaps nut installed, plus a full setup with new strings. However, the price, waiting time and customs will kill me. How would you advise me to proceed and make the best out of my current stick? I have experience setting up guitars and basses, so I can do that with the new strings.

Last but not least, here are some pics:







Thanks a lot for our help!

Cheers,
Walter

P.S. If you live in Zürich, PM me so we can jam.

Welcome to the jungle.

Hello, and congrats on jumping in to the Stick universe!



Hope that helps with a few of your questions...

Grüzi,
welcome to the Stick.
there are some excellent players and teachers in switzerland e.g. Andre Müller (AKA Andremu - living in Vienna, but sometimes in CH) or Olivier Vuille [there are some more].
Get in contact with them and take some lessons to check your instrument and get important hints in the beginning. The Stick is different from other instruments, so also as an experienced guitar/bass player, this is very helpful.

Hint: The most used platform for communication for stickplayers is this forum and Facebook.

Thanks a lot for the answers. Actually, I like to experiment with tunings, my guitars are tunes in perfect 4ths and I once tuned my bass in perfect 5th, so I'm all in on learning the stick as it is. Was just curious if it would be faster/better to do mirrored 4ths.

I guess I'll stick to light or medium strings at most unless I send the stick for an upgrade and comes back with a truss rod. ...and or buy a new stick.

Cheers

...welcome, waltschwarzkopf...



...fine if you do this on basses or guitars, because on this instruments you have the interaction between open and fretted strings, and this interaction ist highly dependent which tuning is in use...
...but on the stick are only freted notes...
...don't waste your time, choose a stick tuning, and go for it...
...I use matched reciprocal...



...brave and perfect...



...I wouldn't do this, do you know, waiting for our babies is the hardest part at all, it's a direct attac on our patience...



...of course, you want to be a stickist, didn't you remember?...

These are great Sticks with a unique sound. For sure you want to stay with the light gage strings
and hopefully you would not need to get a truss rod installed. Having the right set of strings is important too and with your "pollycarb" even more so because temperature i.e. heat can soften the fretboard...

Technically this Stick is made from a kind of "graphite" but there is a "Graphite Stick" that is more
obviously made from that material and in comparison is smoother, stronger and not as susceptible to temperature change. Just don't leave it in the trunk of your car on a hot day and you will be fine .

I believe in truss rods in Stick's as well as guitars. So, for example, a Martin guitar that does not have
a truss rod will sooner or later need a "neck re-set" which is a huge pain.
Not that different from having a truss rod installed, pain-wise

But if you are interested in the 4th's tuning, check out this page from Stick Enterprises:

http://www.stick.com/instruments/tunings/12/mir4_66/

The article by Rob Martino is very instructive and you might want to consider
using your 'polly' as a down payment for a 12 string to take full advantage of
this tuning.

Good luck.

jRj
*j*
.~

Thanks! I saw this tuning not long ago and blew me away, that is why I was wondering on learning on mirrored 4ths instead of MR. But given the model and string that I have available, I'll stick to classic or MR at most.

Welcome to the community!

I gotta vouch for the 4ths/5ths tuning personally. I think it's brilliant and it's what sets the Stick apart from a guitar or a bass with lots of strings. I even wrote an essay about it once.

It took me about 6 months to think in the 5ths tuning, after about 6 years of dedicated guitar study and casually playing guitar, bass and piano for another 4 years prior to that.

The nice thing about it is that since 4ths and 5ths are the same thing just inverted (A up to E vs E up to A) everything you learn on one side passively informs your knowledge of the other side.

i always say that this is simple yes genius about the stick tuning

if you're going mirror 4th-you kind of missing the whole stick idea, at least in my opinion