Hi everybody,
sorry for my late reply - for some reason I didn't get notified of new answers to my post ?

Updates:
I did receive strings from Warr - unfortunately, this was the only thing I got from them (still now answers at all to my mails or phone calls).
I restrung the raptor and played around a bit.
Finally, I restrung it again to lower the melody side by one string. For me, the greater overlap is more important than the highest notes.
I basically tuned it to a DMR, like I did with my Grand Stick.
Nevertheless, this means I will need even more strings in the near future (as I was forced two open the second bag to use a bass string as the lowest melody string)

Stuff that I like about the raptor:
.) the sound -> still, its very different to the stick. Generally spoken, I prefer the sticks sound (Stickup) played by itself and for mellow stiles of music. But I like the Raptor sound for band- and generally heavier sounding stuff
.) the string spacing! -> I've have and had issues with the narrow string spacing of my Grand (fat bass player fingers) and I really like the wider spacing of the raptor
.) the body -> I'm able to lay or sit on my couch and still fiddling around without worrying about belthooks, belts, bars, or stuff like that

Like every good thing - they are coming with some not so good things:
.) weight -> I'm really not a big guy, but I do work out on a regular basis and I'm, generally spoken, sporty/muscular. Nevertheless, man, this Raptor is heavy!
.) 12 strings and wider stringspacing means that the fretboard is really wide. Not a big issue, but something that needs some time to get used to. Nevertheless, the neck profile feels really comfortable


Has my issue been resolved?
Partly ....

I do like the sound of the Warr strings. Unfortunately, the issue with the lowest bass string is still there.
Compared to the other strings it is boomy and not as defined.

As I restrung the melody side, the nut will need some work (the lowest melody string, right now, sits a little high on the nut).
As soon as I'm taking the Raptor to my luthier again (unfortunately there are no tapping instruments experienced luthiers around my area) I will ask him to file the nut down a bit. I recognized that all strings sit relatively high at the nut compared to my Grand. I do prefer the playability in terms of "fretting the notes" that seem to be related to the lower nut on the Grand. And, I still got the impression, that the boominess of the lowest bass string on the Warr is related to its relatively high nut position. When I'm fretting a not on the bass string and, while keeping the first finger down, fretting another on the same string (so virtually lower the string height "behind" the fretted note) the boominess improves ...

I was thinking about taking both, the Raptor and my Grand, to the luthier to show him the nut height of the Grand as a "role model".
I don't see a reason why the action of the Raptor should be higher than the one of the Stick? As I'm not into plugging the strings - and a little bit of plugging is still possible on my Grand.

Besides the nut issues, I feel quite comfortable by setting up my instruments by myself.
The only thing I'm still hesitating with, is setting up the trussrod of the Raptor, as these screws are really hard to turn, and I don't want to ruin something ...
So - taking it to my luthier again will be the next step in the process.

Thanx to all of you!!
Andreas

By the way, GRUVGEAR FRETWRAPS XL do work great for me!

I think this is the best idea. Especially if your tech has no experience with tapping instruments. They should be able to take some measurements and dial it right in.

As part of the set up process, they SHOULD tweak the truss rod.

I would also expect that once the neck is tweaked and the string heights adjusted, dialing in the pick up height should take care of most all of the issues.

On the flip side, if it does not go away, you might look at adding a compressor to the signal chain.