The only versions of this I've seen involve a min 3rd and min 2nd for the highest strings.

Tapped strings have a very different behavior than plucked strings. There's more to this than thickness and tension...

Indeed Greg, you are correct as always.... and I was in for a very serious shock once I learned how the S.E. string gauges worked for a given note, again... very very different than what I was used to playing electric bass, etc...

I will say this though - that NS Stick has me so excited because for me, it really covers the bases - meaning can be plucked, tapped, slapped... you name it.

I watched Vol 1 of Bob Culbertson's Instructional video just last night, and he went over tuning's... and everything "all things Stick' starting with the real basics, and again - a real eye opener for me.

So, believe me - I will never get bored with my two Ironwoods, as there is a life time of learning there for me - which Ha !! - started with string gauges, and believing I knew everything about that when nothing could have been further from the truth

True that!

After so many years or playing guitar and finally finding a set of strings with which I was really happy and comfortable. When I first held my Polycarb, my first stick ever, and actually the first stick I ever saw and held in my life. I looked at how thin the melody strings were and how uneven the bass string were and thought "this can be right...". So I sent SE an email, and to my surprise, Emmett himself replied to me the day after and explained how the gauge should increase exponentially for them to sound right. Still, as an unbeliever, I spent a large part of christmas holidays obsessing about a balanced tension set and even made a post with plots and tensions. As if nobody had ever thought of that, right?

Now I'm happy with the strings, they had it right all along! I just know that heavy sets are too thick and tense for me and light gauge is a bit too light and lose. So my preferred gauge would be medium, although I still need to try it... I have a set for medium 10-string classic, but Emmett advised to not install them on the polycarb, as the lack of a truss rod may cause it to bow. So I may have to buy a new stick for my strings

Walt, I'm not sure how you are tuning - but my light Classic's on my mid 80's Ironwood, the strings are far from loose, and that's were things get tricky because it is easy to break strings when doing initial tuning up because as Greg mentioned the tension is not like a normal instrument, and I know i have to really pay attention to that - unlike my NS Stick which seems to tune very much like what I was used to in the past.

On my mid 80s Ironwood, I cannot get the high D to tune to high D without it breaking, so I have it tuned - try not to laugh too hard - the same as string # 3, and it makes for some very interesting playing possibilities which otherwise would not be possible.

I'm tuned on classic 10-string in a 34" Polycarb with light gauge. I can get all strings to pitch without a problem. What I meant by loose is not that all strings are loose, but when I try to do a whole-step bend (or more) I feel like I need to pull a LOT in order to reach the desired note. This is on the melody side.

String 1 is at a much higher tension than the others, check out this plot:



I made this based on the tension of each string under my current conditions (classic tuning, light gauge, 34"). This is why they say that it is not possible to go higher than D4 on an open string with a long stick. On the short ones (SG12, alto) it can go up to G4!

Yes, but to clarify, he was starting on Stick Enterprises' largest string gauge at lowest official pitch Bb0, in which case he is correct it is not possible.
http://www.stickist.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=14104&start=10
Understandably they are not impressed by strings tuned much lower than that. Neither are Touch Guitars, who state the Bb0 to D4 range as the largest without losing tone quality.

An inbetween possibility that would be more usable and practical would be 7 strings in fifths plus a minor third on top, another Crafty variation:
D4
B3
E3
A2
D2
G1
C1
F0
Providing a lowest tappable pitch of around F0-G0 which for me personally is roughly around the lowest pitch that seems musically usable.
Nicely the middle 6 is a standard bass side tuning. The tuning adds super low / super high strings and includes the highest possible D4.

SE do not have a gauge or the low F0 so that would have to be from somewhere else.
Going by the apparent SE light gauge of around .095 for C1, a F0 with similar tension would be a .145. D'Addario sell these and perhaps they would have a slight consistency with the custom strings they make for SE.
I have used D'Addario taperwound .145s myself on a bass guitar but tuned to A0, they are surprisingly flexible and clear, and intonated well even on the high frets.
Inharmonicity becomes an issue nearing the octave so i only ever used this string as an extension of the one above and never played on frets any higher than i needed to (which would be the 8th fret on a Stick).
However to be clear, i am not suggesting that many Stick players would be impressed by the tone of such a string, it will inevitably have less tonal quality.

Gotcha Walt, and that's a nice chart you made there

ixlramp, I've used a .145, maybe even bigger on my 5 string Syme Guitar,
which I believe is a 36 inch scale - and that string is really nice and tight, and I'm pretty sure it's tuned all the way down to A as well.

That's a good tuning which you have proposed there as well.

Now I must hope I can sleep with all this on me mind !!

This is an interesting option. What is the thinnest string that SE make? With my first polycarb came a bunch of new and used string, some of them labeled .007 or .006, although I haven't measured them nor I know if they are original SE strings. Maybe that can go to F#4...

I can't even hit a D4, string keeps breaking - so I'm actually doing my own custom tuning regarding that, and it's working very well with me.

I think that's why the alto Sticks came out, keep in mind - that 34 in scale makes tuning in high pitches easier said than done.

It's also very possible that I'm going about tuning the high D all wrong, but I'm not about to try it again as I'm out of extra high D's.

*Meaning what Greg said about tensions earlier, I might be thinking electric guitar high D, as opposed to Stick high D.....

It's weird - because my Megatar and Warr guitar both tuned with ease to where I needed them to be, well... NOT the bass half of the Warr, but in my defense that's due to not knowing how the Warr was originally tuned as that is a custom set up where the melody is inverted on top, bass is standard on the bottom.

My friend Wayne in NYC is convinced it was made for a lefty.
Perhaps he is right....

Yeah that big image has made the whole page go weird

I doubt it, i will explain why.
I saw in another thread that SE once created a SB7 tuned in all-fifths AEBF#C#G#D#. I think they were really pushing the limits with that D#4
to avoid the lowest string being tuned very low. That is the highest pitch on 34" i have seen used for a SE string.

Being involved with the Extended Range Bass community for many years, it is known that D4 is roughly the practical limit on a 34" scale when
using typical plain steel strings.
The limit is also somewhat gauge-independent: A thinner string requires less tension to get to pitch but also has less cross-sectional area and
so less tensile strength. A fatter string requires more tension to get to pitch but also has more cross-sectional area and so more tensile strength.

I did once try some special and expensive high-strength plain steel strings from Garry Goodman of Octave 4 Plus
http://garrygoodman.com/octave4plus.com.htm
I tried a .007 at D#4 on a 35" scale, lasted a long time. Their highest suggested pitch on 34"/35" is F#4 using a .0067 or .007.

Anyway, i have some D'Addario .145s and intend to string up one of my modified 6 string bass guitars to investigate how well it behaves at
around F0, when tapped.