whoa.... that's kind of harsh, I mean just because I am not a string expert like you, Christ give me a break !!

I've never owned a Stick before, and I don't count my two Megatars or the Warr Phalanx - because those are all in completely different tunings all together - because they are set up completely different all together...

At least I care enough about these instruments to actually go out and buy them, and have my Ironwood Sticks set up as close to factory spec's as possible, since my goal was to obtain a couple of original Ironwoods, because of my love with the sound they make when played.

Now if I can score SB-8 #1778 that will be a custom tuning of which I already know Emmett will be able to do for me, well... again assuming nobody beat me to it [I'll find out on Tuesday] but I'm buying that SB-8 to play the hell out of, as opposed to the Ironwoods which are more collectors pieces, although they are/will be getting their fair share of play as well.

In fact, I can't wait till it's time to change the strings on #285, even though they are the correct up to date S.E. strings - Emmett was kind enough to send me a set of original Flatwound strings as I'm trying to get # 285 as close to original condition as possible [only thing left will be the correct velvet mute, while I'm also going to convert # 1855 to a fur mute, since that's what was used during that run of Ironwoods....

I'm outta here.

*but know that I've got Emmett's back with his decision - choice - to market his strings the way he chooses to.

Cheers.

I'm off to have a few pints of Guinness in my garden now it that's alright.

I was very surprised about the lack of string information it must be said, i measured what was on there but until I got information on the strings I didn't know if I had the strings I needed to make a set, which is what I needed to try.
Strings from SE are the obvious choice, but they are going to take a while to get her and with customs and shipping, quite a serious investment, especially as I am going to need spare sets.
I found it unusual that the info wasn't out there and that people feel the need to tell you in private.

D'addario have a string gauge calculator that does cope with the stick fine, My original calculations were so far out as I didn't realise how light the strings were, the tension is very low compared to most other instruments.

Anyway, I do have the info now, thanks to this forum and the facebook group. People have been very helpful, including Emmet in my search for a stick. When I get some strings I am looking forward to playing it.
Maybe not in my current covers band though, don't think anyone is ready for mustang sally on a stick!

Big George Waters,
I wrote:

> Your error about expected envelope sizes is not related, most of the bass side gauges are guitar gauges (true for normal bass guitar string sets too), so come in guitar envelopes.

Sorry, i took that the wrong way, you were just making the valid point, continued after that, that the gauges were unexpected.
That was a bit harsh, nothing else i wrote was meant harshly.

> At least I care enough about these instruments to actually go out and buy them

I would too if i could afford to

Publishing the gauges would have avoided your confusion because you would have known what to expect.

It only takes a few hours searching of this and other forums to collect the official or micrometer gauges for several sets, from this the approach to tensions can be mostly deduced. Any commercial rival who wanted to discover the approach to gauging could do so quite easily, and they would do this.
Much of the information is public already so there's no harm in publishing the gauges now, and benefit to Stick owners.

Maybe it's to discourage Stick owners from using other brands of string, but i think they'll probably go ahead and do so anyway, just with poorer gauge choices. They'll soon learn if the non SE strings don't work as well, many have expressed that here already.

To be clear, i don't mean this in a ranting or disrespectful way, just calm discussion and opinion.

Well, I am up and running now thanks to some info on what the gauges are, using a combination of string I already had from bass reciprocal, d'addario guitar strings (which are 1050mm and can thus do the first two strings), rotosound guitar strings (which are 1090mm and can do the third) and two strings from a 12 string bass set I have.
Not perfect, but functional and means I can learn how to use the stick.
Thanks all for the info, I still don't understand why the info is so hard to find but at least it is discoverable with a bit of work!

Nice !!

I can see I'm going to have to figure out a means to find an alternate high D string, maybe see if Fender makes an .007 that is 35 inches long ??

Otherwise, I'm going to be a real pain with those at S.E. constantly ordering new position # 1 strings

So, this is good news to hear from you.

ixlramp, gotcha................. !!

It's all good.

Cheers

Don't know about Fender, but d'addario make a .007 that is 41" long, which is long enough for strings 1 & 2 on a 34" scale, so at least 1 on a longer one, and Rotosound make strings that are .008 and up that are 43.3" that should cover a few more

ok... good info there, I'll see about going the d'addario route since I believe they are the ones making the Stick strings for Emmett.

Thank You !!

In the meantime though, I'm going to continue to play Stick #1855 with the # 1 being tuned to the same pitch as the # 3, as it makes for some interesting possibilities when using strings 2 and 4 which other wise would not be possible.

*by the way, I got the word that my Stickbass 8 can and will be set up melody E A D G and bass C G D A [actually A D G C... the standard classic tuning] and this is terrific as it makes emergency string changes very possible, which for me - with gigging instruments - is very very important.

For those of you interested in unraveling the mystery of string gauges for the different tuning, feel free to share what you have, and use what I have compiled so far, in this thread:

https://www.stickist.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=16710&p=139870#p139870