Hi,
I recently ordered my first stick! Finally I have the guts and the money to make the step I have wanted to make for years.
There's a few things I would like to discuss:

- I ordered a rosewood 10 string grand with copper inlays. (second choice as abalone shell was not available and dot-inlays would take much more time) Now Yuta advised to choose a different collor as copper would not contrast much against the dark rosewood. I am not sure about this... I don't think I need a lot of contrast. It deed not be seen from across the room.. as long as I can orient. Has anyone of you experience with this? Do you have any pictures? (I've never seen "live" copper inlays...)
(I have a fretless bass with rosewood fretboard and ebony fret markers. this works well for me..)

- I understood that the serial numbers are sequential.
I read that someone was expecting his (bamboo) stick with serial number 56XX .. Mine is 5512 so is it already there? or are the bamboos differently numbered? When can I expect it??

- Why are the two outer tuner reversed?

I hope (one of) you can help me out!
Thanks for all the information.

Victor Vos

Congratulations!



This is personal preference but it seems that by and large most folks like contrast. My new stick is Jade linears against Light Bamboo.



They are roughly sequential. I could be wrong but I think they number them sequentially as they make the "blanks" (fretless main body of the Stick) which are later sold and scheduled into a production run. They give you the actual stamp number from a pre-made blank of your desired material choice. When a given "blank" is chosen, when it is scheduled for a production run, and finally ultimate delivery causes the numbers to never work out to be perfectly sequential as shipped.



The two outer tuners are reversed because the string is wrapped the opposite direction around the post. This allows for all tuners to behave the same in practice and the headstock to remain very space efficient. It works great. Notice that most guitars flare out at the headstock.

Emmett is quite brilliant and has that unique knack of simplicity afforded by utilitarian genius.

Welcome to the Stick world.

-Curtis

It's a little more than just preference. I have a paduak Stick with pau inlays. The inlays are beautiful to be sure. I was told that the combination of those two doesn't offer much contrast and I went ahead with it anyway. For the most part it's no big deal but under some (most) live stage lighting conditions, the inlays pretty much become invisible.

You could call it an excuse to become less reliant on them. But given the option, I wouldn't get my current combination on a new instrument.

Glenn

I'd go for high contrast. Helps a lot.

I have a Paduak stick with black inlays and they are too dark for me! They look fine when you just stand and admire your stick, but when you play it you are dealing with foreshortening plus the sight of a lot of metal with the top side of the rails. The markers all but vanish!

+1 for contrast...much more then paua on tarara!

Not sure if this will help you, mine being graphite, but I took a closeup of one of the copper linear inlays.

Wow, certainly nice looking against the black.

I agree. I realy think the copper looks beautifull!
I still have some time to doubt...

thanks for your information!

Victor

Hi Mitch,
I think that the brown against the black is beautiful and seems to be enough contrast as well. Very tastful.
Since I have a Graphite on order (four months away according to Jennifer) I was wondering
what you think about yours ; any second thoughts specifically does the grand seem too heavy,
too black or too wide? I bring up the excess thing because they are big black and heavy and I
know it is a big investment as well and you want to be really happy. I guess the real question is do you long for wood? Or is it just so amazing that all those questions disappeared after you opened the case?
I have an old Polycarb that I love and is the reason I decided to get the Graphite.
Thanks.
jrj

I have an answer for some of that JRJ - I have two grand sticks, my first being Graphite and my second Paduak.

The graphite feels very heavy to me, heavier than I like in an ideal world but I can live with it. In comparison, the Paduak is a total joy in terms of weight, I strap it on and it feels so right - yeah baby!

Looks: the graphite is not exactly what I would call beautiful when it has been around the block a few times, so to speak. It's well, dull and black. I have a status bass with a graphite neck which is totally beautiful, a highly polished clear coating over intricate graphite weave. If a stick could look like this it would be totally AMAZING!

In contrast, I LOVE the look of the Paduak! it's gorgeous, feels woody under the fingers and is totally yummy.
Also, the wood has much better acoustic resonance.

The plus for the Graphite is that I have managed to get the action a tad lower, although the action is great on the Paduak to be honest.

So that's my take on the subject. I must add that this is TOTALLY JUST MY PERSONAL OPINION, as someone who loves wood. There are a vast number of people who love graphite sticks and wouldn't change them for anything. It's a decision that one can only make for ones-self. Having said that, every time I see a pic of a graphite stick they look great. Somewhere down the line I would like to sell my graphite and replace it with another wooden stick, or maybe bamboo.