I guess it must be somewhere already on this board, but I couldn't find it by searching...
I'm considering changing from heavy to medium gauge strings. I probably have to change the action of the strings to accommodate the new gauge. What's the procedure to set the stik up for a different gauge ?

Cheers,
Bas.

It's like any other setup; make sure that the neck is straight, set up the height in the nut, lower the bridge screws until the strings start buzzing, raise them until the you can play without buzz in the whole neck. Greg wrote a very good and helpful article on this but I cannot find it now
Get a proper tuner, you might have to correct the intonation.

Good luck, Daniel

Here we are:

http://stick.com/articles/setup/

I'm about to try light gauge (from medium), so I just looked this up.

Thanks for the tips

I wonder if altering the bridge height is a time consuming job, since turning it means that the string has to be lifted from it, so that would mean loosening the string, pull it out the bridge channel, alter the bridge height, put the string back in and tuning it again ?

Is not as hard as it seems, but it takes time; a nice project for a Sunday afternoon
Those string winders are really handy

Daniel.

Hi Bas.,

The most important thing about this process is to take note of whether the core of the strings is different. If you haven't changed your strings in a "long time" and you have been using heavies on the bass side, you might have strings with a plain, unwound core under the two lowest bass strings.

If that's true, make sure the bridge screws aren't the elongated ones that went under those strings. You won't be able to lower those enough to get the action down to the appropriate height.

You will also probably need to adjust your intonation. Make sure you have the truss adjusted and the string height set before you start changing the intonation.

The string may need to be shortened slightly by moving the slideblocks closer to the pickup, but only a little...

Thanks for posting the link, Loop.

Aha, very good advise Don't wanna run into an unpleasant surprise
I'm not a 100% sure if I understand it correctly, so I made some pics of the 6th and 7th string (I have a 10 string). The core is wound all the way (although somewhat thinner at the bridge)
If I understand correctly, it looks like I won't have the problem with too long bridgescrews since my current 6th and 7th are wound at the bridgescrew.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/47523317@N05/4432327568/

Oh yeah, another question : I guess I adjust the bridgescrew height using a (good fitting) regular screwdriver ?

Cheers,
Bas.

I've been thinking about going the other way, from light MR to medium MR. Have not made a decision yet, because I want to give the light gauge a little more time. I recently got Amplitube3 on the lappy and noticed I was able to dial in an extremely satisfying sound. So I'm not afraid anymore to "lose tone" by playing light gauge strings but I have no idea what medium gauge feels like to play. On electric guitar I typically find the 0.010 set best for tone and playability (too thick strings tend to sound to plunky or "jazzy" for my taste). Has anyone tried different Stick string guage sets and noticed how they differ? Seems tapping (STick) works better than picking (guitar) on very thin and lose strings.

Once you have the new strings fitted, you don't have to remove any of them from the bridge slots again to adjust the string height, just loosen each one off enough to lift it off the screw and sit it aside. Then you can screw the screw in our out, refit the string, tension up and tune. Typically best to try one turn at a time until you get the right height.

Only warning would be to make sure the lighter strings are quite loose before you lift it out of the screw, you could easily get your finger jammed and cut the skin if it was still quite tight! Ouch!

Cheers,

EG