I live in Fredericksburg Texas. I have tried to tune my 10 string stick but have had no luck. I have broken 5 strings now and have not been able to figure this out. I bought a tuner but still have not been able to do this. Is there anyone near by who can help me. Please!

Five strings! Argh...Okay don't tighten the strings so much . The Stick is not like a guitar. Find the place where the string is too squishy to play but somewhat taught . It should clear the frets but still be a little loose.The tone you want is an octave above that .

If you have a guitar tuner some of the base notes might not register so look at the tuning charts
on the link below and you should be able to find notes you can match.

http://www.stick.com/instruments/tunings/

In 'Classic' tuning;
if you can find the D on the fifth fret (second string from the edge on the bass side) on your guitar tuner then you can match that to the big bass string in the middle on the 2nd fret
where the dot is .

A better solution is to check if your tuner has a option called "Chromatic" and switch
from guitar to 'chromatic' then all the notes should register.

Good luck...
jRj

hey sun.

it sounds like you may need to hook up with someone. the heartstrings guys live in texas i think. here is a link to their site. you will find contact info there or you could PM on of them on this site, username heartstrings. drawback; you will have to drive.
maybe start a new thread :looking for stick players in texas: this may help as well.

if that fails, gregs disc that comes with his book has a tuning guide on it. it sounds off each string individually so if you have any kind of ear you can just play the track and bring your strings into tune.

good luck dude...
cheers
kev

If you are unaccustomed to tuning a string instrument, it's really easy to struggle with tuning and break strings.

You really need someone to walk you through the whole process. The fact is that most experienced musicians use their ears more than anything else when changing strings. The ability to match a pitch is important in this process. If you can do that then someone can show you how the note on any given string can be matched with the same note somewhere on another string. Once the strings are in "the ballpark" you can use a tuner to finish up.

Good luck I feel your pain I've been there.

Brett

sun i forgot to add the heartstrings link and dont have it at my fingertips right now. just google heartstrings chapman stick and yer good to go.

I live a little north of Houston. I just looked it up on the map and it looks like a 4.5 hour drive. Texas is big!

Either way if you don't get a response from someone closer in your area we can work something out.

There are two mp3s on this page where it says "tuning tracks"

http://www.stick.com/tech/

just make sure you don't go higher than the pitch you hear for each string. If you have a Classic tuned instrument, then you'll be playing a fret 8 for these notes. Fret 8 is the fret on fret closer to the bridge from the second inlay marker:



Hope that helps.

Thank you everyone. I was able to get in contact with Matt Rogers with Heartstrings. As soon as my new set of strings arrive, Matt has offered to meet with me and help me set everything up and show me how and what to do. Thank you all for helping and thank you Matt.

I live in Austin and have tons of old string sets...I'm selling my Stick so if you want an old set or two of mine you are free to have them