Hello everyone!

I've recently purchased a 10 string stick #4846 (July 2003?)
Whilst I knew of the their existence, I'd never seen one in the flesh, much less held or touched one, but when the opportunity presented itself, I took the plunge!

I've struggled to find much info, but found this site, which seems like a mine of information and filled with like-minded individuals!

I'm still getting to grips with the stick a couple of weeks in.

I've played bass (4s, 5s, 6s & EUB) for over 20 years now and the Stick certainly requires a different approach and mindset...

I've no idea what wood it's made from! The previous owner said Rosewood, but surely that's too soft?

At a guess it's got medium gauge strings on, but came in no identifiable state of tune, so I went for matched reciprocal.
It also seemed to be running too much relief, so I tightened the truss rod a little.
After further analysis & play, the action feels too high!

In terms of set-up, should I head for the flattest neck possible and the lowest action? I'll re-do the intonation, of course!

I reckon I might make something recognisable as music within a decade or so, but for now I'm just enjoying a new challenge!

Alex.

Congratulations and welcome to the group!

I recommend sending it to Stick Enterprises for a complete setup. They'll adjust your instrument so it plays like new. You may be without it for a few weeks but it will be worth it to get an instrument that will no doubt play better than it does now. I can't recommend this enough. I bought my current Stick used and played it for about a year without the adjustment. After they worked on it, playing it was like playing a brand new instrument. It was so much better that it felt like a completely different instrument from the one I sent into them. No matter how much you think you know about adjusting instruments, no one knows more than SE when it comes to tap instruments.

If you call Stick, give them the instrument's serial number and they can tell you all the information you need to know about your instrument's construction.

Good luck and have fun!

Welcome.. where abouts do you live? Perhaps someone close that knows a bit more can have a look and help out a bit.

I don’t know if Greg Howard does this, but you could ask him if he does “set up” lessons via Skype. He’s very experienced in stick setup. To start, You are going to want a set of strings that is known to match your desired tuning otherwise you might have more difficulties in setup than you’d like. Unless you have experience setting of guitars with truss rods , etc.. , In general it’s best to not mess with anything other than the truss unless you have had a bit of instruction. As mentioned before , sending it S.E. the best / easiest way to get it back to a proper ‘ground zero’ set up.


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Also note there where a couple post by Emmett not too long ago that talked a bit about setup on this site.


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