Hello everyone!

First, my official Disclaimer; I've been a bass guitarist for almost 35 years now. please don't hold that against me! LOL

I'm new to Stick ownership, but have heard Levin and Gunn via King Crimson, Peter Gabriel, TU, etc for years! I've never picked up the instrument, either musically and literally until about two+ weeks ago.

A guitarist/work colleague commented that he's had one sitting in his closet for the last FIFTEEN YEARS (!) unused, missing strings, in a case with disintegrating foam. I was slightly amazed that he'd even have one! I asked what he was going to do with it. His response floored me, "Probably throw it in the dumpster."

Luckily, I persuaded him to give to me (or as he likes to call it, "gifted it").
So, here in all its glory is my newest instrument; a Polycarbonate 10 String Chapman Stick, which dates to the around the same time the late Greg Howard bought his first polycarbonate model (hint; his was ONE LOWER than the serial number on this one!).

All I know about its history is that it supposedly toured around the world with someone, was given to a player who in turn didn't really care much for it, and then gave it to my friend!

So, I have a bit of a restoration project at hand! I've already opened the Stickup, as it has a broken volume pot that I might be able to mend (I'm an EET by trade, and repair tons of gear, industrial electronics and renewable energy stuff that's in way worse shape than this!).

My thought process is this - once I get her cleaned up a bit, I plan on ordering a light set of strings, getting her "road-worthy, and then seeing if I can at least learn a C Maj scale without getting my fingers stuck between the strings! I plan to give myself about 3-6 months, just to se if I'm making any progress. If so, awesome! I'll add this colour to my arsenal of instruments (I also play guitar and keys, but only in a recording). If I suck, I'll probably flip it for a decent price.

So, this brave new world is wide open!

Thanks for accepting me!

If you have a good luthier in the area where you live...that maybe a good idea to show him your toy...lol. Then...on my side I prefer to use a heavy gauge for stings. This keep your instrument more in tune. Good luck...

Looks like a great project, at a very good price!

Medium or heavy gauge strings have their advantages, and gauge choice is yet another topic of disagreement/preference/churn, but for what it's worth, with that instrument you're likely limited to having to use light gauge strings, simply because without one of the newer bridges you can't adjust the intonation.

Looking forward to the vids you'll surely post once you've had time with it!

Hey, thanks for the encouragement!

I've been told (on Stick's website, IIRC) that their instruments without truss rods should only be strung with a light set and tuned as designed.

Not sure about video though. I've been told I have a face for radio! LOL

Yes, for the unadjustable Sticks Classic 10 Light is the only game in town.

Well, almost the only game.

If you also order a special set of 'shaved' bridge screws it's possible to use 'Baritone Melody', which lowers the melody side by a 4th making it the same as the inner 10 strings of Classic 12. The 'shaved' bridge screws set handle the inntonatoin issue by including a couple of modified screws that effectively move the bridge position just a fraction for the relevant strings.

That's what I did with my equally unadjustable 1985 Inronwood.

A damaged potentiometer is one thing. The biggest problem for me seems to be the lack of magnets. Stickup won't play without them. I'm afraid that without the help of SE you won't be able to find replacements, because they have a rather specific size, and any other size will change the sound/generated magnetic field.

Ah, I should have posted the other picture, which shows the magnets adhered to the top cover (darn double-sided tape)!

I plan to restore them to their respective places.

I've thinking long and hard on this one, and will probably go with the Classic tuning, as I had a bass guitar years ago tuned in fifths (a four string, tuned CGDA, ala Robert Fripp's NST). Completely forgot that tuning is like a cello, which is my favourite classical I instrument. So the fifths bass and fourths melody makes logistical sense to my brain!

For comparison, there's a pic of my Stickups in this post.

To be clear "Baritone Melody" is a "fifths bass and fourths melody" tuning.

https://stick.com/instruments/tunings/10/bm/

Don't be distracted by the strange things I've since done with the fully adjustable Sticks mentioned in my Sig!