I just picked up my first stick on Sunday (#1823, ironwood with standard tuning) and I love it, but I've got one minor technical issue I'm trying to sort out. The highest pitched string on the bass side rings against the 1st fret all the time. If you were to pluck it, the note you would get would be an F rather than a theoretical E that you would get if it fully cleared the fret.

When I bought the stick the outer most 2 strings both did this, and in the process of investigating I found that both of those strings were wound to the inside of the tuner rather than the outside, so I corrected that and sort of "combed" the fluff from the damper to lay under those strings a little more. That helped, and now the highest treble string is fine but the high-bass string still gives a sympathetic ring when adjacent strings are played and does not ring when you tap right behind the first fret as if you were trying to play that F note.

My stick is a fairly old one, so as far as I know the truss-rod is not adjustable and there is no provision for action adjustment.

Any suggestions?

Hi Matt,

The strings are wound that was so that they travel to the tuners properly from the nut. You'll notice that the tuners are also reversed, so they will rotate the same direction at the other when tuning "up and down"

The instruments with adjustable truss rods have an exposed nut down by the belt hook. If you're doesn't have that, then you are right it's not adjustable.

Where did you get your instrument?

There are a few possibilities if the truss isn't adjustable:

1. you have a lifting fret
2. your nut is adjusted too low on those strings.
3. you have a backward arch in the instrument. If this is true, the the only thing you can do apart from having an adjustable truss installed is to use heavier strings.

Most of what I've seen in older instruments is that they can occasionally develop a very slight bow from being under tension. I've never seen one develop a backward arch.

Hi Matt,

The strings are wound that was so that they travel to the tuners properly from the nut. You'll notice that the tuners are also reversed, so they will rotate the same direction at the other when tuning "up and down"

The instruments with adjustable truss rods have an exposed nut down by the belt hook. If you're doesn't have that, then you are right it's not adjustable.

Where did you get your instrument?

There are a few possibilities if the truss isn't adjustable:

1. you have a lifting fret
2. your nut is adjusted too low on those strings.
3. you have a backward arch in the instrument. If this is true, the the only thing you can do apart from having an adjustable truss installed is to use heavier strings.

Most of what I've seen in older instruments is that they can occasionally develop a very slight bow from being under tension. I've never seen one develop a backward arch.[/quote]


Greg, thanks for the input. I picked it up from a private seller in Philly a few days ago, it was advertised on the classified board here. It looks like it's been pretty well cared for, the finish is in very good shape and it appears to be completely unmodified. The guy I got it from was the third owner and had owned it for about 2 years, but never really learned to play it.

My #1 and #10 strings are wound to the outside of the tuners, so the backwards tuners rotate in the same direction as the others as you describe. They had been wound to the inside previously which put the string at a funny angle entering the nut. It definitely doesn't have adjustable truss rods.

1) Checked for lifting frets. They all appear to be flush to the fretboard.

2) The "nut" is what I would call a flat head grub screw, with the string passing through the groove where the screwdriver head would go. Each string on mine has an individual screw for both the nut and the bridge. I didn't want to mess with it without really knowing what I was doing. Can those be backed in/out by half-turns for action adjustment? I think my stick is roughly early-eighties vintage and the hardware is pretty primitive looking compared to the modern ones.

3) I don't see any backward arch, it's pretty much dead flat as far as I can see. If it were a guitar neck I would say the neck was a hair too flat but now bowed backward.

Thanks again for the advice!

Hi Matt,

the nut and bridge are hose screws you refer to, with individual height adjustment for each string at both ends. you can raise and lower them by half turns as you guessed.

The underside of the strings should all clear the first fret at roughly the same distance, with maybe a slight increase in clearance for the thicker strings.

Having an adjustable nut is pretty essential for getting good play at the first fret relative to the rest of the frets.

At the bridge you will want to adjust it so that the underside of the thicker string is slightly higher of the board than the underside of the thinner strings, as they vibrate more widely.

I hope that helps, and happy holidays to you. Enjoy your Stick.

Backing out the nut 1/2 turn seems to have done the trick. I'm not getting any stray notes now. I had one other string that was borderline too low, so I backed that one out a half turn also. The stick seems to play pretty well now, at least in my uneducated opinion.

Thanks again