Hey whoever may know,
I have an old Iron wood stick that Dave Brosky convinced me to change from classic to baritone melody tuning. The only adjustments I could make were up or down on the nut and bridge screws. Now I have a new stick that was origionally set up in classic tuning that I have since changed to the baritone melody(thanks again for the heads up Dave). I feel I have successfully adjusted the height of the action with the truss rod and nut and bridge screw adjustments. But I wonder if, to make sure of perfect intonation, I need to adjust the bridge the other way( ie. the distance between the nut and bridge screws). Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks, Mike

MIke,
glad to hear you went for the Baritone Melody- more "sexy", and who doesn't want to be more "sexy"! actually, it really helps for solo playing and for comp chording, the best of all worlds. Greg convinced me top change to Baritone Meldody years ago, and I never looked back. Plus when I switched to 12 string Grand 6+6, it just added the two outermost strings with out having to relearn the tuning or fretboard.

The only advice I can share is that you need new bridge pins, which SE will provide, to accommodate the different thicknesses in the strings, since they all move over one string higher and add the lower fourth string. Once you set the truss, then check the pickup screws height to see if they are pulling or if you have any discernible volume jumps or stand outs. Then you need to use the mini allen wrenches which came with your Stick to adjust the pickup screws. The Ironwoods traditionally do not have an adjustable bridge, unless it was modified.

hope this helps, & take care,
Dave Brosky
thanks for taking my advice- you'll love it!

Hi David

Of course you're right about how great the Baritone Melody tuning is for the 10-string.

Changing the new instrument to the Baritone Melody intonation profile
I'm not sure if Mike is asking about making changes to his new instrument, or changing the bridge on his old one. If it is the new instrument you're asking about, Mike, then, yes, you need to adjust the slide blocks to lengthen several of the string to have the correct intonation.

Just match each string with the setting of the one before it. So slide the 1st string back until it looks like the 2nd, then slide the 3rd back until it looks like the 3rd, etc.

When you get to string #5, just lengthen it a bit (slide it a little toward the bridge) and check the intonation until it's correct.

for changing your old instrument to Baritone Melody intonation profile:
The bridge is height-djustable, just not "intonatable", except with the shaved screws as you indicated. Mike, you need 3 or 4 screws, one each for the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 5th strings. The 4th string should be okay, because it will transition from a plain to a wound string.

Be careful when you put the new screws in that you do not cross-thread them. Because they have been shaved down they are fairly soft at the top point, so once they are threaded well, you may want to screw them in by turning with pliers (grabbing the new flat surfaces from above) rather than using a screwdriver.

Hope that helps.

Thanks Greg and Dave. To clarify my question which as I look back on it was more of a "short version", the situation is thus. (people don't us thus enough these days)
I switched my old stick to baritone melody tuning several years ago. It is an old iron wood that had the ability only to adjust the height of the bidge without drilling(shudder!) on my part. My new Stick is one of the reserve production instruments that was set up as a 10 string classic. After recieving it I changed it over to baritone melody with confidence, having already done it with the old one.

After some playing(a few months) it occured to me that I have the ability now to change the length from bridge to nut on each string and began to wonder if I should or even need to.

So I went from medium guage 10 string classic to light guage 10 string baritone melody. So do I need to mess with this adjustment?

Since getting the replies, I have tinkered and other than getting some experience with the new(to me) bridge style, haven't noticed too much difference. Perhaps as "Blind Pew" would say, I don't have "Acute 'earing!"

Thanks again for the input. Hopefully I will see Greg at the NE seminar this year and he can check it out for me.

Pleasant Percusive-Finger Punching, Mike

Hi Mike,

You would need to change it a little but not as much as if both sets were mediums. It depends on where the transition between the wound and plain strings is. If memory serves, the 3rd string on the Baritone Melody light set is unwound, and so is the 3rd string of the medium Classic.

The last unwound string is set to a longer vibrating length than the first wound string in a set of 4ths. In 5ths the first wound one is longer than the last unwound one.

Thanks greg. I will difinitely take another look at it. Or listen, that is. If there only was an on line community where you could get this much help in raising your kids!

Mike

Glad to be of help, Mike. Compared to other instrument out there, The Stick is a pretty easy one to deal in this way. Emmett has designed it for easy setup in his shop, and that translates to easy setup for us when we want to make changes.

Kids are harder!