I'm building one too :-)

[Sweetmusician81]

Hi everyone. My name is Erin. I'm building an instrument based closely on the original Stick design with some of my own modifications. I'd like to get some feedback from some of you who have more experience than I do with a project like this.
The idea came to me when my father decided to redo the hardwood floors in his livingroom. He was using cherry, I believe. It looks beautiful and it's very solid. I was wondering if anyone might have any idea as to it's usefullness in instrument building. It's a hard enough wood, but I'm not sure if it's ever been used in the construction of a guitar/bass neck. Also, I'm trying to track down hardware, a bridge in particular, for my instrument. It's going to be a 10 string tapper. I was thinking of either fashioning a bridge out of some stainless steel or the more expensive option would be to order two 5-string bass bridges. What are some suggestions for electronics? Tuners?

Any help is greatly appreciated, thank you :-)

[insomniac2295]

you can buy a one piece bridge for a touchstyle guitar at krappyguitars.com under the touchstyle section

[rjgoos]

Most tapping instruments have a 0.3 to 0.4" string spacing. I would guess that a 5-string bass bridge would have a spacing a lot wider than that?

Consider making a prototype or two out of a less-valuable wood before using your best wood.

[RocknDrTom]

cherry wood is a good instrument wood. It had been used in the past for mountain dulcimers. Like the fruit it bears, it has sweet tonal characteristics somewhere between Maple and Walnut. If I had the money, I'd have a stick made out of cherry. There have been sticks made out of cherry in the past - you can see some in custom galleries. if you search in the right places.

[Tom Drinkwater]

Check out www.mimf.com

It has an enormous amount of info for builders. There is a thread on there under the solid body electric category that talks about the use of cherry, very favorable.

Email Traktor at Megatar if you are interested in a very nice bridge setup. If you look at the tone weaver model, you can get that bridge set up (of course you'll have two platlettes and saddles left over) for around $150 and you can space them from around 1cm (width of the saddle I'm guessing) to whatever is comfy. You can also get the standard bridge like on the other megatar models (12 string only) for around $100. I haven't checked in a while so don't quote me on the prices. Don't be afraid to spend a little $$$ on the bridge. It's one part that you can't really afford to go cheap on. If you don't mind the wider neck and wider string spacing two bass bridges will work fine. You could also go for those single string ABM knockoffs but for the price I'd go for the Megatar stuff.

Guitar tuners work fine, you will have to drill out the lowest string at least, no biggie.

Not knowing much about the design (other than it will be Stick-like) I can't say much about the electronics. The easiest way unless you can wind pickups is to use standard guitar or bass pickups. Design around available parts and you will be much happier.

Just like rjgoos said, prototype first. You could easily carve out a tapper from a spruce 2 x 10 and see if you like the dimensions. Practicing your router skills on a nice piece of cherry gets expensive.

Most importantly, don't rush your project. Take a few months to build it. Heck, I take months to design my instruments.

[Sweetmusician81]

I'm basing my dimensions around that of a 10 string grand stick. I'm probably going to buy some cheaper wood and fashion some prototypes as well as printing out full scale schematics. I'm good friends with the local AutoCAD teacher at the high school so I should be able to do this easily. I appreciate all of your help. Are there any particular suggestions for pickups? I've seen that you can purchase Stickups from Chapman but they're well over $400...Bartolini's seem to be favored. I'm also wondering what everyone's opinion is on the fretboards provided by AllenGuitar. I'll be posting pics of my design along with pics of the starting pieces of wood. Thanks in advance for any advice you might offer :-)

[Tom Drinkwater]

I have never used the fretboards from Allen Guitars. Do they have the dimensions that you are after? What wood will you be using for the fretboard? I don't have any fretboards for sale on my site yet but if you email me at oafstore@verizon.net we can talk business.

Bartolini makes a nice pickup, EMG also makes good ones. I am going to try Carvin in a tapper eventually. I love their sound in my electrics and basses. Dimarzio makes a bass pick up called the Split P. It is a P-Bass pickup that is really two small humbuckers that can be wired together or run seperately. Pretty usefull for different configurations. I think that one of the Tapladder prototypes uses these.

[GaryOpenhill]

Originally posted by Sweetmusician81
I'm basing my dimensions around that of a 10 string grand stick. I'm probably going to buy some cheaper wood and fashion some prototypes as well as printing out full scale schematics. I'm good friends with the local AutoCAD teacher at the high school so I should be able to do this easily. I appreciate all of your help. Are there any particular suggestions for pickups? I've seen that you can purchase Stickups from Chapman but they're well over $400...Bartolini's seem to be favored. I'm also wondering what everyone's opinion is on the fretboards provided by AllenGuitar. I'll be posting pics of my design along with pics of the starting pieces of wood. Thanks in advance for any advice you might offer :-)

I've tried several of the emg pu's, about four different types. I liked all the active versions i tried. I put 707's both on the megatar and the krappy. They cover 7 strings, if you need it. But you would have to make space for a battery. Never tried the front tele replacement they make, but it is what you hear on many sticks and on the steinberger stick, so it is awsome even on a tapping bass and according to emg the best pu they make. Also, at least here, the prices are very good, and they ship them within days.

[Sweetmusician81]

I'm using a piece of cherry as the main wood to construct my instrument. I'm using the same bridge design as one of the other members of this forum. I will use two emg single coil pickups. The tuners will be grover standard guitar tuners. The question, should I add a truss rod of carbon fiber reinforcement to the cherry, adding the fingerboard on top?

[lactose]

I'm not an expert, but I would definitely choose a truss rod over no truss rod.

Using a truss rod with the carbon rods doesn't make sense to me. Seems like the rods would inhibit any correction you might try to make with the truss rod. Two truss rods makes more sense.