Hi guys, thought this might be a good time to delurk
I'm a Stick player, also a six string bassist and occasional k/board and guitar synth noodler. I've been giving some thought to building myself a tapping guitar for a project.
The first thing you'll most likely need is a flat fretboard. The Stick uses (I think!) a non-radiused fretboard, and I have a feeling that the Warr does the same. I'd also completely agree with the thought about double truss rods. You'll need the fretboard almost perfectly flat at all times, as tiny variations can change a perfect tapping surface into something useless so adjustable truss robs would be a massive plus. A through neck (laminated or not) with added wings (if you want ..) strikes me as being the way to go, to get good tone.
I'm thinking of 8 strings, tuned in perfect 4ths from a Low B (ie Five string bass low string) upwards (B,E,A,D,G,C,F,Bb). One of the nice things about the Stick is to route the melody signals seperately from the bass as described above, so having pickups split is important. There is an 8 string Stick (the SB8) and the N/S Stick joint produced with Steinberger, both are good models for the kind of thing I'm thinking of, along with the Artist 8 string from Warr.
For me the biggest challenge would appear to be the bridge .. anyone have any thoughts which would allow the string spacing to not be massive between the two 'sets' of strings?
I'd really recommend talking to both Emmett Chapman and Mark Warr, they're both really top guys, and have answered whole series of dumb questions from me in the past Also check out the Megatar site, the owner Traktor Topaz (what a name) is also a great guy. Slightly biased against the Chapmans by the look of the site, but friendly and helpfull.
Anyway, glad to be here,
Ta
Dave
