Inksplosive AL
Well-known member
I have recently been asked a few questions by members about the Risa sticks I own so I decided to conglomerate everything into this thread.
(I will add pictures at a later date and remove this line)
So far I own three Risa stick ukuleles one of each scale. My tenor is in route to my home from Australia as I type.
There seems to be at least two variations of the stick ukulele design from Risa. The first from my observations on what I call a 1st gen seems to differ only by having friction tuners and the grooves in the crossover bar the strings cross over are all even widths with sharp or crisp edges to them. Another thing I find odd with the concert is it has a slanted saddle. Pictures of what I call second gen concert sticks I have seen pictures of also appear to have this slanted saddle.
My second gen is a soprano and differs by having 4:1 geared tuners and the crossover bar grooves and varying widths. The edges to these grooves are also chamfered to varying degrees unlike the 1st gen. I'm uncertain if this was modded by a previous owner as the frets on this stick were clearly attacked with a file. The saddle is straight across unlike the concert saddle. Pictures of all the tenors I have seen also appear to have this flat saddle.
On my soprano the 12th fret so flat and almost gone it is barely usable, The upper frets have flat spots as well making bar chords almost impossible. Both my used soprano and my used concert have flattened areas on the zero fret where string bending or wear would never come into question due to the design. So be very careful when purchasing a used Risa stick. Ask for pictures of frets as two for two are very bad odds. I mentioned a newer used tenor on the way and hope this will answer a few of my questions on the different generations or designs.
My little soprano picked up the 60hrz hum from my house wiring so badly it was unplayable until I lined the inner jack area with foil tape. Strangely the concert stick has no hum come to think of it I never looked to see if at some point someone shielded it. (I have made posts on shielding the Risa searchable on these forums that I will repost in this thread)
The only other tips I can think of are to be very careful when you are tuning it. It is very different and easy to lose track of which string you are tightening. I also find that under saddle piezo pickups are very sensitive to string and finger noise. This will change your style of play a bit unless you are already used to playing another ukulele with an under saddle pickup through an amp or effects pedal.
Hope this helps someone. If anyone knows something to be wrong or have made a different observation please add it to this thread as a reply.
More to come, I need to eat.
~peace~
(I will add pictures at a later date and remove this line)
So far I own three Risa stick ukuleles one of each scale. My tenor is in route to my home from Australia as I type.
There seems to be at least two variations of the stick ukulele design from Risa. The first from my observations on what I call a 1st gen seems to differ only by having friction tuners and the grooves in the crossover bar the strings cross over are all even widths with sharp or crisp edges to them. Another thing I find odd with the concert is it has a slanted saddle. Pictures of what I call second gen concert sticks I have seen pictures of also appear to have this slanted saddle.
My second gen is a soprano and differs by having 4:1 geared tuners and the crossover bar grooves and varying widths. The edges to these grooves are also chamfered to varying degrees unlike the 1st gen. I'm uncertain if this was modded by a previous owner as the frets on this stick were clearly attacked with a file. The saddle is straight across unlike the concert saddle. Pictures of all the tenors I have seen also appear to have this flat saddle.
On my soprano the 12th fret so flat and almost gone it is barely usable, The upper frets have flat spots as well making bar chords almost impossible. Both my used soprano and my used concert have flattened areas on the zero fret where string bending or wear would never come into question due to the design. So be very careful when purchasing a used Risa stick. Ask for pictures of frets as two for two are very bad odds. I mentioned a newer used tenor on the way and hope this will answer a few of my questions on the different generations or designs.
My little soprano picked up the 60hrz hum from my house wiring so badly it was unplayable until I lined the inner jack area with foil tape. Strangely the concert stick has no hum come to think of it I never looked to see if at some point someone shielded it. (I have made posts on shielding the Risa searchable on these forums that I will repost in this thread)
The only other tips I can think of are to be very careful when you are tuning it. It is very different and easy to lose track of which string you are tightening. I also find that under saddle piezo pickups are very sensitive to string and finger noise. This will change your style of play a bit unless you are already used to playing another ukulele with an under saddle pickup through an amp or effects pedal.
Hope this helps someone. If anyone knows something to be wrong or have made a different observation please add it to this thread as a reply.
More to come, I need to eat.
~peace~