Stickist.com

Physically challenged.

Wed Mar 10, 2010 2:58 am

by Radkon (Posted Wed Mar 10, 2010 2:58 am)

I'm not one to complain, but currently I am in physiotherapy as a result of poor posture and over exerting myself in practice. Not Happy.

I am looking at a serious break from Stick, at least one month, and totally redressing my approach to the instrument.

Let me be clear that my upper body strength has not been good for the last 3 years, (2 car accidents) and this has accumulated over time resulting in further injury.

Please be careful everyone. Get used to bringing your head up from looking down at the touchboard. I know I'm going to have to really get used to reaching for notes, without looking down and this will be a good practice for me.

The main issue is compressing the nerves when looking down and to the left. Compressing the nerves eventually leads to muscle fatigue. I did have a heavy week of practice last week with more breaks, but it goes to show that muscle fatigue is accumulative. My example may be a little severe but I don't think it is unique. Physical balance and a neutral posture is key, including regular breaks which require different muscle movement.

I know how obsessed I am with the Stick and I don't want anyone else to come a cropper.

Later.

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StickJan on Myspace!

Wed Mar 10, 2010 2:43 am

by StickJan (Posted Wed Mar 10, 2010 2:43 am)

Radkon wrote:

Hey StickJan.

Quintillian is up on http://www.myspace.com/konradpark with the real drums. Enjoy the Spaghetti Western feel.

Bro Rad.

Sounds great. Well done indeed. I added you on Myspace. Hope you don´t mind.

Sincerely//Jan

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Stick site on Facebook

Wed Mar 10, 2010 2:35 am

by StickJan (Posted Wed Mar 10, 2010 2:35 am)

Great thing. Well done. I´ve added myself. Thanks.

Sincerely//Jan

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Acoustic Image Ten 2.. who's got one?

Wed Mar 10, 2010 12:18 am

by greg (Posted Wed Mar 10, 2010 12:18 am)

Radkon wrote:

A question for Greg H.

If I were to buy a A.I. Ten 2 and a Step About, would I be doubling up on some of the tone control options, given that both rigs seem to have significant tone tweaking possibilities?

Does having the Step About imply that one would only need a decent cabinet to drive the sound coming from the Step About?

My ideal rig would include effects, midi & some kind of looping station.

Cheers.

Hi Konrad,

It certainly looks like an impressive amp. If you play though one, like the way it sounds, and can crank it up without losing any fidelity, then it could possibly be a great amp for you.

Here are some differences between the on-board preamp and the StepABout. The mid band has a fixed freq on the Coda, and the impedance is much lower. I don't know what the level control on the channel effects loop means. If it is a mix control between the wet and dry signal for each channel, that would be pretty cool. If it's just a send or return level control, and there is no way to eliminate the dry signal, that's less useful.

I'm glad to see a defeat switch for each channel for the on-board effects. A separate level control for each channel would be more useful.

If you think you'll be needing more than two channels of mixing capability, you'll also need to involve some kind of external mixer. To get stereo you'd need two amps, and the internal mixer has no stereo function.

So, if you like the sound of the Coda cabs, then a small rack with a line mixer and lightweight power amp with one or two Ten 2 cabs would be a more flexible solution.

The main thing going here is a good sound with less weight. If weight isn't the biggest issue, then there are some pretty great sounding powered speakers out there:

http://www.sweetwater.com/c134--Active_ ... A_Speakers

I guess it all depends on what's appealing to you about this small amp. Sometimes small instrument amps sound great with one signal, but when you start to run full-range program material through you hear holes in Stick, that's a pretty complex signal. A small PA approach might serve you better. Without hearing the amp, I can't say.

Remember, these amps are designed with upright bass in mind. The sonic goals may be completely different than yours. But they may do the job great.

you asked

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The everlasting fx topic.... Boss GT-10 + GT-10B.

Wed Mar 10, 2010 12:11 am

by StickJan (Posted Wed Mar 10, 2010 12:11 am)

diver7atms wrote:

I believe you can only link them thru midi connectors

Oki. Thank you. Have anyone here (Rob?) tried to do volume swells using a expression pedal plugged into one unit controlling the volume on the other unit via midi? My experience when doing this using a midi pedalboard controlling volume on rack fx´s is that it doesn´t work very well. Lag and unvanted noise..... So I have used a regular volume pedal instead. This was awhile ago so it might be that more resently made equipment doesn´t have this problem.

Sincerely//Jan

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The Stick is physically demanding.

Tue Mar 09, 2010 10:58 pm

by Nomad Monday (Posted Tue Mar 09, 2010 10:58 pm)

Radkon wrote:

Hey Nomad.

Having a drum background, the first Stick gig I did, I kept thinking I'd left something behind, simply because I had so little gear....!

Haha! I look forward to that day. I'm still playing drums in my band, but hopefully I'll be good enough to make the transition in a few months. Finding a new drummer will be a pain, though. Especially since I'll probably be more critical of the drummers we audition

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Pandora Radio With Tony Levin

Tue Mar 09, 2010 10:52 pm

by Nomad Monday (Posted Tue Mar 09, 2010 10:52 pm)

Just put "Tony Levin" into Pandora radio today. Some good prog and fusion stuff came up. Anyone have some favorite stations they want to share? Another one of my favorites is "Hella" - experimental noise rock-ish.

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What is a Mushroom?

Tue Mar 09, 2010 10:28 pm

by jeffcomas (Posted Tue Mar 09, 2010 10:28 pm)

Why was this posted?

May have something to do with the party at Glen's house.

seems they were both sorta right

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New song on myspace

Tue Mar 09, 2010 9:14 am

by bs_tritonus (Posted Tue Mar 09, 2010 9:14 am)

Thank you for your kind comment! I will work on harmonics, and try to improve myself. Perhaps my main goal is to be able to play more freely and to free myself more and more of the usual western tonality. I am not into that whole Schoenberg-thing, but I want to do it more musically.

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Great Sounding Bass

Tue Mar 09, 2010 8:52 am

by flynlion (Posted Tue Mar 09, 2010 8:52 am)

No worries Jstorm, # 1579 is doing just fine

I'm thinking that the the minor issues that I've been experiencing have more to do with a complete newbie learning the subtleties of a unique instrument than anything else. If I carefully tweak the settings on the ACTV-2 and my little bass amp just right, I can actually find a small sweet spot where it all sounds pretty good. I'm assuming that the higher quality amps have a much larger sweet spot than my tiny Hartke, and I may purchase an inexpensive practice guitar amp just so's I can use the stereo function and fine tune the 2 sides of the instrument seperately.

In the past I've played some guitar and bass, but I never got very good at either and I never played both at the same time The stick is unusual in the way your hands move from light strings on the melody side to the much heavier bass strings and back again, and I still need to train my hands how to make the appropriate adjustments on the fly. All part of the fun I guess.

Love those Kevin Keith videos, that sound he gets is one of the reasons why I bought a stick. That, and seeing King Crimson play live back in 1980

One last question, does anyone know how to remove the battery from an ACTV-2? The stick is such a well thought out instrument there must be an easy way to do it

Thanks for the advice everyone! This forum is great.
Leo

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Divided truss - First impressions

Tue Mar 09, 2010 7:35 am

by greg (Posted Tue Mar 09, 2010 7:35 am)

Just to let everyone interested in this subject know, Emmett's initial article on the subject is now up on stick.com:

http://www.stick.com/instruments/constr ... ded_truss/

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The best audience

Tue Mar 09, 2010 7:04 am

by jeffcomas (Posted Tue Mar 09, 2010 7:04 am)

I'm looking forward to hearing young Robert.

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Ten String Grand DBR - first impressions

Tue Mar 09, 2010 6:12 am

by locks (Posted Tue Mar 09, 2010 6:12 am)

comes to mind, but even that is a bit of a stretch.

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Presonus Audiobox usb - ACTV2???

Tue Mar 09, 2010 4:57 am

by arsacane (Posted Tue Mar 09, 2010 4:57 am)

surfindogg wrote:

...
Guess it would help if I read the manual
...

Experience is everything you get BEFORE reading the manual

Cheers, Daniel.

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Kaki King

Mon Mar 08, 2010 9:22 pm

by JRJ (Posted Mon Mar 08, 2010 9:22 pm)

Would have passed me by like a doppelgänger at the airport...

"A granfalloon, in the fictional religion of Bokononism (created by Kurt Vonnegut in his 1963 novel Cat's Cradle), is defined as a "false karass." That is, it is a group of people who outwardly choose or claim to have a shared identity or purpose, but whose mutual association is actually meaningless."

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Symphony in J Flat

Mon Mar 08, 2010 6:38 pm

by Nomad Monday (Posted Mon Mar 08, 2010 6:38 pm)

Reading the article, I felt very intrigued by the concept. But I found myself disappointed by the video and sound clip they had on there. It felt directionally atonal. Like there was that scale there, but the style of music being played sounded like they could have achieved a similar result by jumping around a whole-tone scale.

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NYC gig

Mon Mar 08, 2010 4:45 pm

by diver7atms (Posted Mon Mar 08, 2010 4:45 pm)

I am from NY living in Florida. All my musician friends are still in NY. Where is that place? I will tell them about it. They will love it.
Joe

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Chapdoc - New Subforum

Mon Mar 08, 2010 1:38 pm

by LADC (Posted Mon Mar 08, 2010 1:38 pm)

Thanks NewbieWan for your reassurances and suggestions. This is a long-gestating project and while it certainly would have been faster if I had funds to work on it full time, it may not have been as in depth. It takes time to make a documentary. The average is 7 years. It takes a while to really understand what you're doing, the reason being that life doesn't always fit so neatly into anyone's pre-conceived ideas.

I've been working in the motion picture business for 27 years. Documentaries are a microcosm of the larger narrative film business. There are a lot of outlets for distribution on many levels of media. My main goal is a theatrical feature release. There are lots of distributors who do this. The multi-staged release is a definite possibility.

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Guilty pleasures

Mon Mar 08, 2010 12:11 pm

by AnDroiD (Posted Mon Mar 08, 2010 12:11 pm)

When I had my restaraunt and my staff saw me coming to a boil, they would quick put a quarter in the juke and blast "Witchitaw Lineman" by Glen Cambell. I'd start singin and calm down immediately. I think it's that ..."I need a small vacation..." line.

Marty

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Songwriting Workshop added to Vancouver Stick Seminar

Mon Mar 08, 2010 9:26 am

by Jim Meyer (Posted Mon Mar 08, 2010 9:26 am)

We are very happy to announce that Canadian Singer/Songwriter/Stickist Dale Ladouceur will be leading a Songwriting Workshop specifically for Stick players during the Vancouver Stick Seminar (May 27-30) this year. Dale has long histories with both Stick playing and songwriting, so she is an excellent addition for our 9th Stick seminar.

Dale Ladouceur
Songwriting for the Stick
Saturday, May 29

Seminar website:

http://www.jimmeyer.ca/stick

Thanks!

Jim

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FOR SALE: Graphite neck walnut body NS/Stick

Mon Mar 08, 2010 9:10 am

by thingsabove (Posted Mon Mar 08, 2010 9:10 am)

I put pictures of my NS in the Photo Gallery

gallery/menu.php?gallery=members&album_id=49

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"What" does everyone practice?

Mon Mar 08, 2010 7:09 am

by Per Boysen (Posted Mon Mar 08, 2010 7:09 am)

Roger that, Sir! Polypatterns rock!

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What musical instruments did you play prior to the Stick?

Mon Mar 08, 2010 5:09 am

by Radkon (Posted Mon Mar 08, 2010 5:09 am)

Been playing drums since I was 10 and a half. It's been an amazing ride, but the Stick, well it's the Omni-instrument that makes all things possible.

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Trace Elliot and Crown Bass Rig - $475

Sun Mar 07, 2010 11:33 pm

by diver7atms (Posted Sun Mar 07, 2010 11:33 pm)

SOLD!!!!

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Stick numbering jump?

Sun Mar 07, 2010 5:19 pm

by greg (Posted Sun Mar 07, 2010 5:19 pm)

Powagoat wrote:

Something's puzzling me here... My Stick's from 2003 and it's number 1868 (I know they did a 'reset' when the design changed)... But every other Stick I see listed here, even some from like 2005, seem to be in the 5000s.

When and why did the numbering jump? (Or did they just hire a bunch of elves to do a huge production run in 2004?)

Dan

Hi Dan,

This is one question on the FAQ that could use an update:

faq/doku.php?id=serial_numbers

In 2003, Emmett decided to "reconcile" the serial numbers to more accurately reflect the total number of instruments made, adding up both the ironwood->polycarb numbers (101-low 3000s) and the hardwood instruments made since 1989 (which started over at #001). As such, there was a big gap between the low 3000s where the last polycarbonate instrument had been made, and the high 4000s where the newly reconciled series resumed.

My 10-string is 4965 (hence the improv video piece "Big Bang 4965" which was the first performance I made with that instrument) and I received it in late 2003.

One last note, the instruments are numbered not based on when they are finished, but when the numbers are applied to the blanks. This would mean that someone who has, for example, a tarara 12-string finished in May of this year might have a lower number than someone whose wenge Grand was finished last year.

Or is that not too much "inside baseball" for this thread....

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Les Folies Tapping - a musical event in France

Sun Mar 07, 2010 5:04 pm

by toothguy (Posted Sun Mar 07, 2010 5:04 pm)

I really like the wife I have, so I think I'll pass on your first offer but if you can get me a poster, that would be FANTASTIC! Please keep me uh...posted with any details. Thanks.

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The role of the Stick in music

Sun Mar 07, 2010 4:04 pm

by mckelly (Posted Sun Mar 07, 2010 4:04 pm)

Wow - what a cool topic. As a new Stick player I have often considered the role of the sick, for example, in my band. Where we already have bass, guitar, a harmonica player, what role would the Stick play. For me the answer was relatively (and perhaps naively) straightforward: it depends on how good are you at composition and arrangement.

I always considered the Stick to have the ability to add yet another sonic layer or palate to an existing song. Alternatively, if the song is first composed on the Stick, it will essentially set the stage (so to speak) for how the rest of the band would arrange their parts around it. In that sense, I really think it is no different that when I compose on the piano versus composing on the guitar - it comes down to the subsequent arrangement of other instruments and the musicality of the musicians playing them.

I play a lot with bands who sometimes have three guitars (not including bass!) playing at the same time! Its difficult to argue that there is no room for the Stick.

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Good portable/battery powered amp?

Sun Mar 07, 2010 2:16 pm

by Powagoat (Posted Sun Mar 07, 2010 2:16 pm)

I went to GC today and tried out the battery powered amps they had. I found the Mobile Cube couldn't handle the 6th string beyond half volume (which is pretty quiet).

The bass cube sounded great but it only has one mono instrument level input. Its aux in 1/4" is at line level, designed for drum machines and MP3 players. Yes, I could use a Y adapter to put both channels of the Stick into it, but...

There were also Vox and Line6 amps there, both with mic inputs with gain controls. Both of them worked well to have the melody in the instrument input (to get effects) and the bass in the mic input.

I preferred the sound from the Line6 in both clean and acoustic amp cab models, plus the vox's effects controls confused the heck out of me.

So I left the store with the Line6 micro spider! Another nice feature is that it has enough space inside to stuff the AC adapter for travel. My plan for battery power is somewhat unorthodox - from my RC flying I have these cool batteries from A123, but they're 9.9 volts instead of 9 so I'm going to use a simple switching BEC to convert to 9 volts and go in where the AC input (which is converted to DC by the external adapter) goes.

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Stick for Sale in Spain

Sun Mar 07, 2010 2:06 pm

by maxr (Posted Sun Mar 07, 2010 2:06 pm)

Sergio - you have a private message.

Max

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Compact amps for good acoustic Stick sound

Sun Mar 07, 2010 1:35 pm

by maxr (Posted Sun Mar 07, 2010 1:35 pm)

Thanks guys for all that advice. Greg - thanks for the suggestion, I just ordered a Crate CA120DG on clearance here in UK for US$225 + freight. At that price, if it's half as good as you say it'll be worth it OK, it's moss green and weighs 45lbs, but regular price here is $550-$680, and most similar amps are $500 or more in UK.

Well, that's a start. All I need now is a Stick to fit it...

Max

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