oooh. That would be great. We could have Greg open up with "Gonna Fly now", as the 2 combatants enter the ring. And as Traktor leaves in defeat, Emmett can taunt him with "Eye Of The Tiger".

You do realise that, everytime you append to this thread, it gets bumped back up to the top? No such thing as bad publicity.

There I've gone and done it again now

With all due respect to Jim, I have to say I agree with David. The original post responded to was 17 months old. But since I'm only adding a few minutes to the life of the thread...

The similarities between the instruments are largely superficial. For example, TT's instrument has a wider neck, which would make it much more comfortable to play "uncrossed" than "crossed" (if you don't believe me check out some videos).

Conventional frets, conventional truss, conventional pickups, conventional nut, are all fine for conventional playing techniques.

Emmett has re-designed almost every aspect of the guitar over the years to optimize two-handed tapping and to get the best sound out of a tapped string. Rather than use conventional parts, which would dictate design parameters and affect setup and playing ergonomics, he has developed new and more effective technologies specifically to make tapping easier and more rewarding (here are just a few):

Adjustable nut (1982)
Fret Rods (1985)
Two-way rear-mounted truss for easy and effective adjustment (1989)
One-piece hardwood instruments (1989)
Fully adjustable and intonatable bridge (1991)
Heavy gauge strings (1995)
laminated hardwood beams (1996)
Active pickups with tone controls (1998)
Rails (2000)
Flaps Dual Nut Unit (2000)
Graphite beams (2001)
Ten String Grand with wider string spacing (2001)
36" scale for more room for the hands, etc. (2001)
PASV-4 quad passive pickup with interactive filters (2001)
laminated bamboo beams (2005)
and for playing up high, there is nothing like the Alto (2004) and SG12 (2008):

you can read all about these design and technological enhancements here:
http://www.stick.com/history/timeline/

And with Emmett you can count on more to come...

I'm most impressed with what the Rails do for tapping. Rails not only allow for more precise action, you won't need a fret job (after a lot of tapping and bending notes, you will need a fret job eventually with conventional frets). Rails make it much easier to tap up high on the fretboard, due to their increased tactile feedback and more room for the fingers. They are one big reason why the Alto and SG12 work so much better than conventional guitars for playing high notes (ask anyone who's tried one).

I still can't believe other builders don't offer an adjustable nut, it makes playing at the first fret so much easier. and the benefit for easy setup if you change your tuning is tremendous.

Jim, please don't worry about it. TT's axe will never be a real substitute for The Stick.

I'm not worried. I just discovered this old thread yesterday, and it just irked me to see this "ad" on here. I will let it die now. But, I still want to see that tapping showdown between Emmett and TT