I'm pretty sure I have the least experience on the chapman stick, but I think as a fellow metalhead, and since I played bass before i picked up chapman stick, I can help. First, it sounds good distorted, with an overdrive or fuzz, on both sides. On the other hand, I find it hard to play triplets, but that might just be a flaw in my technique. The sound can be pretty aggressive so you can cut through. Greg Howard's stuff can get pretty heavy. The Stickmen come really close to thrash metal, and hopefully, my progressive metal band will take off soon. I for one, dont use it strictly as an erb, but the two handed bass lines do sound pretty cool.
peace out

This is the closest stick playing to the kind of music you are describing that I have found.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6rt1XaGmzs[/youtube]

The quality isn't great, and it doesn't address the techniques you are concerned about, there is a less tapping than I would like to see, and the backing track makes things a bit hard to hear clearly... but I think it provides good evidence that, tonally, the chapman stick is pretty capable. If anything it shows the versatility of the instrument.

When I get one I plan to make some noise as well.
As much as I love fugues, crab cannons, and weird chord progressions... Sometimes I like power chords and repetitive 16th note.

The "bass" player on this band does a lot of cool stuff with a tapping instrument. It's not basic trash metal but it sound great.
Bass strings are on the middle so it must be 5th/4th ?.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QT-hl8TM2_Y[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YY8qo3W8EnM[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t80_eFghMdk[/youtube]

Thanks for posting these links.

Colin is a really talented player (as is the whole band). It's either Classic 5ths and 4th or Matched Reciprocal. Emmett's inverted 5ths tuning is great for all those power chords in the left hand, and for the two-handed bass.

Strumming in this tuning is great for any style, more people should give it a try:

http://www.stick.com/onlinevideos/zig-zag_balade.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tM5S-1zOK0U

Not at all in the style you're asking about, but this video demonstrates how fast you can get tapping repeated bass notes on The Stick, even down near the nut (where others seem to not want to tap...., it's a mystery....)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rup0ZzEyPmQ[/youtube]

RSS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rup0ZzEyPmQ

specifically around 3:50

Hi pharoahamps,

The benefit to having greater extremes at either end of the tuning (high or low) is that if you tend to play at or near the extreme pitches often, then you have more variety in how you can approach the notes, and more choices for where you can play the notes close to it.

For example, you said you used low B a lot in your music. If your low B is the last fret on a string, then that will only have one path to fit into patterns you play around it. If your tuning is a DBR type tuning, then there is a low Bb under it (and also an Eb on string 5, and an F on string 7 which you wouldn't have access to if you had B as the lowest note). So the ways in which you can fit the hand into the patterns are expanded by placing the tuning lower.

The same thing happens for the highest notes in the tuning. If you say to yourself, "I never play higher than high C so I'll just use Matched Reciprocal," then whenever you play that C it can only occupy certain kinds of positions in a line, and the notes closest to it, will also only be playable on that same string (B, Bb, A and Ab). Whereas if you had the Classic tuning you would have the A and Ab on the string below as well.

It's a subtle point, but one that's definitely worth considering. Plus, you'll have a low Bb you can play (and even a low A you can pluck).

While I'm not a bassist by training, I've moved into the role of bassist as a result of my Stick playing, and I love having all of the option s the DBR tuning has to offer in that situation. The speed of the right hand as it reaches over to play the 4ths is phenomenal.

for more on this tuning see: http://www.stick.com/articles/howard_dbr/

Emmett's adjustable nut
However you decide to root the tuning, remember that you can always change your mind without having to perform surgery on your Stick because Emmett's nut is easily adjustable.

Hope that answers your question.

Hi pharaohamps,

I would recommend the CD "Blacktongue" by Laundry. They were a four-piece (not sure that they are together anymore) consisting of Ian Varriale on Stick, Tim Alexander (from Primus) on drums, a guitarist and a singer. Although not thrash, they do some pretty heavy stuff, occasionally in the vein of Tool.

Cheers,
James

The heaviest use of a Chapman Stick I've ever heard was a bootleg tape someone played for me of a live Cynic concert, with Sean Malone on Stick. I'm not a "death metal" fan, but that was some really great instrumentals.

Yeah - that's the spirit! This thread has inspired me so much!!! Got my first Grand in February, had to put it down for four months and now I'm back at it with doubled excitement. Yes, the bass side in 5ths is rewarding for coming up with heavy riffs, I just noticed that two days ago

Funny you mentioned these types of music, I just began a few days ago to finaly write and record some ideas on my Mac for a new project
I've to learn how to growl now