I have a question about the sound of the Stick... I notice that all of the recordings that I hear, there is what I call the "stick sound". It has a brillance and shimmer to it. And when you hear a recording, you KNOW that it is a Stick...
For some reason, I have never had that "sound"... I play through an Aguilar AC500 rig with an extension cabinet. I use no outboard pre-amps. My strings are not that old, and I just do not understand why my stick never sounds that way. The pick up is the hybrid Stick-up/ active 2. Any comments would be appreciated. Thank you

Hi,

does your amp have a tweeter?? I never play Stick or bass on an amp without one...
Regards,
Jaap

Hi Randy

The stick has many sounds. If you listen to Steve A or any of my stuff

http://www.myspace.com/jazzstick i don't think you will not hear the "stick sound" you speak of.

I have found that the best way to get that sound is through the cleanest least colored system with new strings. The great thing about the stick is that it is very pliable in its sound. It has as many sounds as there are people playing them.

with that said I think it is most likely your rig that is stopping you from getting a "Rob Martino" or "Greg Howard" sound. Aguilars are great pres but many bassists consider them one trick ponys. They do have a distinctive sound and that may not be what you are looking for. I suggest finding a store with a decent selection for pres and cabs and mixing and matching until you are happy.

The other thing to consider is your technique. Greg teaches about getting the purest tone from the stick by playing very close to the frets and using larger muscles not just your fingers. Also what gauge strings do you use?

can you give us an example from a recording of what sound your looking for?
The player him/her self may be able to steer you in a direction.

I hope this helps

Brett

Might be worth checking the input impedance for the pre-amp, if it's not high enough (>=1M Ohm), you might be losing some clarity and not hearing the full percussive qualities of the Stickup sound. (On the bass-side, of course, given you have the hybrid pickup.)

Cheers,

EG

As has been said what you play through makes a big difference. IMO a bass amp makes a stick sound ... like a bass! And a bass amp makes the top sound kind of mellow. Personally i like to use a powered front end cabinet for my Stick so i get full range AND shimmer. The bottom isn't kicking like when played through an Ampeg SVT bass amp but playing solo it's great. Also ... processing makes a difference too.

Recently I recorded both my Stick and NS Stick in the "bass" role and one song in the melody role in a few "full band" (Me multi-tracked) recordings and frankly you can't tell it's Stick. Just sounds like bass and melody guitar. This was all recorded with NO amp or effects directly to my home digital recorder. So ......... IMO the "Stick" sound is really what you make it. BTW my Stick has the PASV4 pickup and the NS Stick has the NS Stick standard pickups. Neither have the Stickup so THAT Stickup sound (The sound most call the STICK sound) isn't automatic.

Gentleman,

Thank you all so much for your informative inputs. As a bassist, I have been using the Aquilar, however I am thinking of getting rid of it and buying either two Fishman solo's and a loud box, or maybe a Coda to go with them...
Eventually I would like to get a Stepabout...

Again many thanks and to all a very healthy, happy, prospersously "TAPPY" New Year!!!

I can vouch for the Fishman amps and the Acoustic Image, as can many here on this forum (Rob,Steve).

Rob, Steve

Thank you for your reply... I have a question, I mostly play bass & Stick w/ jazz fusion and world music players... We do not play at real high volume levels, and I was wondering if the CODA would give me the bottom that I like... As i stated above, I would probably run bass/bass side of stick through the CODA and Melody/Synth through the SOLO's. What do you think. And by the way, I am in awe of your musicianship and playing. Very inspirational!!
Tappy New Year!!

You got that right - Since I put my bass amp&cabs up for consignment, all I have now is the Loudbox & the CODA. All I do now is play the instruments I run through them and spend less than a half a minute dialing in a tone I like.

I recently tried an experiment with the CODA - got a SPEAKON to 1/4" adaptor and went back with my CODA and Grand Stick to Oz's where I have my bass gear still for sale on consignment. I plugged in the CODA to my custom cabinet, which handles 400W/8Ohms. The bass was incredible, but the extra cab was too brittle sounding from the higher frequency speakers in it, so I decided to leave it up for sale. Should I need more bass power, I could either get the extra cab that Acoustic Image sells, or get another small bass cab - the CODA does a nice job driving an extra cab. Even with the adapter, I didn't get too much noise.

Hi,

good points mentioned by all of you

I'd like to add 2 hints:
- as said, input impedance of the amp/effect/... that your Stick plugs into is important, especially for the PASV-4 and Stickup. I use a Zoom B2 pedal, which is cheap, has a very high impedance input, and is crystal clear and silent. I don't use a lot of the effects, but this little unit enables me to have presets (EQ, volume, reverb) for my Stick and my different basses, so that it's very easy to change instruments quickly.
- SWR amps are nice for the Stick, because of their full range character. I'm very happy with my Workingman's 12.

Regards,
Jaap