Hi,

Not trying to throw a cat among the pigeons, but my experience has been the complete opposite. I think the the pickup and playing technique are by far the most defining elements of the Stick sound.

I find the clean Stick sound with a Stickup to be quite distinctive, irrespective of the amp/preamp used. In the past I used mainly bass amplification (Trace and Eden) and always felt that the Stick sound was well and truly present, even through an amp with limited high end response. The only time my Stick doesn't sound like a Stick is through a lot of effects and/or using a non-tapping technique, and even then it tends to have a "different" sound.

I also agree that a good preamp makes a qualitative difference to the sound, but I've never had the impression that my instrument sounded any "more" or "less" like a Stick. I've used some of the units mentioned above, including StepABout and Zoom G2/B2, various mic preamps and more recently a D-Tar Acoustic guitar unit. While they all added "something", it's certainly not "the Stick sound".

I'm not in any way knocking the AI or Fishman amps which are both excellent. Good luck with finding that sound!

Happy new year,
Andy

Hi Randy,

You've covered a lot of bases in your question. Strings are a big one. Emmett's strings have a certain clear tone that's very consistent, especially when compared to standard-issue bass strings, and even strings that are sold for "tapping instruments." Both the Stickup and the EMGs have a certain sparkle, that's not present on Bartolini's, for example, so Sticks have a more clear attack. For the bass side, a full-range speaker brings out that attack, for the melody side, if you want a "guitar" tone, full range speakers aren't necessary. If you want to hear the sound of the string striking the fret, then a tweeter helps a lot, especially if the pickup is delivering the frequencies in the first place.



I agree with Andy that the basic sound is not dependent on special preamps. What preamps do is to better match the impedance, which makes it easier to get the frequencies you want without adding noise. A bad match usually leads to excessive noise from boosting the treble eq band. With tweeters, and when recording direct, noise is the real enemy for any situation, especially in the digital age. Amps without tweeters are great at filtering out high-end hiss, which is one reason why people who make "guitar processors" tend to be less worried about it.

One nice thing about the StepAbout is that you can plug into just about anything and get a good sound with it. This means that a much less expensive amp might get you what you are looking for.

I hope that helps...

PS, happy birthday, you know who you are....

Greg,
Thanks for your info, I found it helpful... I am going to get a StepAbout for sure... The other thing is that I am just tired of lugging around a heavy rig!!! Tappy New Year to you, my friend

ps. have ya read any good Saga's lately? How I miss 'Island, the northern lights, Blue lagoon,
and the lamb hotdogs!!!

Randy

As I've mentioned on other threads I've been very happy with the new Fishman SoloAmp lately. It's already got a two channel preamp with high (I believe 10M Ohm) input impedance and works equally well as a minimal setup (Stick plugged directly into it with the nice sounding built-in reverb) or my Boss GT-10 and GT-10B pedalboards going to the aux stereo input.

Comparing the Coda and SoloAmp, I'd say the Coda offers a deeper, tighter bass response and the SoloAmp provides more "sparkle" and an overall more balanced sound from low to high. If you want something that can double as a bass amp the Coda would be better- the SoloAmp isn't really designed for that.

I brought both to my last gig thinking I'd use the Coda to reinforce the low end but ended up not needing it- one SoloAmp was able to fill a room that can hold over 100 people. Since the Fishman doubles as a small PA system I'll be using that by itself most of the time now. Running two in stereo would be cool but probably not worth the extra trouble for the smaller gigs I tend to do.

The whole Fishman package is about 35 lbs. including the stand, and the Coda is an amazing 20lb, which make them great for portability.