I do have kinda a weird question that i have noticed more talking with Stick players....

why do most stick players start out being bass players...example

tony levin ...plays bass and stick for peter Gabriel
trey gunn ... play bass and warr for King crimson
john myung ... play bass for dream theater and stick for dt and platypus..

why is the stick more considered in the bass realm than in the lead aspect ..
myself being mainly a bassist, just wondering why are more bassists attracted to this instrument than lets say a lead guitarist?

i hope you all understand my question

darren /Gnat

I think it's the low range. We see those fat strings going down the middle of the neck and think "I could get funky with that!"

A fellow bassist friend of mine (who teasingly calls the Stick the "Hammer-On Dulcimer") and I often disagree on the status of the Stick. He says it's a "bass instrument," I tell him it is a full-range polyphonic instrument. I think bassists who have an aversion to the Stick are often those who see it as just a "bass on steroids" and don't see the full potential.

I myself, even though I have played an SB8 and 10-string BM Stick for nearly ten years, have mostly approached it from a bass or a bass+ standpoint. It's only in the last couple of years (and jumpstarted by getting an MR Grand) that I have really dug into the polyphonic Free Hands method. I had an aversion to the 5ths tuning in the beginning and even after getting a 5ths tuned instrument I still used it mostly for getting those interesting two-handed bass lines that are so easy with the 5ths tuning. Once I finally decided to tackle the polyphonic playing my attitude readjusted and I now think of the Stick as having more in common with other polyphonic instruments like the piano and organ.

But those bass strings sure do sound sweet!

I think Stringtapper summed it up pretty well. I'm part of the minority, though. I came from tapstyle guitar and then later found out about Emmett and the Stick. The low range was a nice bonus at first, but I just didn't use the bass side in a linear, bass player sort of way. I'm a chord player as far as the bass side goes, and I was always grasping for high chord arpeggios on my Grand to get that harp-like feel going. When Emmett came out with the Alto models, I knew I had found my true vehicle. Now I'm playing in that "sweet spot" all the time The SG12 I have on order will just give me even more of what I love about the Alto.

My impression is that most bassists (including me), while they love laying down a bass groove, have a wish for expanding harmonically, but do not want to renounce the bass. The Stick is the perfect solution to that problem.

Most guitarists I know are perfectly happy with the guitar and feel no need to expand... same with pianists.
Most classical musicians have worked terribly hard to hone their skills on one instrument, there's no way they are going to start again with another one.

Of course you could argue that the Stick was invented by a guitarist, but when it comes to Emmett his genius transcends the instrument of origin

Well put, Francesco. My thoughts exactly.

At the risk of sounding cynical, I think that for every bassist who selected the Stick for good reasons, there is probably at least one who selected it just because they saw Tony or John Myung play it.

But that aside, I'm not entirely convinced that the original supposition is correct. Yes Tony was a bassist. John Myung was a bassist. Sean Malone was a bassist.

But ...
Trey Gunn was focusing primarily on guitar when he took it up.
Bob Culbertson was a guitarist.
Steve Adelson was a guitarist.
Greg Howard was a keyboardist and saxophonist.
Jim Lampi was a guitarist and saxophonist.
Tom Griesgraber was a guitarist.

Thinking back on the people I've met at seminars over the years, I think they are predominantly guitarists and bassists with a few keyboardists and a few complete newbs thrown in. I was a keyboardist, guitarist, saxophonist (even though I was playing bass in a band at the time).

Certainly I'm not saying bass isn't well represented. I just think that guitar is just as represented and the biggest reason those are the "big two" is because it is another electric stringed instrument.

sounds like a good survey topic. I seem to remember there being one on the old database....

I am primarily a guitarist.When I got my 1st stick in 84 I was playing bass in an originals band.I switched to bass because bass players were hard to find.I got the stick so I could add chords on the melody side while playing bass.We have 2 guitarists in my band now,me being one.Sometimes I play my stick other times guitar,sometimes keyboard very poorly.But when the bass player misses practice I'll pick up the stick and the other guitarist will always complain that its not a bass instrument.So I always try to remind him that it is a full range inst.

I was a drummer since I was 5 or 6 and loved the percussive part about the Stick. I approached it as sort of a "tuned percussion" instrument. Then I realized there's a whole lot more that can be done with the Stick when I watched Stick Night '99. (The video that changed my life...... sort of). This video has provided a world of inspiration for me. I was amazed from Larry Tuttle's first note to Jim Lampi's final one!!!!

Dear gvella,

Regarding your guitarist friend - just drop the name 'Tony Levin'!

'Nuff said.

Sam