Okay, it was a great day! I ordered my 10 string stick with the Stickup pickup. Now I am wavering on whether to change my order on the pickup to a Block. Can anyone share any insights on the differences between the sounds that these two pickups produce? Also can anyone share any insight on what I should be doing as far as preparation (fingering practice, etc.) for when my Stick arrives about six torturous months from now? Thanks

Congratulations! The Stick is a wonderful instrument. Myself I received my first Stick in February with a PASV-4. Both the ACTV-2 and PASV-4 are labelled "Block™" but my experience with the PASV-4 is that it has a wider range of electric-guitar-like sounds (comparing to recordings by others that use Stickup or ACTV-2). Here is a recording I made that I think demonstrates the PASV-4 well:
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When I ordered my STick I was lucky to be offered a recently canceled order which suddenly minimized my waiting/preparation period from nine months to one month. I prepared myself for a month on an old electric guitar that I trimmed for tapping. I especially practiced the brain to keep track of two hands "non independently", because I have not played piano or harp in the past - only instruments where both hands work synchronized in the same musical process. I really think that multitasking freely in improvisation and note shaping is the hardest part in Stick playing. When practicing on the guitar I almost did not care about what notes or frets I played but rather put the focus on trying to learn different poly rhythmic patterns for both hands and when making a mistake I tried to keep on playing and catching up with the next downbeat. When my Stick arrived this guitar fiddling month immediately payed off tremendously! Not that my brain did not "hurt" for the first couple of weeks but the two hand poly rhythm pattern practicing on the guitar made that first hard time a little less boring.

Thanks Per Boysen. I have an old guitar myself. I'll try it out. As for the pickup, I would like to be able to play Jazz and have a rock sound as well. I'm hoping that the Stickup will allow me that choice. Thanks again.

While waiting for my Stick to be made I've taken some guitar parts and made a 3+3 "trainer" that I've found to be very helpful for getting my head around the ideas of playing a Stick type instrument. The major revelation from this has been that playing the reverse 5th tuned half of the instrument would be a totally new world for me. So mimicking something I learned from Juggling, another hobby of mine, in which you always break a complex ambidextrous task down into its component parts I've taken another guitar I have and set it up with reverse 5th tuning so I can just sit on the couch and noodle on it or sit with it vertical and “tap” it. This way I can work on chord shapes, scale patterns, interval studies or melody lines in this new tuning but in the very comfortable "setting" (for me) of a guitar playing position with a pick or the new vertical position using tapping (which is becoming increasingly natural to me as time passes.)

I did try to make use of various regular tuned guitars for the basic purpose of getting used to “tapping” but found this approach to be of limited practical value because it just didn’t simulate the musical reality of playing a two sided (for lack of a better term) instrument. Once I took the committed step of having something set-up as dedicated Stick training devices (which was fun in its own right and a good mental exercise for thinking about the tuning relationships involved) I really felt I was onto something to be honest. The guitar hardware involved gives only marginally satisfying “tapping” results to be honest but that’s not my major goal here and I’m really looking forward to the comparison to my 10 String Graphite Grand when it gets here (insert evil laugh here)….I’m expecting to go from a beater starter car to a precision sports car in one jump….and it will be good !!

Both of these "tools" have given me a lot of confidence that when my Stick does arrive it will feel very natural to me and I will have a collection of exercises I already know to begin working on rather than starting from ground zero. I haven't felt the time that I have been "waiting" was been wasted at all to be honest...it's been a very productive pre-season.

Thanks for that post DonScott. I really appreciate all the help I can get.

Hi Musashi,

well, since that's your nick, you will need two Sticks, one for each hand, like Musashi fought with two swords

But kidding aside, I've been playing with my Stickup-equipped Stick for more than 10 years. I still love the sound very much, clean or processed. In my opinion it works perfectly in any style. And if I should get another Stick with another pickup, I will certainly keep this one.

I hope that helps in your decision, all the best,
Johannes

Well ... everyone has their preferences and most for good reasons so you really need to take all of these pickup opinions with a grain of salt. It's better to pick out some music by players whose sound you really like and find out what they're using.

With that said ... my Grand has seen every pickup possible including the hybrid Stickup/EMG. About a year ago I went back to the Stickup and will likely order a new instrument in the next year sporting the same. There just isn't anything else that can approximate that "Stick" bass sound.

faq/doku.php?id=pickups gives a good description of the different pickups.

Each can take on many personalities depending on effects, etc. I'll echo that you should check out videos from people who have distinguished themselves with a pickup.

Greg Howard is a great example for the Stickup and his videos are all over youtube. He has used a couple other pickups on occasion so double check when you watch. The Stickup is very versatile and as mentioned, has an incredibly rich bass sound.

Bob Culbertson uses the ACTV-2 and is an outstanding example of how acoustic and harpsichord-like it can sound. Kevin Keith uses the ACTV-2 in a more rock-like way. You can find an interview with him here: http://emginc.com/videos/emgtv/20/114

The PASV-4 is a great rock and jazz pickup. Rob Martino coaxes a more prog sound out of it.

Thanks everyone for your insights and advise. Anyone have a time machine so that I can fast forward to the delivery date? LOL! The waits killing me already.