This spring has been very hectic and LOTS of Stick playing. Lots of fun but also hard work. A month ago I and a band I´m in did this recording project at the Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts for one week. I played mostly Stick. Mastering of a new album that will be released soon that I play Stick on. Did a gig at a theatre here in Stockholm where I played alot of Stick. Just came back from a tour in Sweden, Denmark and Germany where I played lots of Stick. And some other stuff. I did a totally improvised gig at a festival playing free form music with a bunch of guys that I´ve never met before yesterday. They asked me only cause I play Stick. SOO much fun and it went very well musically! Two americans in the band, one guy from Norway and two others that I don´t know where they came from. But I spoke english with them. One of them could have been from Sweden tho.... Got a message from one of the guys today that made me happy:



Nice feedback and specially since the Stick is not my main instrument. And next week I´ll do another recording project where I´ll be the sound tech guy and I´ll also play bass and Stick. This Iranian girl has composed music for the no 1 theatre here in Sweden (Dramaten) and it´s for a production that will be put up after the summer. We´ll record all the music and sound fx´s during these next weeks and there will be rather much Stick playing there as well. So, yeah. I´ve had lots of fun this spring. Really happy for that since that was exactly what I needed right now since I´ve had lots of shit going on in my life lately. But all seems to work out for the best but I really needed all this. Some Stick oriented pics from this spring....









The gig yesterday. I brought some pedals with me to the gig along with my AER amps and was very pleased with my sound. Plugged the Stick into a Ernie Ball stereo volume pedal, the bass side through a Electro Harmonix Deluxe Bass Big Muff Pi and then both the bass and the melody side through some Neunaber stereo pedals. First a Chroma Stereo Chorus into a Seraphim Stereo Shimmer and last in the chain into their Wet Stereo Reverb pedal and then to the AER amps. Sounded GREAT and a very all round setup. Could make the Stick sound like everything from the classic Stick sound to heavy metal distortion to more dreamy/soundscape type of sounds. And something so simple as a volume pedal. Can make all the difference in the world. Especially if playing instrumental free form music where pretty much anything can happen. EXCELLENT setup. Will build a pedal board around something similar to this for my Stick.

Hectic spring with lots and lots of Stick playing. And more to come before vacation time. I needed this. Will try to play as much Stick as I can before the Stick Camp on Mallorca this fall. Yay!

Will post some videos from the recording project at the Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts later when I have time. It was filmed. The gig yesterday was also filmed. Fantastic and good fun yesterday. Totally crazy gig!

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THanks for reporting in, Jan! Great that you're getting chances for so much Stick playing these days. Volume pedals are my favs too; for my outdoors busking pedalboard I have two different volume pedals that I'm alternating between for fun and variation: one is a mono pedal to to be used only on the melody side (so I can go shredding with my tubescreamer there while doing bass and chord picking on the bass side) and the other is a stereo volume pedal that handles both sides. Can't make up my mind which one "is best" as they both work well for different musical situations.

Thanks for posting, Jan. Fun pics Glad you're getting to play out so much. It's great that so many people on this board are out there gigging.