My personal feeling is that the best sound produced for bass amps and guitar amps is to put effects in the chain after mic'ing them but I don't need that playing in my room to my wife, dogs and cat. I won't need to buy mics, cables, P.A. speakers etc... I'm also a big fan of keeping my money where it belongs...making more money, so here is my compromise to get the sound I'm looking for. Let me know what I could drop from the list, what I might want to add or which chain I might want to rearrange. I feel like something's not right. I'm not an absolute expert on the topic. Experience would be helpful.

Bass Chain:
Noise Gate, Volume Pedal, Flip Top Bass Amp. <I know there's a better way for a modern bass sound using dual chains but this should be sufficient.> Would I benefit enough from an EQ here to justify it?

Rhythm Guitar Chain:
Noise Gate, Volume Pedal, Analog Delay, Medium Hall Reverb, Class A-30 Top Boost Gtr Head with 1x12 Class A-15 Cabinet <Stereo's better but I'm not going there yet. Compression is nice but perhaps not mandatory for rhythm.>

Lead Guitar Chain:
Noise Gate, Volume Pedal, Classic Distortion, Compression, Medium Hall Reverb, Brit J 800 Guitar Head, 4x12 Brit Celest T-75 Cab.

So how long did you play stick? Do you own one?

I'm asking because you may be jumping the gun a bit.
I think an unprocessed sound is the way to go when learning the instrument.

Check out Michael Bernier's stuff I think you might find some sounds you will like.

Brett

Whoa dude, that is a pretty hefty gear setup! Where to start I don't know. I bet that sounds nice tho

Geez and I thought I was holding back. Don't know what you all plug into but when I used to play stick in Arizona I didn't like how the "guitar" chords exist with the same processing as the bass and only the melody strings could have independent processing. In any event I thought most Stickists switch between options on both melody and bass sides of the instruments. In order to switch between options you need to HAVE options of course hence a bass sound, a rhythm guitar sound and a lead sound. Brett how do you achieve those? My stick skills are way down since I got out of it for a long time but I anticipate getting up to speed in about a year. I've got the money and would enjoy having the gear mentioned. I don't feel it's jumping the gun. Even if I never learn to play well, I'll enjoy being able to putts around on the thing.

I always believe the answer to perplexing questions of 'either or (?)' should be "both"
but after ten years of Stick and lots of effects I have come to believe that the 'clean sound'
is essential to be able to really use and appreciate the subtlety of the Stick. So especially
if you are learning and want to transpose skills from guitar. But I guess you know the Stick is a very different creature. Also to get a lot of the sounds from your recordings (which I think are very interesting) you might want to consider Midi to get the micro tonal pitches. It would be a way smaller footprint .
`J`

Sorry I didn't get that the first time The Stick is stereo independent processing for both sides.
But that is what I am saying; all the effects can be a distraction. I was playing for a very small
audience yesterday (it still made me a little nervous ) but one woman came up to me and said "I can't believe the sound of that thing!" She meant it in the best way but I was playing into a mono guitar amp, just reverb. The simple Zen approach can be so persuasive...
*j*
.~

The Zen approach is always good. I'd need midi for that Atavachron sound and the Mark II/ Rhodes sound as well as lead synth lines and a doubling of the guitar part with a string pad but I'm not sure what you mean by microtonal. The only microtones are coming from string bends as far as I know.

I am glad you brought up Allan Holdsworth (in the other thread) because I was reminded of his playing I guess it would be in part from string bending, but it sounded to me like some of the layers in the songs were just slightly tweaked "microtonally" adjusted. It's a nice effect .
It is very easy to get that effect with the VG-99.
jRj

Less of a footprint would be great. If I could get the guitar sounds I want with 2 small boxes running software amp/effects modeling and only use the 4x12 cabinet and a 1x 12 afterwards, that would be ideal, except I feel its strange to have to turn on a laptop every time you want to play. Should be self contained pieces of hardware if I was king of the world.

Getting the sound that inspires you to play is VERY important. Yes, the stick can be made to sound similar in all octaves and function more like a piano which its sound is somewhat similar to when you do that. But that really doesn't inspire ME personally at all although it definitely has its charm. If I can get this sound I'm talking about, I'm sure to play for hours and hours. If I don't, I'll let the thing collect dust in the corner.

jRj- Oh right. Yes, the stereo rhythm guitar parts are microtonally altered. The dual bass chains that occur in a couple of pieces are also offset by a few milliseconds in a somewhat related issue.

Hey, so here is new track. The drum programming took forever tho! Thats kinda the trip here besides the basic stick style I attempt to use. Nothing special but the electronic mix(acid)

http://scumcom.bandcamp.com/track/dark-harmonick-jungles-pt-2