Hi everyone

I posted a few months back, a Brit trombone player living in Houston who was intrigued by the Stick. I received some great advice from many of you. Well, I dived in and ordered a Black Railboard. I liaised with Cambria who told me that if I was a little flexible with some of the features she could potentially cut the wait time. So after only a couple of months down the line the Railboard is en route and will be here in the next couple of days. Very exciting.

I have a question I would like to throw out there after seeing a few recent posts......
Is my railboard going to come out of the case, connect via the cable to a A40 40W Acoustic Guitar Combo Amp, and be immediately playable? The reason I ask is there have been a few posts about pre-amps, connections, phantom power, signal separation, impedance etc for new tailboards and it made me nervous. I certainly don't have the electrical expertise to be fiddling to make it work.

Another thing I have been doing in my (relatively short) wait is taking the advice of one forum contributor about reflecting on how one might contribute to the Stick world; what will I do? Styles to play? Composition or just performance? Hobby or take it to the road? I think basically I am going to take a leaf out of my trombone playing book and try to be as versatile as possible; I would like to be bookable (at some point in the future) for small intimate solo gigs, play the bass part in my school's Jazz Band (I'm Head of Music there and run the band), I want to get into some composition, perhaps some trombone / stick collaborations and do some multi tracking sessions, I really like the idea of embracing my classical training and incorporating the Stick into that world. I love the Funk, Prog. stuff, Pop applications for the instrument but I think there is a classical area that can be explored too. I would welcome people's thoughts....

And finally, another 'what do you think?' point..... As a professional trombone player I am very familiar and aware of the requirements of an instrumentalist to get to the appropriate standard and maintaining it in order to get work and I am really excited about starting from absolute scratch on an instrument. I am literally going to be TERRIBLE when I first start playing and I love that. I am thinking of a project where I record just the last 1-2 minutes of every single practice session I do, and share it on a youtube page. For me and others, if they are inclined, to see (hopefully) my progress, and as a feedback tool for myself. This is not a narcissistic, 'look at me' project but more of an interesting activity to see if professional musician mind-sets are transferable to brand new skills and how quickly they can be applied. Again, thoughts very welcome.

In the meantime I am on countdown mode, this week sometime......

All the best

Paul

It's easy to get the idea from equipment discussions around here that your Stick will sound terrible unless you go off the deep end understanding, analyzing, and optimizing your setup.

Not true. A Stick's going to sound pretty good as a starting point through a lot of amps...optimizing the setup in various ways is about the search for "better". If you've got the amp, plug into it, enjoy, and get to know your new instrument- it'll get you going just fine. It's a Stick, and it'll blow you away with its quality of build, ease of play, and, yes, its sound, even without a perfect setup.

You can dive into pedals, effects, impedance matching, frequency response, etc. later at whatever pace suits you.

Hey Paul. I'm excited and jealous at the same time on your imminent arrival. I too ordered a black railboard and am waiting. (I don't think the next batch of railboards has gone into machining yet) I play trumpet and trombone professionally and want to incorporate stick into my next CD.

judging by your experience I think you will pick up the stick fairly quickly. You know how to problem solve on your instrument and I am sure it will be the same on your railboard. I'd love to see your progress. It would be neat to see how quickly you succeed .

One of the reasons I am gravitating to stick is the more instruments you play the more gigging opportunities come up. I also look forward to the challenge of learning new pieces Classical and my original compositions. Also the sound of a stick is just amazing. Everyone sounds so different. No two sticks sound the same to me.

Rob

Based on the manual I found for your Acoustic A40 combo, this is what you should do:

1. Connect the TRS to XLR cable to your Railboard.
2. Connect the XLR splitter to the end of that cable.
3. Insert the XLR connectors into "Input 1" and "Input 2" on your amp (I would put the melody side, which uses the blue XLR connector, into "Input 1" so that the orientation is intuitive as you look at the amp).
4. Set "Volume 1" and "Volume 2" to their minimum positions.
5. Turn your amp on.
6. Push each of the "+48V" buttons to engage phantom power.
7. Set your Railboard's volume knobs to maximum.
8. Play each side of your Railboard, using your other hand to raise the appropriate Volume knob on you amp to your desired volume level.
9. If your sound is distorted with your amp volume low, then lower the volume knob on that side of your Railboard until your sound is clean (this is not likely to be necessary, but it is worth mentioning).

Victor is not wrong, supposing he was not taking a shot at me, though I will add that you should learn about impedance matching and frequency response (at a minimum) before shopping for new equipment.

...

Congrats for your black Railboard. I've seen a couple of these black and they are beautiful.

Congrats Paul, ......I feel your stoke!

cheers,
kev

I agree the Stick has its own unique and wonderful sound. But I will say this. I played for years through what I had and was satisfied with it.(unless I compared it too carefully to Greg's sound, Rob Martino's sound or Tom G's or something) But don't discount what Robstafarian advises! After skype-ing with him for about an hour and following only a few of the suggestions he offered that I felt I could quickly change and economically justify, my sound improved noticeably. Even my band commented on it the very next practice. And they had no prior knowledge that I was changing anything.

I echo Jayesskerr in that I can't wait to hear ya, man.

Mike

Mike/Rob, I don't think anyone is advising anyone to turn a blind eye or discount any possibilities to learn, and no "shots" are being taken (I hope folks have figured out by now that that's not how I roll, often times even when I've been dissed). I've learned as much around here as anyone from gear discussions. However to someone who's new, when the gear discussions get intense, it can seem to imply that it's necessary to dive in as a prerequi$ite to making good sounds and good music on a Chapman Stick. (GAS sucks time away from practice, but that's a whole 'nother topic... )

Just adding a smidge of balance is all, in light of the original question.

Looking forward to seeing/hearing some music from your hands, Paul, in the coming months/years. Sounds like you've got a lot of front-loaded tools and skills for springing into this instrument.

I am all hugs, but kisses are not happening.