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Looper's Delight
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> I've been facinated with the Stick for yearsnyears, principally because >of > the ability to play guitar+bass ranges together (or get in on that big > piano vibe!). The one thing that concerns me is the tone of tapped >notes, > especially in the melody range. I've tried just tapping on my guitar, >and > the tone is kinda lifeless and thin (and, I suppose, attack-free). Is it > just me? Is this something that can be improved with technique, or is it > just part of the instrument? Has anyone ever managed to get big jazz >tone > out of a Stick or similar touchboard-style instrument? > > Michael No doubt technique is the biggest factor in Stick tone. After you've played a Stick for a while you will find that you can vary your tone depending on where you tap a note - specifically how close/far your tapping finger is to the fret. At one extreme is tapping directly on the fret, which results in the note being muted (an occasionally useful musical effect). Some Stick players have worked hard on dynamics by practicing playing softly with the amp turned up (works best on amps that can still sound clean when turned up). This way, when a note is tapped hard, there is a dramatic volume change vs. a softly tapped note. Keep in mind the Stick is not a guitar. Unless we are talking about an NS Stick (a whole 'nother animal), the Stick was not really designed to be plucked (though Stick players can and do insert plucking into their playing). So most of the time, the harmonic variation you can get with plucking technique is simply not there when you are tapping a note instead of plucking it. Stick players get around it by varying where they tap a note in relation to a fret as described above, taking advantage of the Stick's dynamic range, and using other techniques such as pulloffs and legato hammer-ons (which sound different from the "fingers as mallets" method which is another standard tapping technique). As for getting a jazz tone, besides technique there are other things that can be done. These include using Bartolini pickups or Lace Sensors instead of the standard Stick pickups, using a heavier gauge, choice of outboard preamplification/EQ, installing active electronics for the pickups, etc. I have not heard much of the Lace Sensors, but I tried a Warr Guitar equipped with Bartolini pickups and feel that the Bartolinis do a very good job of making a tapping instrument sound like an electric guitar and/or bass. The Warr Guitar I tried sounded like a Les Paul and a fretless bass in one instrument. A Stick similarly equipped with Bartolinis should sound very close. At least the Stick Bass I heard that was equipped with a Bartolini sounded just like the bass side of that Warr Guitar. Cheers, Paolo Valladolid --------------------------------------------------------------- |Moderator of Digital Guitar Digest, an Internet mailing list |\ |for Music Technology and Stringed Instruments | \ ---------------------------------------------------------------- | \ finger pvallado@waynesworld.ucsd.edu for more info \ | \ http://waynesworld.ucsd.edu/DigitalGuitar/home.html \| -----------------------------------------------------------------