Re: Kelstone

[Raul Bonell <raul.bonell@gmail.com>]

hi fabio & per,

yes, the ns/stick half fretless looks gorgeous. i've been also tempted to go fretless for a long time, but thought of a regular bass for simplicity. i second per's opinion on the number of strings, but i would add, both versions (12/10/etc or 8) are some kind of different beasts. this may not look so obvius at first sight, but your brain faces them quite differently, and the learning curve is noticeably longer with the grands, above all, if you adopt different tunings for each side. the range is similar in all 8,10,12 models. i use the "crafty" tuning (lowest to highest=BbFCGDACD) which covers the entire range on a 34-inch scale. for details, check out jim wright's tunings page on http://www.warrzone.com/touchstyle_tunings/ (scroll down to find the tuning blog entry). a good advise would be, get the cheapest you can find, and then move on. all brands, stick enterprises, warrguitars, markus' touchguitars, etc .. make quality instruments these days. i just prefer the guitar-like instruments (warr, ns/stick, touchguitars, ...) for playability. it's a bit tricky to play strumming on a vertical position :-)... 

as in your case, i come from a piano background and this made the jump more comfortable, i think. it seems keyboard players adopt two-handed method better than guitar/bass players, since they drag some bad habits from their old axe times.

stringed instruments teach you better than keyboards.

raül.

p.s. by the way, we formed a study group touchguitarcircle.com leaded by markus reuter, and i can't think of a better place to start with the tapping instruments. we use to organize meetings and seminars all over the year. alan rosola, from rodengo (italy) joined this past summer with his stunning warr. you can find him on facebook too.

2009/10/13 Per Boysen <perboysen@gmail.com>

If I could afford it I would buy an NS/Stick half fretless right away.
That's the instrument of my dreams (and has been quite a long time
even before it was invented)! It has eight strings and the fretboard
divided into two sections: four fretless bass strings and four fretted
drop-B strings. This collaboration between Steinberg and Chapman
Enterprises seems to be the ultimate marriage of tapping, plucking,
fretless and regular guitar technique playing. I'm not too bothered
that there are only eight strings because the two sides overlap a bit
in note span and thanks to that you will be able to play a lot of
closely voiced chords that are difficult on a regular guitar. I have
built "no cost" fretless and drop-B solutions here from old electric
guitars of mine, but having it all-in-one would be so much better.
possible to treat each side of the fretboard with different effects,
loopers etc. Thinking about what can be achieved in ways of musical
expression with that multi technique instrument is exciting! I hope I
will get a chance one day to start exploring this instrument.

http://www.stick.com/news/halffretless_ns.html

Greetings from Sweden

Per Boysen
www.boysen.se
www.perboysen.com

On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 3:29 AM, Raul Bonell <raul.bonell@gmail.com> wrote:
> some years ago i switched from a grand stick to a 8 strings warr guitar. 12
> strings were too much for this lazy brain i have :-) visibility of neck
> improves too ... although i try to avoid it as much as possible.
>
> 2009/10/13 richard sales <richard@glasswing.com>
>>
>> i owned a stick back around 1981.... sold it.  Kinda sorry I did.  But it
>> was just one more thing I had to learn.
>> I love what Tony Levin does with it.
>> r
>> On Oct 12, 2009, at 4:25 PM, eterogeneo wrote:
>>
>> Thanks Richard, I did it last year: the previous flash based one is still
>> on line (you'll find it in the link page), but it wasn't not easy to update,
>> so I moved to html. I did it entirely with iWeb.
>>
>> ...what about the stick ?
>> Fabio
>> www.eterogeneo.com
>>
>>
>> Il giorno 12/ott/2009, alle ore 23.03, richard sales
>> <richard@glasswing.com> ha scritto:
>>
>> fabio,
>> did you re do your site recently?  Looks great
>> R
>> richard sales
>> www.glasswing.com
>> www.richardsales.com
>> www.hayleysales.com
>> On Oct 12, 2009, at 1:04 PM, eterogeneo wrote:
>>
>> What exactly do you hate about the Stick ?
>>
>>
>> Fabio
>> www.eterogeneo.com
>>
>>
>> Il giorno 12/ott/2009, alle ore 21.38, tim echols <eekamouse67@yahoo.com>
>> ha scritto:
>>
>> it looks like it solves everything i hate about the stick. (there, i said
>> it!)  start single, go double, with a looper, and all you would need to
>> import are the percussive elements.  and, you get a really nice lapsteel to
>> boot!!!
>>
>> time
>>
>> Mon, 10/12/09, Raul Bonell <raul.bonell@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> From: Raul Bonell <raul.bonell@gmail.com>
>>
>> Subject: Re: Kelstone
>>
>> To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
>>
>> Date: Monday, October 12, 2009, 1:20 PM
>>
>> it looks & sounds like a stick with
>>
>> passive electronics. considering the prices the tapping
>>
>> instruments cost, the kelston is no so expensive.
>>
>> 2009/10/12 richard sales <richard@glasswing.com>
>>
>> it doesn't look dreadfully
>>
>> hard - here's a basic instructional
>>
>> http://www.kelstone.be/library
>>
>> richard
>>
>> sales
>>
>> www.glasswing.comwww.richardsales.com
>>
>> www.hayleysales.com
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>>
>> On Oct 12, 2009, at
>>
>> 4:59 AM, Sjaak Overgaauw wrote:
>>
>> Hi Eric,
>>
>> I like the Kelstone as a concept and I'm curious how it
>>
>> sounds and how
>>
>> easy it is to play compared to a guitar or bass. Anyway, it
>>
>> looks like
>>
>> an instrument with a lot of potential. http://www.kelstone.be/
>>
>> --
>>
>> Sjaak Overgaauw
>>
>> http://premonitionfactory.com/
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>> http://livelooping.be/
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>> http://euroloopfest.com/
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>> --
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>> Raul Bonell at Blogger: http://raulbonell.blogspot.com
>>
>> Chain Tape Collective: http://www.ct-collective.com
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>> richard sales
>> www.glasswing.com
>> www.richardsales.com
>> www.hayleysales.com
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> --
> Raul Bonell at Blogger: http://raulbonell.blogspot.com
> Chain Tape Collective: http://www.ct-collective.com
>
>

-- 
Raul Bonell at Blogger: http://raulbonell.blogspot.com
Chain Tape Collective: http://www.ct-collective.com