now you're just play-bragging :p

that stick is as shiny as my forehead after walking up a flight of stairs (I need more exercise)

You've got what sounds to me like a very classic Emmett phase/flangey sound on the melody side arnd 3:40ish

i DON'T believe it

i was there - and missed it

i saw Virginia Splendore played the stick there
had no idea Greg was there too...

That Stick "body" was made by BassLab http://basslab.de/ for Emmett. I think there were only a few prototypes made (maybe just 3?) They were never put into production.

It was made the way BassLab makes their basses meaning that it was either hollow or semi-hollow. I don't remember any other details.

Wow, it’s my old XBL Stick!! The silver prototype #4868 got played by a lot of capable hands before Emmett sold it to me. I’m still kicking myself 12 years later for selling it!! I wanted a zebra wood Grand that caught my eye, so I sold this instrument to fund the purchase. Such a bonehead play on my part. I kept waiting for the XBLs to go into production, but they never did.

It's like "The Red Violin"

Emmett sent me this instrument along with a red version and I hauled them over to Niagara falls back in 2004 where Greg Holmes (North America BassLab distributor) was putting on a show for music retailers showing off all of BassLab's guitar, bass, and Stick bodies.

A fun weekend playing on these instruments until, upon returning home, I was sidelined at the Ambassador Bridge and accused by US Customs of trying to sell instruments illegally

The playing was super duper excellent. Greg is obviously in the zone and working the hell out of that "Porkpie Hat." Just exceptional. Man, really rocking this out and just slaying left and right.

And that shiny Stick! That looks really cool.

That's really cool, too! Why'd you ever give that silver beauty up? And lesson learned: don't give up your Sticks! (Unless "A Man's Gotta Eat," and you really need the money. Can't eat a Stick.)

I love all of these prototype Sticks floating around. A man could do worse than start collecting Stick variants--we'd all like an Acoustick, of course! And the shiny Railboards are for everyone now, but there's still the 7-strings and the Sticks made from Caramelized Rainbow Nanotubes, or something (Graphite? Ironwood? "Zebra Wood"? Certainly aluminum and coatings. I'm sure the exotic list is much longer than I suspect.)


Crazy! Glenn, so what happened with that?

And maybe I'll start a separate thread about Stick variants...I could talk about that stuff all day and look at pictures and videos and drool...(Not that there's already a million choices on the NEW Sticks!)

Thanks everyone for all the kind comments. Brett, that's the highest praise any musician can get.. The challenge when playing an unusual instrument is to not rest on novelty, but to always be creative and musical in the presentation.

Of the current models available, I feel like the Railboard is the closest to this instrument sonically. There were three of these BassLab prototypes produced, blue, watermelon, and silver. They sounded and played great. But the technique of building them was not conducive to larger scale productions, so Emmett kept searching for a way to make Sticks more easily.

Heiko is a grat guy, and I'm so glad I got to know him through all of this. While in Frankfurt I had the chance to run my Stickup-equipped instrument through the BassXX preamps and the StepABout was born. They sounded so open full and clear.. To this day I haven't heard a preamp I like better for the Stickup.

I had traveled with several instruments (the ones Emmett sent me along with three of my own) and my entire rig which was much larger back then so my vehicle was absolutely packed. Apparently I was supposed to have stopped on the way over in order to let them know what I was doing and to avoid the mess I got in coming back. Emmett had even sent me all of the required paperwork for the instruments he sent me but I didn't discover that paperwork until I got home after the fact.

So I finish the weekend and head home. I get by the perfectly charming Canadian customs guys and pull up at the US side where I meet ... hell I won't mince words ... an absolute prick. He grills me about the instruments and decides that I had traveled to Canada to sell a car full of musical equipment. He has me pull over and and refers me over to another guy basically telling him that I was hostile and selling contraband in Canada.

Now I'm with a different guy who was considerably more charming and who must have sensed something was amiss when he basically asked me to tell him what really happened. I told my story. He took some interest in the Sticks so I gave him the quick rundown of what they were. Then we shook hands and I went home.

there was one thing I didn't care for about there instruments. the shiny lacquer was not the smoothest surface for the thumb to slide on. As you may know my thumbs are constantly in motion along the back of the neck, they never anchor in one position, and Emmett's natural Watco finish is my favorite for the thumbs...

I played it when Matt owned it years ago. It was definitely cool.