Good topic, guys. I first want to thank Kalyptic for the nod to our music and Bill for taking the time to listen.

Let me be the first to say that the Alto can really scream!! I just finished a 2-day festival gig and was having an awesome time ripping off some "Little Wing", "Parisienne Walkways", and other blues-rock classics. My Alto has the ACTV2 module and it kicks ass with distorted melody and wah effects. Whenever I need it, I just stomp on my Boss ME-50 and it's shred time! With no bass range, the Alto sounds more unified and crisp to me. The left hand chords co-exist beautifully with a distorted melody.

We (Heartstrings) may be known for playing romantic and classical duets on the Stick, but that was just to attract some attention; get some upscale society gigs and to just get our foot in the door as professional musicians. However, there's a lot more to us than that. The next CD, "Far and Wide", will feature some very driven Celtic rock instrumentals with all kinds of rock antics happening in the leads.

I appreciate your honesty and openness. Please don't take what I'm about to write as offensive or defensive.

A couple of things to consider. First, if you are looking for an instrument to do everything a guitar can do then pick a guitar. The stick is a totally different instrument. Many people buy a stick thinking that there will be a lot of transfer on one or both sides of the instrument and become frustrated when it isn't there.

second, I would put the Sticks expressiveness against any instrument. It's an amazingly expressive instrument. But it isn't a guitar. It's also a lousy bassoon.

But if you want to know if you can "make" a stick sound like a guitar I would say...... perhaps. Remember though, you have to approach it as a new instrument, your guitar chops won't transfer instantly. It would also help if you could list some examples of "guitar" sounds you are looking to reproduce.

Brett

I'd like to add my 2 cents. Like many I came to the Stick thinking it could be a guitar and a bass "replacement." After owning one for a few years I realize it's not a guitar or bass replacement, it's a Stick. And regardless what many have done I personally don't even feel it's a very good bass guitar replacement either. (Sorry Tony!) It's an instrument that will play in the bass guitar range and lead guitar range (so will a keyboard) but again, it's neither a lead guitar replacement or bass guitar replacement, it's a Stick. It has a sound and personality all it's own.

That said ... because the Stick can be played in both ranges "at the same time" it's an amazingly flexable instrument and because you can manually manipulate the strings it provides much more expression than keyboards. So if you're compairing the Stick to a guitar or bass guitar you're really compairing apples and oranges.

Sure thing.




Oh enough with this nonsense. The stick is not totally different than a guitar. They're both stringed instruments with a fingerboard and frets and pickups with tone and volume controls. And if you press a string down on either they will both sound out. Only difference is the stick has been optimized for a specific technique that can be done on any guitar. The stick is just better at it.



Expressiveness is irrelevant because you can't quantify it. It's gonna be different for damn near everybody. The guy want's an overdrive that doesn't sound like a old worn out vagina. If you don't come from a rock background or just don't know what I'm talking about, well there's not much I can do for you.



Ignore this. Tons of your guitar theory and technique will transfer over. People around here love to mysticise the instrument but contrary to the propaganda, you can learn to play the stick without having to reach the 14th lvl of enlightment. If you have a decent grasp of music theory and the desire to practice you'll be fine.

Good luck,
Tritone

Maybe it's just that you didn't listen to the right people. Check this out:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJ2MP8wacIE[/youtube]

>The guy want's an overdrive that doesn't sound
>like a old worn out vagina.
I'm not sure that was all that Bill was looking for, but FWIW, this pedal is famous for its ability to bring out playing dynamics:

http://www.rothwellaudioproducts.co.uk/ ... ender.html

Jerry.

Speaking of dynamics, Greg Howard and Jim Lampi are surely the best examples

I believe that you can do almost anything on a Stick that you can do on a guitar - especially if you Play it like a guitar. i.e. - two hands on one side. Yea, you have to alter your playing technique to compensate for the very low action and looser tension but it can be done. As you know most guitar playing requires two hands - one to fret the note the other provides the attack. While the Stick is not primarily designed for that technique, you can do it. Frankly my PASV4 pickup sounds close to a Strat pickup setup and I am sure that if I wanted to I could get a pretty decent, expressive distorted sound out of it. Many techniques can be used to get certain desired results out of the Stick.

However, for me the biggest problem with distortion on the Stick is the cross-talk between the treble and bass sides, not so much HOW I am striking the strings. This can be somewhat aleviated by using the GK HEX pickup....it's not just for MIDI as so many believe. Plug it into a VG-99 (or earlier VG-88, VG8, etc...) and now you can get all sorts of distortion and processing as needed...and with significantly less crosstalk.

All that being said, I still prefer to play the instrument without distortion (it has it's time and place) as I think it has a very similar yet unique sound to it...and I believe distortion would take that away from it. Sort of like an acoustic guitar or a piano - you can add distortion but it tends to mask what the instrument really sounds like.

Dave

tritones response to my analysis of technique transfer misses the point. The point is that the techniques involved in playing the stick are quite different than on other stringed instruments.
Most of us play melody with the right hand fretting notes on the stick. this is very different from what a right handed guitarist does. The theory and more importantly the aural understanding will transfer to any musical endeaver. There is no cryptic mystical hoopla here, just some friendly pointers for folks starting out.

btw, tritone the term "chops" refers to technical skill. And yes the mind will transfer a lot of prelearned knowledge (even to other hands) given practice. I was speaking of instant transfer.

Brett

The video reference (Jim Lampi) was a good example of playing to the limits of attack range. Thanks for pointing it out. It may illustrate some limits at the same time, however, as there's a lot of string buzz and metallic noise when he really digs in. Great piece, though. I probably listened to it 7-8 times. A side comment on buzziness and noise: these aren't necessarily bad - there's NOTHING noisier than a dobro, for example, and it's been used in Blues since it was invented. 'Course, it's only one sound used in the genre.

I have to say that I do fundamentally regard tap instruments as guitars. They are played primarily with one particular guitar-playing technique, but can be played using others, they have a native guitar tone when not being used as a midi controller, and to my mind are much closer to conventional guitars than are banjos, lutes, mandolins, and ukeleles. Naturally, it has its own characteristics, but that's true of any guitar - one reason so many people own so many of them!

Brett, thanks for your comments. I'm really trying to distinguish expressiveness from dynamics, though, attack in particular. Were the instrument not expressive, I wouldn't even be interested. In fact, it's expressive to the max.

To me, nirvana in tone is blues crunch, though I like it a little more driven than some. Set up right, you should be able to articulate a note such that you drive the amp from almost clean to something short of a lead tone - just by varying the attack. Getting *A* distorted tone is never an issue as you can just use an overdrive. Getting a range of distortion across the attack range is the question. Jim Lampi's got about about 80% of that going in the video, though - listen to 2:45 - 2:57 in particular. Again, great example, and I found it very helpful.

Matt, I'm happy to hear about the Alto, as I wondered if the response characteristics were very different or not. (I assumed yes, but no-one's described them that I've seen.)