Well, virtual Stick land as in stickist.com..

The Stickup is a truly unique sounding pickup. Between Tony and Michael Bernier, you can hear all of it's more aggressive proggy qualities quite clearly. No other pickup on any instrument sounds anything like it.

Agreed.

K

It is all in taste and the sound you hear in your head (or in my case head and ass ! I like PHAT bottom and the Stick fulfills that nicely. Never been a guitar player, so that territory is new to me and I am making it my own…. There is nothing wrong with the U8, other than the fact that its low end did not move my ass! good luck with your sonic explorations!

I was expecting the low strings of the U8 to sound more like a real bass just like the Warr 8-string does. But apparently it is not? Maybe because the U8 has thinner strings or so?
At the Stickmen concert Marcus did play some bass lines on the U8 that sounded fat. But mostly he played leads while Tony was handling the bass parts.

Yes the Stick has a nice recognizable low string sound. In my bands I used to double as bass and Stick player. But the real bass did cut through better in a rock band setting with guitars. This became apparent when I switched to the Stick on gigs after some songs. I can also clearly hear this on my bands recording. It's a different less 'pushing' sound that also has to do with the tapping vs fingerstyle. I played the Stick through the same bass rig. That being said I really like the Stick unique growl of the low bass string.

I thought I would put my thoughts on this topic too...

I have been playing bass for 20 years and before that I was playing piano as a kid. The concept of the stick always intrigued me with its ability to play bass and melody at the same time. Also process each side separately was a big plus too. But I as always a little hesitant because of the sound too. I also worried about being able to adapt and play the lines I like to play on bass. The NS was the choice but I never saw anyone really play anything past tapping until I saw Don Schiff's video. So many kinds of techniques and sounds I was sold.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cg6X-qjH_JM[/youtube]

I saw the Stickmen play a couple months ago and saw the U8 but also saw that he was using his computer for all his effects. With all the toys the sonic possibilities are endless! I sometimes think finding an instrument that feels right is almost more important than it's sound with all the different processors these days but that depends on how deep your pockets may be...

I also thought that all stick players were mostly prog, jazz or classical. Don's video was a departure from that but I still wasn't seeing any Jimi Hendrix, Steve Vai style stuff. But Don's video gave me hope that there is so much that can be done and still to be explored. I'm still working on it but I think I'm getting closer to where I want to be...
Here is a video I made of me playing Jimi Hendrix's Third Stone from the Sun. It is one take of me playing all parts at the same time. Slap/Pop bass and lead lines at the same time. I'm now working on playing slap/pop bass with some power chords...
This video needs some work on the mix/mastering but you get the idea. A crappy video of the take too... Sorry it's hart to see...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Er2Ay34S8Ik[/youtube]

Thanks for your input Skydiver. Although it is a nice instrument the sound and looks doesn't appeal to me as much a normal Stick. I like the fact that you can do guitar techniques on it. That's much harder and sometimes impossible on the Stick. Although you can do some of those guitar and bass techniques on a Stick but in a more limiting way.

Yeah... the stick (and all of its different versions) are a totally different animal to a guitar. Although they have similarities it's totally different.

I've been loving it because it's such a new instrument (relative to other established instruments) and I think the possibilities have only just been explored.

Good luck on your search!