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SB8 in the Heart of Illinois
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Author:  Mike Yocum [ Fri Apr 08, 2011 5:58 am ]
Post subject:  SB8 in the Heart of Illinois

My name is Mike Yocum and I live in Illinois, not too far from Peoria (the "Heart of Illinois"). I have played bass since 1970 and dabble with other instruments (guitar and keyboards), although bass is the only instrument I admit to. I'm a big fan of the (so-called) English Progressive Rock movement, which featured bands such as Yes, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, King Crimson and Genesis and I like to think that it's an influence you can hear in my playing. My favorite bass players include Chris Squire, Tony Levin, Jaco Pastorius, Jeff Berlin, Joe Osborn and James Jamerson.

In the "old days," there was no Internet and bass-specific magazines didn't exist, so I would buy Guitar Player and it was there I first learned of Emmett Chapman and his marvelous Stick. It was through Tony Levin that I was introduced to the Stick in a band context. Tony's Stick work with Peter Gabriel and the early 80s incarnation of King Crimson inspired me and eventually, I began to think about getting one. When I learned that there was a Stick Bass, I thought that it would be a great instrument for me.

Fast forward to now; I recently bought a gently used SB8 (5396) with straight 4ths tuning and MIDI. I have been working with it nearly every day for almost a month and am very excited about its possibilities. I purchased a Line 6 M9 multieffects pedal to use with it, mostly for compression to start with (I had read that Tony Levin likes to run his Stick through a compressor and that made sense to me, given the wide dynamic range of the instrument). I also bought a Roland GR-20 Guitar Synthesizer for my SB8's GK-3 pickup, which seems to be a good combination of great sounds and guitar pedal friendliness. I have purchased 2 method books so far, Steve Adelson's "Stickology" and Emmett's classic "Free Hands."

I have a long way to go! I am not sure that the Stick will ever be easy to work into my current band (very staight-laced and playing pretty much "dance music," e.g., oldies and Motown), so I may need to look into a new project to play it in.

My Stick was completed on 06/09/2005 and shipped to its first owner on 02/06/2006. I have been reading about Interior Dual Bass Reciprocal tuning and wondering if that might be better for me. I've been thinking that it would be nice to have Emmett check it out anyway, so it would be a good time to have him switch it over to Interior DBR then.

I would appreciate any advice you can give me regarding this new (to me) world of playing!

Thanks,
Mike

Author:  wferguson [ Tue May 10, 2011 9:17 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: SB8 in the Heart of Illinois

Mike Yocum wrote:
I have a long way to go! I am not sure that the Stick will ever be easy to work into my current band (very staight-laced and playing pretty much "dance music," e.g., oldies and Motown), so I may need to look into a new project to play it in.


Oh hell, Mike...I play my SB8 in a blues band and it fits in just fine. :ugeek:

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