I've been banging my head against a wall trying to figure out how to get more bang from the stick first with non third chords, then with quartal/quintal voicings. My first idea was two sticks lying flat. Bass played with the thumb, chords with the left hand fingers and lead with the right.

Just recently I thought about the double harp, aka kora. And then I thought of the Angle-o-Saxon uncrossed pictured here.

Then I thought about gluing/nailing/clamping three sticks together in the shape of a triangle giving you bass strings on the back for the left thumb, chords with the left fingers, melody with the right fingers, and holding it in the standard playing position. This angled design would eliminate some of the wrist flexion but maybe put the fingers in an inferior playing position. Don't know.

Then I thought just use one stick with a few extra bass strings 2,3 or 4) in easy reach near the edges on the back of the instrument either on one side or on both sides. Put the 1, 3 and 5 of any chord right underneath it.

Actually strings on both sides of the back near the edges would make it easier to play bass lines faster due to the ability to alternate. CLeft DRight ELeft etc...

To make it all you'd have to do would be to scoop out some wood on the sides of the belt hook on the back for skirting the strings around it, put a bridge, plus pickup/s on the back, and a few more tuning knobs at the headstock.

I think that would be SOOOOOOOOOO cool. I wonder if Emmet would make me one with the right motivation.

Oh, and built in lap dog anyone?

Try 3 strings in 5ths followed by three strings in minor 3rds on the bass side:

E
B
F#
A
C
Eb

I think you mean that for quartals? When I was plotting out all of the rides and various options, I found they sometimes extend over quite a range placing some of them far from the bass note and difficult to get to them after playing the 1-5 thump. Even after retuning making them actually possible to finger, the bass note for two of them was quite the stretch. I'd like to make that go away.

How about a headless Steinberger style 2 string bass stick that bolts or clamps on to any existing stick (perhaps with a little carpentry) on the back, the side, or angling towards the back. I really, really really like this idea. Play chords on the bass side, minimally the 1,3 and 5 bass pitches on the back, and lead on the melody side.

Just cool, cool, cool, cool, cool.

Then I had the idea about modular sticks. You can take a 5 string stick and another 5 string stick and put them together to make a 5+5 10 string stick. Put another 5 string stick on the back and achieve awesomeness.

Extend your 10 string stick to 15, no problem. Place the controls on the front and angle the cable port out the front like a Fender. Heaviosity.

The long tail opportunities for Stick Enterprises to continue to serve customer's needs after purchase is basically strings. As you may know, the long tail is where it's at. After a Stick is sold, there's not much else to do, unless...

there were several inexpensive additions that motivate customers to want to upgrade in the future. Extend the range of the existing instrument as in 5+5+5,

the addition of user benefits like being able to play bass with the thumb on the back reserving bass side territory for chords now. The inexpensive two string bass can be added either to the back on the melody side, chord side or both.

And how about all those people who want 10 and 12 string sticks but can't afford them and go buy Krappy Guitars and such instead. If they bought a 5 string bass side, they'd have committed themselves for when they finally get the money to finish their 10 string project and since they're already invested, they have motivation to finish. They're already establishing the habit. Whether they finish or not, Stick Enterprises got at least that much of a sale that they wouldn't have otherwise gotten.

2 String basses please that bolt or clamp onto the back. 2 Sting bass, 2 String bass, 2 String bass....

Want a 2-string bass?



Want a 2-string bass that looks like a Stick?

That thing remains one of the funniest things I ever saw.

That's a kewl photo.

I had something else in mind. More like this:

Stig Pedersen in danish group DAD. He has many funny basses...... And all of them 2-stringed. He has some sort of problems with his left hand so he needs a thin neck someone told me.





Funny guy. And a good bass player.

Considering what your goals are, I think the most effective approach would be to use 4ths or 5ths on the bass side, but tune the top two bass strings to the same pitch, and then just use the right thumb to play whatever the top chord interval is going to be.

One of the big advantages to Emmett's "crossed" tunings is the fact that each hand can cover the entire board, so it's available to play any string, not just the half of the board it is "assigned to".

I do this approach with the right thumb at the end of this video, and several other Stick players, like Bob, Emmett and Steve also you this approach to grab notes from the "bass" strings to fill out chords...

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

One of my other goals (besides playing chords with one or two 2nds in them) is to play five note quartals, and bass, and melody.

3 note quartals sound too thin in the registers above the middle octave. And I can't really hold onto a five note quartal or even a three note quartal and play a hell of a lot of bass with the same hand except perhaps hold a pitch, especially if the bass you want is a stretch and not the root. I'll be wanting access to the 1,3,5, b7, and b6 minimally. It's the flat six in a low octave that is another issue that is killing my dream to be a stick player.

If we start talking non-3rd chords I need more fingers available to grab them. Using one of my precious fingers to play the bass is wasting a resource. I'd like to give the bass part to the thumb.

For non-3rds, I feel a seconds tuning covering 7 strings like CDEFGAB might get me close to playing the bulk of them. I could of course pick my favorites and optimize the tuning for that which will allow me to reduce the number of strings. Flat 2's sound terrible on tonic chords in minor so that might be one of the strings to throw out. Holdsworth never uses a scale with a flat two according to the thesis on him.

Another idea is to throw out the idea of playing melody per se and just let the tops of chords be the melody. This is very doable. I'm starting to lean that way if something else can't be done.

There's always inverting chords to make them fit the melody if we're talking 5 note or 3 note quartals. But that's not so doable if I also want to be moving the bass around with the same hand holding the inversions. Uninverted quartals are friendlier but create limitations.

Another issue is playing 4 note non-3rd chords accompanied by at least a note in the bass guitar register with one hand so I can solo with the right. In a standard tuning it ALWAYS requires a note from the melody side which makes many chord voicings unplayable. The idea of playing these in closed voicings is killing the show before it starts.

I do like the idea of having the audience remember the chords played during the solo and the bass just implies them. But it needs the fullness sometimes also of chords and a moving bass underpinning the improvisation. It's so much more enjoyable to hear what you're playing over without the bass just being a drone.