Guess who'll be playing their new NS Stick at a gig tonight?? YES I got it!!!!! I didn't want to say anything until it arrived. It's a thing of beauty, walnut body with ebony stain, extra set of strings, nice road case, strap, everything as I ordered, even showed up perfectly tuned! It's beautiful ... perfect.

ANYWAY no time to write right now friends ... need to spend some time on this baby before my gig. I'll write more about it after the gig and let you guys know how it went.

I think you collapsed some time on that one

ABSOLUTE BLAST
That is "Blast off"
'Mission control? Where's Ray? We can't find Ray?

Now you need to come to the Canadian Stick, ahem, NS seminiar
Best.
JRJ

Congrats Ray!
Let's see some pictures. Good luck with the gig, I know you're going to love that thing.

Best kept secret? You Dirty Dawg!

MarTroiD

P.S. I don't know how you kept your mouth shut.

It wasn't easy ... I wanted it in my hands before saying anything! I used it tonight, mostly as a bass guitar ... awesome! My impressions ... had to raise the bridge screws a half turn on the bass strings because it was too low for me to play as a "bass guitar." With the action up a half turn tapping was still very easy. Adjusting the action on the NS Stick is REAL easy. A few turns during a break and I was set. The melody strings were a bit high for tapping ( a little harder to tap then my 10 string Stick) so I lowered them a half turn ... perfect. The tone is awesome ... quite a bit brighter on the higher strings because they are much thinner then bass guitar strings. But they cut through the mix like a knife. I was able to stumble my way through 3 songs I originally had arranged for two hand tapping on my standard Stick. It was strange at 1st but because they were "bass guitar parts" they quickly became easy. I was OK as long as I didn't THINK about the parts and simply played and reacted to them.

All in all it was a very fun and interesting evening. The NS Stick is all I expected and more. IMO it fills the perfect role for the gigging bass guitarist who simply wants to be able to two hand tap and play melody as well as bass. This is a new adventure. Between my NS and standard Stick I may never play bass guitar again!!!

You can bet there will be more to come ... my mind is racing and the possibilities seem endless!!

OH BTW ... I need a new cord for my digital camera. ASAP I will post photos!

We can really tell your enthusiasm for this! I'd really love to try one of those.

Glad you immediately played out with it, Ray. I still get crap from my band mates who want me to break out the bass again, but fuggedabowdit!

Let's see the pics

I have to say the NS and Stick do get a lot of attention. Last night I had several people asking me about the NS ... one guy even knew what it was and knew about the Chapman Stick. (A 1st since I've been playing Stick in the band.)

The guitarist in my band doesn't really like it (Thinks it takes attention away from him, he even told me this ... steels his lime light! ) but the other guys in the band and apparently the crowd love it and that's really what's important! Especially on the few tunes where I two hand tapped. And a lot of fans who see the band all the time commented on it ... how it had a different GOOD sounding tone that really cut through the mix. They could really hear what I was doing without me being too loud. They really liked it! So the NS is here to stay!! As far as I'm concerned ... between my Stick and NS Stick I'm no longer a bass player ... I'm officially a professional STICK player!!

I'll post photos ASAP. I need to get a new cable to attach my camera to my computer then I'll post.

Congrats! But no pics, no Stick.

No pics no Stick???? ...

Like I said ... gotta get a new cord so I can download pics to my computer .... they'll get posted!