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 Bass vs NS Stick vs Touchguitar 
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Post Re: Bass vs NS Stick vs Touchguitar
I re-read that interview with Don and it is very well done. Very interesting read.

There were two sections I though particularly relevant to the NS/Stick discussion, about tone and range of technique, and then about the range of note options available by Emmett and Ned's superior design.

Tone, and Range of Technique:
Quote:
FBPO: What about, specifically, the “NS” Stick? How does that differ from other Emmett Chapman and other Ned Steinberger instruments?

DS: Great question, Jon! Then the NS Stick came along in ’99, I believe as a prototype, and we all got a chance to play on it a little bit and give opinions. Stick Enterprises said, “Don, you take it for a year and let us know what it does, what your thoughts on it (are). So I did and it was primarily a tap instrument, but it has the ability and the spacing so you can pluck it like a bass, strum it like a guitar and also tap it like a Stick.

So for me, all of the sudden, on a session or on tour, I didn’t have to take a Stick and a bass. I thought, “Wow, this gets an unbelievably great Stick tone, I still have that.” It is one of the finest bass tones I’ve ever recorded with. I describe it as right out of the jack. Plug it into an amp, plug it into any recording session and it sounds like the finished master bass tone. It is huge! You can play that tone. Engineers would flip over it. They’d say, “Whenever you come to a session for us, you bring that particular Stick, an NS, which was a prototype. I was ready to get one of the first ones off the line and the producers and engineers would say, “Get whatever NS they want you to have, but when you show up for a session, you show up with that one because that is a phenomenal tone.”

Holding and playing like a "regular" bass:
Quote:
FBPO: I notice that sometimes you hold and play it like a regular bass. It must be nice to have that option too.
DS: Yeah, I love that! It is glorious. You don’t always have to play the highest strings. The other component that makes it different from, say a 7-string or an 8-string bass is Emmett’s incredible thought process of having the low B – I believe it’s a 128, which is standard. It has a special core to it to facilitate a full-range tap tone and it plucks just as well as a standard bass. But the strings go thinner in gauges a lot faster than a bass would, a 7- or 8-string bass. And the beauty of that is when you get really, really high up on the strings, they become very melodic and not very thunderous in tone, up high, and they don’t get that choked, thick note when you play way, way, way high up on the neck. And so, you’ve got the beautiful low bass, supported by these beautiful melodic higher strings. That’s one of my favorite things.


Great article, Greg, thanks!

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Mon Dec 05, 2016 6:13 am
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Post Re: Bass vs NS Stick vs Touchguitar
Awesome thread with great info. I've been interested in the NS Stick for a couple of months. I come at it from a guitar route : guitar to piano back to guitar to stick (missing ability to play bass+accompaniment+melody). The NS Stick looks pretty interesting in that regard and I admit playing stick has me more interested in bass concepts.

I'm curious on how well it does strumming on the melody/guitar side and how well it could play guitar songs as just a guitar from a rhythm guitar standpoint. I've scoured YouTube and couldn't find great examples of this.

It's unfortunate that no one around Dallas seems to have one to check it out in person.


Mon Dec 05, 2016 8:36 pm
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Post Re: Bass vs NS Stick vs Touchguitar
snoitan wrote:
It's unfortunate that no one around Dallas seems to have one to check it out in person.


I believe Dr Froth is in the Houston area... Texas is small right?

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Mon Dec 05, 2016 9:33 pm
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Post Re: Bass vs NS Stick vs Touchguitar
It's actually not too bad. About 3.5 hours. Not like driving to El Paso which would take about 9 hours from Dallas. But still a ways to go. Plus, I'm not the only one in Dallas that was interested in checking one out.


Tue Dec 06, 2016 9:08 am
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Post Re: Bass vs NS Stick vs Touchguitar
Stick Enterprises had a 2013 used NS/Stick in their inventory. I got all excited and was ready to plunk down my $1950 for it. But Cambria says she's already in talks with another musician about it (lucky them!) and so I decided to go ahead and order a new one: wenge body and wenge neck, black on black (with the darker black ebony stain finish!). I am not intentionally copying Steve B's (MichNS) NS/Stick that he just got, but the black on black was too pretty to pass up (and I think I am copying it 100%).

Let's do this!

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Now Stick Wait begins! Fortunately, I have 2 other Sticks to play with in the meantime. Can't wait!
:D :) ;) :o 8-) :mrgreen: :ugeek: :lol:

--SS, Steve Sink, Stickist Steve #6
Soon to be NS/SS!

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Steve Sink, Laser Fractals
Rosewood 10-string, #5989, M4s
Sapphire Railboard, #6763, MR
Wenge-on-Wenge NS/Stick, #170130, Bass 4ths
http://soundcloud.com/stephen-sink-1
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-RDlN ... Ez0hN49_Qg


Tue Dec 06, 2016 1:08 pm
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Post Re: Bass vs NS Stick vs Touchguitar
Oh man, I can't wait to see and hear what you do with this! Congrats!

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Tue Dec 06, 2016 1:30 pm
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Post Re: Bass vs NS Stick vs Touchguitar
You're almost there... Can't wait to see what you do with the NS.

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Dean Kobayashi
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Now Selling - MOD DUO, Tech21, Ebtech, KMI, Earasers, IsoAcoustics

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Tue Dec 06, 2016 3:40 pm
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Post Re: Bass vs NS Stick vs Touchguitar
I don't believe mine is stained, there are light brown streaks in it. Some woods can show up in different shades like that. As I mentioned on FB, my Zon's Goncalo wood is a bit lighter than other Goncalo wood instruments out there.

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Tue Dec 06, 2016 6:01 pm
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Post Re: Bass vs NS Stick vs Touchguitar
Man, does this guy rock or what? Go Steve, go! I guess you'll soon have more sticks than anyone else on this forum!


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Tue Dec 06, 2016 6:26 pm
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Post Re: Bass vs NS Stick vs Touchguitar
It's not the number of Sticks, it's what you do with them. And each Stick has been a new instrument, with new sonic possibilities.

I got my Rosewood 10-string off Ebay a day after I ordered my Railboard. Then it took another 6 months for my Railboard to come while I learned to play with the wooden Stick.

Somewhere along the way, I discovered that I really, really like playing bass. I got a left-handed bass guitar and play it upside down. But I love the easy tapping of the Sticks. I think I'll really like the NS/Stick.

And there's still a 12-string Grand and an Alto Stick, and an AcouStick..and then maybe a 12-string Railboard with chrome finish...

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Steve Sink, Laser Fractals
Rosewood 10-string, #5989, M4s
Sapphire Railboard, #6763, MR
Wenge-on-Wenge NS/Stick, #170130, Bass 4ths
http://soundcloud.com/stephen-sink-1
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-RDlN ... Ez0hN49_Qg


Tue Dec 06, 2016 6:59 pm
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