Ten months into my exploration of the Chapman Stick, I believe I've arrived at an instrument and setup I can grow with.

I've been through 4 Sticks - a maple 10-string that I purchased directly from Stick Enterprises, a dark bamboo SG12 I purchased used, a 12-string Wenge Grand I purchased used, and the used Rosewood SG12 I'm playing now. In addition to the 4 Sticks, I've tried 4 amplifier setups - a Fishman Loudbox Artist, a QSC K12, a Roland Street Cube EX, and a pair of Behringer Europort MPA40NT's. I've also built two pedalboards - the first was a super-duper Strymon-loaded board set up to switch pedals between bass and melody side, the second and current is a simpler board designed primarily for tone shaping and portability.

Ten months. A lot of experimentation. A lot of knowledge gained. Thanks to the many fine players in the Stickiest forum who offered great advice, answered unending questions, and provided the benefit of their experience.

I'll follow up with details about my current equipment setup and why I feel it's a good fit for my purposes.

Got There! - The Stick

The Rosewood SG12 I'm playing offers the best of all of the Sticks I've tried to date. It's a beautiful, dark color. The grain is wonderful and I can't wait to rub a bit of oil on it the next time I change strings. The oil will really make the grains pop.

Beyond the wood, the 12-strings give me all of the advantages of other Stick models in terms of chord inversion possibilities. Shortly after I got my first Stick, the 10-string Maple, I realized that 12-strings would provide more flexibility.

While I thought the Wenge 12-string Grand was a beautiful instrument and it played very fluidly, I have trouble developing chords on the wider fret models due to what seems to be a bit of arthritis forming in my 60-year old hands.

So, while the SG12 (Stick Guitar, 12-string) lacks some low notes, it is a great fit for me. Not only can I negotiate the frets better, but I really enjoy the tone and range.

Next: Amplification

Got There! - Amplification

I play music now for my enjoyment. I did the grind of 20+ years playing weekends in various bands and various genres, performing the same music week after week. Now, I prefer to play my own music rather than play covers. To me, it's more personal and creative. It feels better to play music I've composed. I'm learning some covers along the way, but these also are chosen because they mean something to me, not for any commercial application.

So, as you may imagine, I'm not currently seeking public performance gigs.

Amplification has always been a means to an end. I don't require enormous wattage. My practice studio is in my basement, so I don't want to lug 50+ pounds up and down the stairs in case I do decide to play out sometime in the future.

My only criteria is good sound and portability. I think I've found that. Read on.

The Fishman Loudbox Artist is a great amp. Lightweight, lots of power and great tone. For me, it tended to muddy up in the mid-lows when I added reverb. The QSC K12 had a lot of power, sounded decent, but was a little heavier than I wanted and also was a bit sterile in its tone. The Roland Street Cube EX is battery-powered (a criteria I came to realize was important for my setup), has lots of power, and is very portable. It's tone is a bit harsh and the only way I could get it to sound decent was to run the Stick through it mono into the amp's guitar channel. That worked, but I need to selectively process the melody/bass sides of the Stick at times, so a mono setup is not ideal.

Recently, Andy Salvanos alerted me to the Behringer Europort MPA40BT. This is a small, battery-powered PA offering 40 watts and an 8" woofer, 1" tweeter. 18 pounds, so very portable. And cost $175. I had Sweetwater send me 2 to audition - 2 of these cost less than any of the other 3 amplification options I tried.

I got 2 to test out a stereo setup. And I really like the sound. It's clear, has pretty decent lows and highs. The battery life seems great so far - I'm on about 5 hours of play time and the battery still has 3/4 charge.

I had to play with the channel/main volume settings bit to get a good mix so my pedalboard wouldn't over power and cause distortion. The settings I have now are producing an average of 75 dB and are quite clear. No mud as in the FIshman. More life than the QSC. And definitely not harsh as the Street Cube EX. To be honest, I doubt the Behringers would satisfy those who really need to crank up the volume. But that's not sound I'm going for.
Having stereo output is a real plus! Hearing the nice, wide sound of a good reverb is a thrill.

For my purposes, the Behringers meet the need. Lightweight, portable (even with the speaker stands), battery-powered, and good sound. If need be, I can use just one of the speakers.

Next up: Pedalboard

This is like waiting for the next season of Downton Abbey! This is a great Sunday morning read Randy, thanks for this.

A great read indeed; One day, maybe I can get "halfway there"!

Personally the Stick is so new to me, that I am inclined to think that any limitations I may be experiencing are based soley on me! hahaha Practice seems to cure a lot of my technical problems... lol I've only had a Stick for, like 3 months, and now I have 2. I love 'em both. They are 10 string models, one in MR tuning, and the other in RMR. I gotta learn these. Every time I play, I seem to learn some "new thing".

Now having said that, a 12 string would really allow for a pretty big range. I mean, the more notes available, and the bigger intervallic separation possible makes for a lot of great potential when it comes to creating music, whether it's arranging other people's music or creating your own.

Amplification, well I like the Line6 stuff. Line6 HD Pro works GREAT. I hate it with my guitars, but it's perfect with my Sticks. I line out into a Roland JC120, and I'm pretty happy with the tones I can snag. Eventually, I'll have two separate Line6 rackmount units, or possible a couple of AxeFX's. Literally, the most flexibility tonally, with the least amount of stuff to cart around.


Anyways, keep 'em comin'!

Got There! - Pedalboard

Prior to getting on the Stick Journey, I spent 3 years working with several specialized electronic instruments, DAWs, and building up a large library of soft-synths and effects. I composed experimental, generative and light ambient music. It was great fun!

Unfortunately, the maker of the electronic instruments all but went out of business and I decided to sell the instruments while there was some value still remaining. If the maker was still viable, I'm sure I would still be working with those instruments.

Luckily, selling those instruments netted me about $7 grand, a nice sized bankroll for starting the Stick Journey.

When I got the Stick, I tried using some of the soft-effects I have on hand to add reverb, etc. It didn't satisfy - too sterile and produced a bit of lag in the playability.

I bought a couple of the Zoom multi-function boxes, the B3 and the G3. Nice feature sets and farily easy to manipulate patches. But there were too many components geared toward fuzz and distortion and styles of music I wasn't interested in. So, I decided to build my own pedalboard.

I did a lot of research and then popped for some Strymon pedals and some others. I built a great sounding board that enabled me to send bass or melody or both combined into the pedals. A lot of flexibility in the board. But, even though I was using isolated power supplies, the board added a lot of noise to the signal.

Shortly after building this board, Glenn Poorman posted on the Stickiest forum info on Zoom's Thunderbolt powered audio interface, the TAC-2. I ordered one in to test and, as described, the lag in playability was nil. Most soft-effects and amp simulators I have played just fine.

When I performed with the electronic instruments, I made use of Ableton Live to build up loops and sings. I had some great results with this. So, given that I now had the ability to use soft-effects and Ableton Live with the Stick, I decided to sell the Strymon-based pedalboard.

Then, as you probably can guess, I decided I didn't like the sound of the Stick playing through the digital effects. Too sterile. Sold the TAC-2.

About this time, Per Boysen posted details on how he was able to get good results from the Roland Street Cube EX and a small, portable pedalboard. As I've always had in the back of my mind the possibility of busking, or playing small venues, wine bars, etc. some time in the future, a portable setup has always been ideal.

So, I decided to get Street Cube EX in and build a utilitarian pedalboard that will allow for both wall-powered and battery-powered operation.

What I have follows:

Pedaltrain PT-2 pedalboard
Voodoo Labs 2+ power supply
Analogman Comprosser
Keeley 4-knob compressor
Mad Professor Simble overdrive
Mojo Hand FX DMBL overdrive
TC Electronics Corona Chorus
TC Electronics Flashback delay
TC Electronics Hall of Fame reverb
TC Electronics Trinity 2 reverb

The bass side is plugged into the Comprossor and the Simble. The melody side is plugged into the Keeley, the DMBL and the Flashback. Then both side are plugged into a Boss LS-2 which merges the signal into a single mono out. This is plugged into the chorus. All of the TC Electronics pedals are stereo, so from this point all connections are not stereo. The chorus first goes stereo to the Hall of Fame and then to the Trinity 2. From the Trinity 2 I run direct to the amplification (a pair of Behringer Europort MPA40BTs) or into TC Electronics Ditto X2 delay pedal before amplification.

This pedalboard sounds great. It gives me all of the tone shaping I need and is fully battery-powered if/when I need that option.

I am still fine tuning some things. The Behringers can be overpowered very easily, producing some really ugly distortion. So, I'm still looking for ways to beef up the tone without turning up the gain, etc. This is a tradeoff of working with a battery-powered PA system.

Total weight of my complete setup is less than 65 pounds, including 2 PA speakers and stands, Stick, loaded pedalboard and cables.

Next: Practice time!

Very cool, Randy. Congratulations on finally getting comfortable! You're not helping me curb my G.A.S., though...

Hopefully, these posts may save someone a bit of time and money. What I've ended up with, for now, are the least expensive options of all I've tried.

Nice. Personally, I abhor Behringer products. I avoid them like the plague, but I know some cats who can make that stuff work for them, so cool. Zoom, well I am not so sure about. I will have to try some stuff out I guess...

I actually used the Stick through my small PA (Yamaha Stagepass300) and was quite pleasantly surprised. It's an option. The Roland JC120 seemed to be the most neutral candidate for amplification for my purposes, though!

TC Electronics is good stuff, I have a Gsystem I use in my guitar rig and I love it. the Strymon stuff is killer, but pedals can get out of hand in a quick hurry can't they? And of course, it all costs money.

Jay - agreed on the TC pedals. The stereo ones seem perfect fit for a Stick.