Comments on: Chapman Stick – the coolest instrument ever ?

By: Ronan Chris Murphy

Ronan Chris Murphy — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 23:20:23 +0000

With Stick it always takes tricky work with the compressor. getting the attack time right is crucial.

I like to push the tube amps a little hard when re-amping because the valve saturation is a really good compressor.

By: Ian Shepherd

Ian Shepherd — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 23:09:43 +0000

Ronan,

NICE.

Although, the mySpace audio player’s sound always makes me throw up in my mouth, a little :-s

Thanks for the tube amp trick suggestion, I’ve never had a chance to record any stick. Do you push it quite hard, to smooth them out ? And do you then use a compressor or limiter afterwards, for more control ?

By: Ronan Chris Murphy

Ronan Chris Murphy — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:58:47 +0000

I have recorded and mixed tons of stick records (many with Tony Levin). Its an amazing instrument, but sometimes the extreme transients can be tough to work with in a mix. Re-amping out through a tube amp is one of my favorite tricks for getting them to sit better in a mix.

Here is a track with Tony Levin playing stick on a track for my upcoming album.

http://www.myspace.com/music/player?sid=24700807&ac=now

By: Ian Shepherd

Ian Shepherd — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 22:11:45 +0000

Damn, you’re right, I take it back – saw FTW !

By: J.Salazar Allelos music

J.Salazar Allelos music — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:38:29 +0000

Ian, i was thinking the saw/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6588Bx8abM / was the best instrument?? i saw a guy jam a saw with claypool but couldnt find that footage. I noticed the king crimson video…love those guys. they were my introduction to out of the box thinking in 1989…just brilliant.

By: Ian Shepherd

Ian Shepherd — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 23:29:05 +0000

@Howie – Thanks, you’re right, I’ve corrected the post.

By: Howie

Howie — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 12:12:42 +0000

Hi,

Tony Levin is indeed one of the greatest bass players around. To correct you, he plays Musicman Stringrays on “Don’t Give Up” and “Sledgehammer” but his stick work on the earlier Gabriel records is pioneering.

Cheers,

Howie

By: Dan

Dan — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 23:45:47 +0000

Greg Howard from Charlottesville, VA is a pretty well-known Stick player and does the sample videos on Chapman’s website. Sean Malone, originally known as the bass player for Cynic, plays the Stick. My favorite work of his, on both Stick and bass, are probably on the two Gordian Knot CDs. There’s also a band out of Texas called HomBru that feature a stick pretty prominently, particularly on their Ingredients EP. Another Stick artist worth checking out, although not recommended quite as highly as GK and HomBru, is John Edmonds. You can find samples and CDs for the latter two at CD Baby.

You might also look for Warr Guitar or Mobius Megatar-related stuff. Trey Gunn’s “The Joy Of Molybdenum” (or something like that) was a pretty good disc as well. And if I’m not mistaken, the guy from Behold…the Arctopus also plays a Warr Guitar.