[thechat] World's coolest bass guitar?

[Luther, Ron]

Joel D Canfield noted:


>>The Chapman stick is my holy grail. 

Cool!  I figured you might know what this thing was ... I had never 
heard of these before.  Heh ... I guess we'll both add this to our 
'list of toys to buy with lottery money' list!  ;-)

>>Very, very cool sound; the tapping style playing (think Stanley Jordan)
>>run through a compressor or separate setups for each half - chorus on
>>the high strings, thin flat thump on the low strings. Or whatever you
>>want.

+1 I was surprised - a very nice sound. [Although if you get your amp 
settings *just right* you can fool with some of that on a regular guitar 
... hmmm ... I've got one set up with very very light gauge and very very 
low action ... I'll have to futz with it. {It's not gonna be anything 
like what that guy was doing - but it might be fun anyway.}] Yup, stereo 
out offers some interesting flexibility. 

(Ah! Thanks - I couldn't remember Stanley Jordan's name ... I do remember 
seeing him on TV a long time ago ... I'm definitely a Stanley Clarke fan 
though ... 'School Daze' anyone?)

>>Show me an accordion player who can handle one of these, and I'll ask
>>for lessons 

Maybe piano would be a better comparison. It still strikes me as an 
instrument best suited to someone with a solid understanding of musical 
theory ... [which would make it more of a 'toy' than an 'instrument' in 
*my* hands] ... and yeah, it should certainly make a lot of 'jazzy' 
inversion chords a lot easier

>>Check around your local music scene. (Local?) Chances are some jazz club
>>in Houston or DFW has a regular who plays a Chapman. Worth going to see.

Well, I saw that Howard Roberts Artist at a small place in Kemah a few 
weeks ago ... and I've got dinner reservations at a live jazz club north 
of Austin for Saturday night ... I'll just have to get out a bit more!

;-)


>>Great googliemooglies listen to the groove he puts on 'All Along the
>>Watchtower' at the very end.

Yeah, that certainly caught my attention.


RonL.
(Who, on a much less expensive note, is harassing his local music 
stores to carry one of these:
http://www.zzounds.com/item--DADDGS15

... cuz I'm lazy and don't want to spend an hour tying and untying knots 
just to stand and play acoustic for a few minutes.)