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"Tapping Instrument" or "Bass?"
- Thread starter zaubertuba
- Start date
LOL--Busty--YES! "Hybrid" is actually the word I use to describe it to people--it's much more succinct then "it's a cross between a Chapman Stick and a Steinberger bass...." and droning on about tapping instruments ad nauseum. Most people have no idea about Chapman Sticks or Steinberger Basses, anyway.
Broadly speaking, I like caeman's suggestion of "Tapping Bass," though that moniker applies much readily to the SB8 than to the NS, if you want to get technical.
What would such an instrument bring out if you as a player of basses? Would it expand your role, view, can you still play the traditional roles of the bass as well? Do you feel the groove on this as well as say a nice old fender?
Is tapping the main way you prefer to play/preferred direction?
I think you can go both ways here, you can do plenty with 4 strings and basic cheap stuff, likewise, you get all techy and have 7 strings and all..............many do and do quite well, amazing stuff...........
I think some, not all players over time come back to their roots after experimenting with different methods and different instruments. For some, fretless is never going to happen, some, upright is not their thing, some like funk, some like effects galore..but rarely use it for their own stuff.
I think it's worth working on and seeing if you are passionate enought to make it work for you musically. You never really know till you honestly try. We'd all suck initially, but over time, we might make some music that does not suck if we are lucky.
But you gotta want it bad enough.
Is tapping the main way you prefer to play/preferred direction?
I think you can go both ways here, you can do plenty with 4 strings and basic cheap stuff, likewise, you get all techy and have 7 strings and all..............many do and do quite well, amazing stuff...........
I think some, not all players over time come back to their roots after experimenting with different methods and different instruments. For some, fretless is never going to happen, some, upright is not their thing, some like funk, some like effects galore..but rarely use it for their own stuff.
I think it's worth working on and seeing if you are passionate enought to make it work for you musically. You never really know till you honestly try. We'd all suck initially, but over time, we might make some music that does not suck if we are lucky.
But you gotta want it bad enough.
LOL--Busty--YES! "Hybrid" is actually the word I use to describe it to people--it's much more succinct then "it's a cross between a Chapman Stick and a Steinberger bass...." and droning on about tapping instruments ad nauseum. Most people have no idea about Chapman Sticks or Steinberger Basses, anyway.
Yeah i have a Hohner B2AV but that's just happenstance
This would be great to try with a looper/sequencer pedal
BTW, i just read about an Ibanez hybrid:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
Roy Vogt
Supporting Member
- Sep 20, 2000
- 4,433
- 537
- Disclosures
- Endorsing Artist: Kiesel Basses, Ampeg Amplification, Hotone Ampero II effects
Great instrument! I've got a regular Stick reconfigured to 2 bass necks B-G five string and E-C piccolo tuning in 4ths (it used to belong to Dee Murray). That definitely looks easier to play and I'm jonesing for it bad....
+1 on Don Schiff-totally love his work.
If it's an NS Stick Bass it's a bass, IMHO
+1 on Don Schiff-totally love his work.
If it's an NS Stick Bass it's a bass, IMHO
My 6 and 7 have the same spacing between strings as my 4 and 5. I don't even know how to tap... I'm 85% fingerstyle, 10% slap and 5% pick.
I play my 7 string from the mindset of a bassist so while it is an extended range bass... it is still a bass.
'Bass' isn't any particular instrument. There are alot of ways to provide bottom in music, and the choice of instrument isn't the important part. Most guys here play popular music, so it is easy to have the mindset that the bass guitar is what provides the fundamental support--but that isn't always the case. I play pretty traditional instruments, and I play with pretty traditional technique---but there are guys who are experimenting with great results.
Many of us retain 4-string technique when playing instruments with more strings. I play 90% fingerstyle, 10% tapping.
<- this is not me, but a demonstration of "standard" bass technique on a 6
Anyway to the OP, I'm not sure why you've caught so much flak. After all, its *only* an 8 string, far short of some of the instruments proudly displayed here as bass guitars, including 12 stringers. Perhaps it is the travel-sized body which mentally correlates with the NS-tapping style instruments.
The way i see your bass is tuned, i don't have a problem calling it a bass.
Meh...whatever...If you dig it, it's cool.
Personally I've enough trouble just trying to adjust to a 5-string
Personally I've enough trouble just trying to adjust to a 5-string
All excellent questions! And excellent observations, as well.
The "groove" will be an interesting thing for me--I haven't played the new axe with our trio yet. We could could find a groove with me on the megatar off and on, but it sometimes felt awkward....nothing about this instrument feels awkward, so if I'm more relaxed and can open up with my drummer more, I have high expectations.
One other factor we sometimes forget about...I remember Jeff Hamilton pointing this out to a bunch of us heady college jazz musicians at a clinic with the Ray Brown Trio once: He reminded us that the reason we all started to play music in the first place was to have fun. In a conservatory program sometimes it's easy to forget this. I know I did.
But last night, I was up until 1:30 a.m. Originally I was just going to tweak tones on my effects unit but ended up experimenting with funk bass lines, fusion guitar solos, double-stop augmented bass progressions, and a variety of other things. You want to talk about fun?
The 1993 lineup of Laundry consisted of 3 musicians. (Tim Alexander-Drums, Tom Butler-Guitar, Ian Varriale-Stick). The Stick or any tapping instrument can be used to fill the role of a bass.
Meh...whatever...If you dig it, it's cool.
Personally I've enough trouble just trying to adjust to a 5-string
LOL--you should have seen me with the Megatar--it really was too much instrument for me. I often joked with my various bandmates about how I was really only using *this much* <<makes small rectangle with his hands and holds it over the fingerboard>> of the instrument.
I'm far less lost with 8 strings than I was with 12.
That bass is one of the most disgustingly...
AWESOME things I've ever seen
.Seriously, that thing is mad sexy. I love the NS look, and the string layout strikes me as being ergonomic and well thought out, trademarks of Ned Steinberger designs...
I would definitely consider that a bass guitar, just like lap steels are often considered electric guitars in some respect. Maybe a term other than "extended range bass" (something that rolls off the tongue easier) is needed to describe these monsters.
I like "tap bass", but there's probably a better alternative somewhere...
It's a Bass/Stick hybrid in my opinion. As some one who owns a 10 string Chapman Stick (using reciprocal tuning, for those interested) and a 6 string bass that gets a lot of tapping work, I've a special soft place in my heart for tapping instruments, and this one is definitely one of the sweetest ones I've ever seen.
I guess what it comes down to is what is your definition of "traditional." I'm sure there was a point not too long ago where double-bassists looked down their noses at bass guitars saying "that's not a *real* bass." In the meantime, advances in the development of the instrument made a wider variety of genres possible.
...and it's all happening again.
Technology's fun, innit?
I think there are two questions that arise. One would be "is it a bass?" and the other is "can it play bass lines?" What I mean is that upright basses and bass guitars are both basses in that they cover at least a similar frequency range and are capable of doing similar jobs.
But to take an extreme case, we can ask "Is a piano a bass?" I suggest that it's not. It surely covers the bass range. And it can play bass parts. In fact, we can even note that it's SO influential as an instrument that it actually was used to invent a whole new bass genre! (boogie) But to me, like the above "bass range tapping instrument". a piano is not a bass!
So I guess the question is to me, just how many strings (how much of an extended range) do you have to have to turn a bass into a piano or a "tapping instrument"? I feel that a 6 string bass is still a bass. Now at what point it changes and has enough added capability that it becomes a different instrument, I don't know.
Id love a Stick, I'd call it a Bass, and would love it.
Im not intending to aim this at you Ian, just something your post brought up, Ive thought it before...
This rule. Are people here so thin skinned, and pansified that me insulting their guitar is somehow reason for therapy?
How in the world do people get out on stage and play in public? Someone might say " Hey you suck", and you might have to deal with it.
God people grow a set.
Firstly, all the hate posted in the original thread was bile-inducing - a number of them blatantly breaking the CUP rules about discussions regarding Extended Range Instruments and should be called out for it, which the NS/Stick and other members of the Stick family certainly fall into. No member here should have to put up with that when proudly displaying their new instrument.
Im not intending to aim this at you Ian, just something your post brought up, Ive thought it before...
This rule. Are people here so thin skinned, and pansified that me insulting their guitar is somehow reason for therapy?
How in the world do people get out on stage and play in public? Someone might say " Hey you suck", and you might have to deal with it.
God people grow a set.
