RHYTHM STICK

As a guitarist, Pete Jones one day began idly tapping the neck of a guitar and dreamt up the idea for his Rhythm Stick, pictured above. As an electronics engineer, he teamed up with guitar maker Roger Giffin actually to make the thing. And now it's ready.

What is it? A vaguely guitar-shaped black fibreglass object, with two sensitive pads near the body/neck join – one pad is on the fingerboard side of the neck, and one directly underneath. There are also eight voice-selection buttons further up the neck, while back at the body the controls remain minimal. There's a rotary on/off and volume, and facility for battery control or mains (with charging capability).

To play it, the idea is to strap it on like a guitar and then bash the pads by rocking your right-hand back and forward, almost like you were playing slap bass. Your left hand simultaneously switches between voices as you play: you can trigger the Stick's internal analogue voices or, more interestingly, trigger something like a Simmons brain or a Linn.

Pretty whacky, huh? To our ears, the internal voices are a shade wimpy: the four toms are reasonably rounded; the bass drum a little light; the snare an OK crack; and the white noise "cymbals" rather a waste of two voices. There is provision to alter the sounds internally, however, but these on-board voices are only really useful for using the Stick in on-the-tour-bus and in-the-dressing-room scenarios. On stage you would be sensible to go for the Simmons/Linn option, as indeed the designer suggests.

We fumbled a lot in our few minutes with the Rhythm Stick, having plugged direct to an amp (or you can go direct out via a 5-pin DIN to four separate feeds for a mixer). It's quite tricky to get the right-hand rhythm going and then switch effectively between sounds. A good way to start is with a solid-four bass drum, and then begin decorating from there by throwing in snare and tom off-beats. After a while you find yourself sliding a finger over the tom presets to get a sort of roll, and then knocking hard and fast with gripped right-hand fingers to get Linn-like impossibilities.

Pete, as you might imagine, is much better at it, even though the finished Stick had only been around for a couple of weeks when we visited. When he switched to a Simmons brain for the noises, things got distinctly wilder. The Rhythm Stick will chuck out a dynamic level trigger into a 9-pin D-type connector and out the other end to your Simmons brain, so you can drive eight different modules (should you have eight), which become selectable from the eight buttons on the neck (it'll also give you a spike that a Linn or Drumulator would recognise, too).

Designer Pete has used the Rhythm Stick with his group, the rather unassumingly named God, where it's been triggering an SDS7. Thus the live stage is the Rhythm Stick's real stomping ground, not only for what some would identify as pose value, but at least for percussive decoration, and perhaps even more should you find enough space and a suitable technique to give you fuller drum parts. Pete's knocked up a bass drum foot-pad, too, which would give the Stick a little more live leeway.

Certainly you can't reproduce many straight drum-pattern replicas from the Stick, because of the limitation to "linear" patterns. Maybe this wouldn't be a lingering hindrance, though, as it could push you to new rhythmic ideas. The Rhythm Stick is not a drum machine, it's something to play in what we might easily call real time.

The price has been set at £575, including the power supply, so it's not going to sell in droves. Not that Pete and Roger expect it to: they're making a "limited edition" run this month, more or less to order, and were talking about how nice it would be if a bigger manufacturer picked up the licence and made them in greater quantities and at a cheaper price.

If you fancy trying out slap-drum techniques for yourself, contact Pete Jones at Giffin Guitars, (Contact Details).

HISCOX; SINGLE

Brynn Hiscox, him of the bowl-backed acoustics and Staffordshire address, is now producing Mandolins and Bouzoukis in his inimitable, stripe style... £650 for former, £700 for latter. He also sent us a pic of what is believed to be the first 12 string bouzouki in the world, made for a professional Greek player residing in England.

And made by a semi-professional player residing in One Two Testing is "...our broken crown...", a record, on plastic. This is our way of saying that freelance scribe Jon Lewin has bunged out a single on Leave It Art Records (distributed by Cartel), with the rest of the chaps in Perfect Vision no doubt covering his hideous mistakes. Peely has already snatched them for a session so he'll probably swan off to become incredibly famous.

STEINBERGER CHANGES

Steinberger have just released their improved bass the XL2, and their production-model six-string guitar, the GL2. Primary modifications come at both ends of the strings: the "headpiece" has been redesigned to cover the ball-end and twist of the string, and extends over the zero fret to give what Steinberger rather surprisingly call "more stable tuning". And there we were thinking it was extremely stable anyway. The bridge has been changed somewhat, too, so that you can now load the strings from the top of the instrument. It also incorporates what is claimed to be a very fast and accurate action and intonation adjustment. Circuitry is now supplied by HAZ Labs, and the pots are smoother. There's a jack socket for the provision of phantom powering: a unit for this and an on-board active pre-amp will be available shortly. The price is unchanged from the old L2 bass and GLP guitar (though as far as we are aware that proto-type guitar was never generally available). More details from Steinberger Sound, (Contact Details).

WESTONE OFF THE RAIL

Plenty of companies are having a crack at the small bodied Steinberger bit, so it's refreshing to see Westone adding a different slant. Their new all black, headless bass, The Rail, has a sliding pickup. The centre section of the body has been removed and the end that holds the bolt-on neck is connected to the end that bears the bridge via two large chrome tubes.

The single pickup is mounted on a third section that rides the tubes so it can slip back to the bridge for ultimate twang, and forward to the neck.

Other notable bass bright ideas on display at the BMF were the Status style bodies (imitations of Rob Green's graphite necked beauties) and the cunning removal of layers of wood around the neck/body join. By taking the top surface down by half an inch it leaves a clear passageway for your fingers to get under the strings and tug or snap them.

The Bantams, which also started life as Steinberger look alikes, have grown an extra limb. A double necked six and bass spent a few days in Britain before being shot back to the States, with the promise of a fretted and fretless bass version on the way. The advantage of the small body becomes even greater when you can get two well balanced, headless necks on a body not much weightier than a Les Paul.

ROLAND CONTEST DEADLINE

With barely ten days before the deadline, we've just time to enter Roland's Eighth Annual Synthesiser Tape Contest. Maybe they don't want you to enter? In case they do, you may be interested to know that the prizes include "new Roland products coming out this year", Teac multitrack equipment, 3M tape, Fostex speakers, Maxell and TDK cassettes, and similarly undefined new stuff from Boss.

You need to record a purely electronic piece of under three minutes' duration, no vocals or acoustic instruments allowed, no live performance recording, and it must be a piece that hasn't been presented elsewhere and is free from copyright. And it must end up on a cassette. And if that all sounds restrictive, female synthesists may like to read the entry form that states, "Each entrant should judge himself which class (professional or amateur) applies to him, and write it on the application form."

If you're still interested, the deadline is 30 September, by which time your tape should be in to Roland (UK) Ltd, (Contact Details), if you live in the UK. If not, send it to your local Roland distributor. Judges include Isao Tomita, and they'll complete their task in January 1985. Shoot the female vocalist, sell the drums, get recording fast, and you could find yourself the proud owner of a new Roland product coming out this year.

PEAVEY UP FOR AUDITION

Peavey Electronics Corp of Mississippi were so impressed with their UK distribution, they bought the company, which now becomes Peavey Electronics (UK).

Two new amps should now be available to bolster the cheap end of their range: these are the Audition 12 watt combo, with three tone controls, mid-boost overload capability and "Saturation" control, and a headphone outlet. Price is £81 plus VAT. Then there's the Backstage Plus, replacing the pokey little Backstage combo. It shoves out 30 watts, has all the Audition's features, plus a treble boost and reverb. Price is £125 plus VAT.

DIARY DATES

Same dates for your already crowded diary. First is the Midlands Hand-Made Guitars Show, where you will be able to see and, with luck, place your hands on instruments from makers such as Manson, Jaydee, Pilgrim, Kinkade and Gordon Smith, most of whom featured in our Best of British feature in the August issue. The event takes place at the Town Arms, Trent Bridge, Nottingham from 5.30 to 10.30pm. Admission is free. The M1 junction is 24. Then there's Arlen Roth. The chap who talks all the way through the Hotlicks instruction tapes is holding some clinics. Mr Roth is coming all the way from New York to present a combination of performance, demonstration and instruction, at the following music shops: September 20th CC Mu sic, Glasgow; 25th Guitar Player, Rochdale; 26th Carlsbro, Nottingham; 27th Carlsbro, Norwich; October 1st Cambridge Rock, Cambridge (yes!); 2nd Musical Exchange, Birmingham; 4th Fret Music, Southampton; 8th Monkey Business, Romford; 10th Allbang & Strummit, London. More info from the shops concerned or from Hotlicks distributor Labtek, (Contact Details).