The merits and shortcomings of tappers

[K Rex]

Hi all,

I am curious to know what your feelings are with regard to the pros and cons of the tappers with which you have experience. I think this info might be of great use to prospective buyers and especially to those newbies who are thinking of entering our realm.

I've only played two so far: the stick and the warr phalanx.

The Warr is heavy... VERY heavy. But it has the smoothest melody to my ears that I've ever heard. The bass is pretty fearsome, too although I've had some problems with the low B. It was used, after all. Playability is high.

The Stick has a wiry sort of sci-fi sound which is instantly recognizable among tappists, I think. The bass is heavy and cool, although the melody is lacking in my opinion. Belt hook is pretty restrictive for those who rock like animals.

That's the brief synopsis. Anyone else?

Kev

[arsacane]

Stick (I have a 10 strings ACTV-2)
Pros: Ergonomics, the playing position is really good. The instruments remains vertical all the time (standing or sitting). The neck is narrow (I don't have huge hands). I like the bass sound, deep but bright at the same time. The melody (with my pickups and medium gauge strings) has an 'acoustic' sound, even more with new strings. The truss rod is very handy, easy to access and very responsive.
Cons: Since the strings are close to each other you have to be very precise. The melody sounds a little bit thin to me sometimes.
Warr Raptor (12 strings, active bartolinis)
Pros: Sustain is AMAZING, really I was always impressed with the great sustain in the stick until I played my Warr; the sustain is INSANE. More distance between the strings so it's a little bit more forgiving. Even on a 'budget' model the wood work is really nice, top quality handcraft. The sound of the barts is really good; the bass is DEEP (lacks a little bit of sparkle IMHO) and the melody is the BEST.
Cons: The neck is a little bit too wide for me (crossed playing). Playing position is very good sitting but the body pulls the neck forward when I stand up (i use a slider strap). The bass sound is good but not 100% to my taste. The truss rods are not as responsive as in a stick, so I found that is more difficult to set up.

My ideal instrument will be:
-with a body (i think it helps for sustain) but that doesn't pull the nect forward.
-The sound of the stickup for the bass
-The sound of my Warr on the melody
-The neck width of a stick


Cheers, Daniel

[secondfiddle]

I have an early model Box SRB-640. I like the 2 guitar sound and I have been playing it for about a year now. The pro's are excellent double guitar phrasings that I needed to work on for my own musical growth. The only con would be the short scale neck where it gets cramped at the top frets and the notes don't sustain as much as I would like, but that might be my lack of years playing a short scale. I like the guitar and am in the tweak process with new pickups.

[PhoBucket]

Circa 2000 Megatar Maxtapper. I think Megatars are a great entry point into the world of tapping because of the modular design, and low wait time.

Pros:
It is easy to experiment with tunings because no nut adjustments have to be made.
You can change pickup configurations without any woodwork. Pricepoint, especially for entry level models.
The Barts. Oh yeah. It's all about the Barts, baby.
Meg Strap. I love this thing.
Comfort/Playability. The instrument hangs where I want it and is very comfortable to play.

Cons:
Neck joint. The tolerances on the neck joint are not the tightest, and the design of the joint did not maximize wood contact, which I think leads to a little flubbiness/deadening of the low B string. (Note: newer models are neckthrough, so I imagine this would no longer be an issue).
Finish. I have an old poly finish instrument, and it is a little cloudy on the headstock. (Again, newer Megatars have a different finish.)
Dot system. Since I also play bass, the extra thought translation required by having a similar but different dot system is annoying, especially at the 3rd fret and in the second octave.

Also, I thought it would be an issue that the string spacing does not remain consistent from the nut to the bridge, but as I play the instrument it doesn't bother me at all.

[TheEclectic]

I have (2) Megatars circa 2000 and I have to agree with everything PhoBucket said - he really hit the nail on the head.

I would add the following:

Pro:
The bridge uses Import Strat saddles - this made it real easy to add the Ghost Hexaphonic system.

The pickguard covers a big cavity, which gives plenty of room to add any electronic goodies that one might want.

Can be played upright and can be played in a guitar position. I can tilt it to the guitar position and strum/fingerpick the guitar side or pluck the bass strings for a more authentic bass sound (this sounds killer when playing upright bass sounds thru the V-Bass system). I had to relocate the right side strap button to make this possible.

Both a Pro and a Con:
I like the bolt on neck as it allowed me to add a shim to raise the level of the fret board in relation to the saddles. When I added the Ghost system the wires from the saddles kept me from getting the action low enough. Even on the tapper without the Ghost system I am thinking of adding a shim so that I can lower the action (some saddles are already as low as they can go) and it will give me clearance to add Roland GK-3 pickup. If I were not able to add the shim, I would have to rout out some wood so that I could recess the bridge assembly.

Cons:
Weak sounding high strings – this noticed with on both tappers, one with Barts and one without, and even with the piezos I added to one of the tappers.

The right hside strap button caused the instrument to bump me in the head when I moved certain ways, so I relocated it to the lower back side of teh instrument, near where the cavity that has all of teh information. As a plus, this allowed me to play the instrument in guitar style.

[riadsala]

Only played my warr, so can't compare with anything else.

I love the basstone. It's quite distinctive, sounds very different from a bass guitar. I haven't found a melody side tone I'm 100% happy with, but then again, I haven't tried very hard. I've only played it live, or in a band, in a vey limited capacity so far, and mainly stuck to the bass side. At home, practising, so far I've managed to stick to concentrating on technique, rather than worrying about compressors, eq, effects, etc.

I'm sure when I eventually cave in and buy a suite of pedals, a good guitar/keyboard amp, and crank the volume up, I'll be in paradise.


I dread to think what sticks are like for string spacing! I still have trouble hitting only the string i want on my warr. Guess I'm just really used to my two Warwick basses, and have shoddy technique! It's getting better all the time.

I find the neck of the warr seems just about right for playing with crossed hands. Not too narrow, not to wide. It's a 10 string Artist model btw. Pics on my blog.

It sure if a heavy beast. Esp in a hard case. Lugging it to band rehearsals can be pretty tiring, espcially if i have a bass on my back too! I need a roadie! (Groupies would be nice too)

[arsacane]

Originally posted by riadsala
I dread to think what sticks are like for string spacing! I still have trouble hitting only the string i want on my warr.
....
It sure if a heavy beast. Esp in a hard case.


Although there is a difference in string spacing I almost don't notice it. But I feel the difference of the neck width.

Even if the Raptor model is supposed to be lighter (smaller body), I think mine (according to ups) was around 36/37 pounds with the hardcase! I have to admit that the case is quite old (metal and wood). I don't feel the weight with the slider strap and in a gig bag it's ok for carrying around.