First impressions with Gene's maple grand.
Wood feels nice and familiar. The material itself, I mean. I think I understand why people think that the wood sticks sound different or better or–at least–I have a theory. The body of this stick seems to resonate more. I don't mean that it changes the sound of the pickup, since i only just plugged in. Without plugging anything in, I get a stronger sense of the note that I am playing even though it isn't plugged in. It's nice and I could see how it would affect what some people feel when they play. It feels much more like a guitar in terms of resonance and response.
I like the cutout on the back of the railboard better right now. Without it, I tend to plant my thumb more as though I'm playing classical guitar. I'm sure that's mostly in my head but stilll.
I did not expect to be weirded out by the lack of an extra fret but here I am. weirded out. It's fine, just different.
I like the action on this so much more than the railboard but I swear some of it is setup since I don't buzz on the lowest string here and I still can't manage that on the railboard.
I like the sound of the PASV4. It seems to give a stronger signal than I get from the R block but I still try not to fiddle with knobs too much so maybe that is for lack of adjustment.
The feel of this pretty amazing in comparison to the railboard but that, somehow, just makes me want to set up the Railboard better.