*L* no - the dude on the pic is the inventor of the stick - Emmett Chapman. And you are right - Tony Levin plays the stick too (Bass in Liquid Tension, King Crimson, Peter Gabriel etc). "Sledge Hammer" would not sound that way without the stick.

The Stick is at about 1.600 to 2.500 USD. Mine was Second hand, but it is as good as new (infact it IS new) because the dude who bought it tried it for two days and discovered that he couldnt handle it. SO he sold it to me for a 1000 bucks. Big deal i guess.

and the warr guitar thing costs 4.600 USD.. so i think i´ll have to save a bit from now on *LOL*

I´ve worked on the stick today and it is realy incredible - the bass-sound is EXTREMELY powerfull - you can hardly get that sound and power with a regular bass. I worked on Bach´s "Chiaconna" and the first few attempts sounded great. I´ll keep on practicing and i´ll post some stuff as soon as i am a little more advanced on that instrument.