well - i personally am blown away by the sound of my stick - plus the action is VERY low - compared to a regular guitar you harldy need to touch the string to produce a tapped tone. the feeling is great and the fact the the hands cross the fretborad does not mean that you are incapable of playing the low registers of the trebblestrings. infact you can play much more because you can (due to the fact that there is no gap between the bass and the trebble side) use all 5 fingers of one hand to play the trebble and bass side at once. Check out Bob Culbertson - his style is amazing. aswell as Greg Howard.
i am not sure why you say that the stick sound is cold - it is absolutely not - but i guess thats a matter of taste.