caption years_active notable_instruments birth_place label article_title background birth_date instrument genre origin name occupation
monday , 4 january 2010 july 2011 1974 - present electric guitar bass , ns/stick , chapman stick , bowed wilmington , delaware think tank media don schiff
 non_vocal_instrumentalist 9 november 1955 ns/stick guitar , chapman stick , bass guitar , bowed progressive rock , rock wilmington , delaware don schiff musician , songwriter
don schiff

don schiff -lrb- born november 9 , 1955 -rrb- is a bass guitar , chapman stick , ns/stick , and bowed guitar player on recordings , tv , and film sessions .
he is one of the earliest stick , ns/stick , and bowed guitar players .
he helped popularize the ns/stick and a technique of using a carabiner as a slide and tapping device .
a native of wilmington , delaware , schiff moved to las vegas , nevada immediately after high school in 1974 .
at age 19 he quickly developed a reputation and within five months got his first break when hired to be the ` house bassist ' for the flamingo las vegas and hilton hotel showrooms .
there , he played for such artists as elvis presley , tina turner , peggy lee , sammy davis , jr. , ann-margret , perry como , and the 5th dimension , as well as others .
schiff purchased his first chapman stick in 1975 and quickly adapted to it , creating his own style of playing .
gradually , around the time he was making the move to los angeles in 1977 , he began using it during live dates and recording sessions for various artists including eddie money , lana lane , dwight yoakam , erik norlander and sheryl crow .
he met screenwriter and director patrick sean duncan who hired him to score the films `` live from death row '' and `` family values '' .
he can be seen briefly in both of those films since pat duncan cast him in films he directed , placing him in odd scenes .
in 2000 , emmett chapman and ned steinberger developed the first prototype ns/stick .
schiff was given one of the first two prototypes to try out .
he developed many new techniques on it including `` tapping while plucking '' and `` slide technique '' using a carabiner while tapping .
the song `` cerebral man '' , which he wrote along with tully winfield , was recorded by pat benatar on her album entitled `` wide awake in dreamland '' for which he received a gold album in 1988 .
the song `` with every word '' recorded by nia peeples on her self-titled album was also written by schiff and winfield .
schiff currently plays ns/stick in the band rocket scientists .
he also scores music for and wrote the theme for the web series `` the guild '' .
