Nestor Contardo picked up his first instrument when he was only eight years old and hasn’t stopped playing music since. After studying different musical styles and playing a variety of instruments, he found his passion to be playing solo electric bass guitar. “I love this instrument because it gives me such a wide range of deep sounds”, describes Nestor, “I use these different sounds to create music that I feel is unique to myself”.

Incorporating his interest in the flamenco music of his native Venezuela, Nestor has found a way to play his bass guitar with a similar approach. In order to achieve this, he uses many different strumming and tapping techniques not commonly heard on the bass guitar. This style of playing is also likely what turned Nestor onto the NS/Stick. This new eight-stringed instrument was co-designed by Ned Steinberger and Emmett Chapman to provide a dual role instrument for those musicians who desire to play all methods on one fretboard - picking, plucking, strumming, and the two-handed tapping Stick method.

Nestor sites musicians such as Michael Hedges, Stanley Clarke, Stanley Jordan, Dave La Rue, Victor Wooten and Weaver Felton as his major influences as he describes his music as “trans-spiritual” and “otherworldly”.