I've played a few gigs with it where I've been swapping between bass and guitar and for that it's been great - tbh the first time I did it I was just doing it to wind up the guitarist I was playing with as he was rather conservative about gear selection, and this was the embodiment of everything he despised!
I bought a stick years ago, but could never get to grips with it (I did a year on it, but was still very basic), and I guess the 9 string filled the gap for that sort of thing, without being unplayable for me... Plus I got it for a steal on gumtree here in the UK as the seller had got so annoyed with no shows he sold it dirt cheap.