Chapman Stick
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The Chapman Stick is an electric musical instrument devised by Emmett Chapman in the early 1970s. He set out to create an instrument designed for the tapping technique of both hands parallel to the frets he invented in 1969. The first production model of the Stick was shipped in 1974.
Superficially, it looks like a wide version of the fretboard of an electric guitar with 8, 10 or 12 strings mounted on it, but it is considerably longer than a guitar fretboard. Unlike the electric guitar, it is usually played by tapping or fretting the strings, rather than plucking them. Instead of one hand fretting and the other hand plucking, both hands sound notes by striking the strings against the fingerboard just behind the appropriate frets for the desired notes. For this reason, it can sound many more notes at once than most other stringed instruments, making it more comparable to a keyboard instrument than to other stringed instruments. This arrangement lends itself to playing multiple lines at once and many Stick players have mastered performing bass, chords and melody lines simultaneously.
Construction
Over the years, Chapman Sticks have been made out of many materials. The first ones were made from super hardwoods, most from ironwood, but some from ebony and other exotic woods, through the early 1980s. The next group, chronologically, were made from an injection-molded polycarbonate resin through the early 1990s. Today, they are made from many hardwoods (including padauk, Indian rosewood, tarara, maple and mahogany), as well as graphite epoxy and other even more high-tech composites.Models
Currently there are six different models of the Chapman Stick. Some string configurations are mentioned below, but current production models offer any tuning within physical limitations of stringing:
- The Stick (10 strings, 5 melody + 5 bass)
- Grand Stick (12 strings, 6 melody + 6 bass)
- Stick Bass (SB8) (8 strings, 4 melody + 4 bass or an undivided bass guitar-like tuning)
- NS/Stick (8 strings set up for plucking, strumming, or tapping; co-invented by Chapman & Ned Steinberger) 34" scale
- Stick XG (a variation on traditional Stick construction, made from structural graphite, continuous strand carbon fiber )
- Alto Stick (10 strings, 5 melody + 5 bass, with shorter scale length for a more guitar-like range)
Stick Enterprises has also manufactured some custom and limited-run instruments:
- The Acoustick – an acoustic version of the Chapman Stick made for Bob Culbertson) [link]
- A 10-string Grand Stick – the wider fretboard of the Grand with only 10 strings.
- StickXBL – A prototype Stick with body construction by BassLab using a hollow "tunable composite" material. Only a small number of these prototypes exist.
Musicians using the Chapman Stick
Chapman Sticks have been used on many popular music recordings to play various parts, bass, lead and chords and textures. Popular artists who have used the Chapman Stick on their recordings and live performances include:
- Nick Beggs (Kajagoogoo, Ellis, Beggs & Howard, John Paul Jones)
- Blue Man Group
- Blue Quarter
- Brian Bourne of Rawlins Cross
- Tim Buckley featuring Emmett Chapman
- Bob Culbertson
- Bruce Cockburn featuring Fergus Marsh
- Patrick Goodsell of Sleeo
- Trey Gunn (now uses the Warr guitar)
- Greg Howard solo and on the Dave Matthews Band album Before These Crowded Streets
- Kittyhawk (with multiple Stick players)
- Tony Levin solo and with Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe, Peter Gabriel, Liquid Tension Experiment, and King Crimson
- Sean Malone of Cynic and Gordian Knot
- John Myung of Dream Theater (specifically on the song "New Millennium" from "Falling into Infinity")
- Don Schiff solo and with Lana Lane and Rocket Scientists
- Andy Widders-Ellis solo on Amy Grant Hit "Angels"
- Aaron Wolf of Darktown Saints
- Richard Wright of Pink Floyd
Recordings that have been influential on many Stick players, because the Stick plays such a prominent role, include the 1981 King Crimson album Discipline and Emmett Chapman's 1985 album Parallel Galaxy.
The Chapman Stick also made a (slightly disguised) appearance in David Lynch's film, Dune as Gurney Halleck's baliset, though the scene where Gurney actually plays the instrument was removed from the theatrical version and can only be seen in the various extended versions of the film. The piece being played in the scene is from Emmett Chapman's album Parallel Galaxy.
Wayne Lytle, creator of Animusic, commented that on his piece "Stick Figures", he had the inspiration for the bass guitar character from the Chapman Stick.
External links
- [Stick.com - Official Site]
- *[How it works]
- [Stickist.com] - Comprehensive Stick site with forums, pictures, and more
- [StickiWiki] - Encyclopedia of Stick Knowledge
- [A directory of Stick players]
- [Chapman Stick Discography]
- [Official page of Bob Culbertson] with stick sound samples, explanation of playing techniques and more
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