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Stringed musical instrument of the guitar family unit

Chapman Stick

10-stringed Chapman Stick
String musical instrument
Classification	Cord
Hornbostel–Sachs classification	321.322 (Composite chordophone)
Inventor(south)	Emmett Chapman
Developed	1970s
Related instruments
Warr Guitar Bear upon guitar Megatar

The Chapman Stick is an electric musical musical instrument devised past Emmett Chapman in the early on 1970s. A fellow member of the guitar family, the Chapman Stick usually has ten or twelve individually tuned strings and is used to play bass lines, melody lines, chords, or textures. Designed as a fully polyphonic chordal musical instrument, it can also cover several of these musical parts simultaneously.^[one]

The Stick is available with passive or active pickup modules that are plugged into a separate instrument amplifier. With a special synthesizer pickup, it can be used to trigger synthesizers and send MIDI messages to electronic instruments.

Description and playing position [edit]

Saltatio Mortis bandmember Bruder Frank.

Imagine creating music on a stringed instrument that is simultaneously a guitar, a bass, a piano, and percussion. Add unlimited electronic capabilities and forward-thinking playing techniques for ultimate expression. Now, blueprint a tuning to brand navigation of the musical instrument amazingly simple, and streamline the look and feel for optimal accessibility. This instrument already exists every bit the Chapman Stick.

Steve Adelson describing the Chapman Stick in Guitar Player mag^[i]

A Stick looks like a wide version of the fretboard of an electric guitar, but with 8, 10, or 12 strings. It is, even so, considerably longer and wider than a guitar fretboard. Unlike the electric guitar, information technology is usually played past tapping or fretting the strings, rather than plucking them. Instead of one paw fretting and the other hand plucking, both hands audio notes by hitting the strings against the fingerboard "backside" (in guitar parlance, this means a curt altitude towards the tuning machines) on the appropriate frets for the desired notes.

For this reason, it can audio many more notes at once than some other stringed instruments, making it more than comparable to a keyboard instrument than to other stringed instruments. This organisation lends itself to playing many lines at once, and many Stick players have mastered performing bass, chords, and melody lines simultaneously.^[ii]

Typically, the Chapman Stick is held via a belt-hook and a shoulder strap. The player hooks the instrument onto the belt and places the head and dominant arm through the shoulder strap. The musical instrument then settles into a position approximately 30 to 40 degrees from vertical, which allows both of the histrion'due south hands to naturally and comfortably accost the fretboard. The actor and then hammers onto the strings with the fingertips in the same mode that i would strike a piano key. The technique is very similar to that of the piano inasmuch as the player covers both bass and melody notes together with both hands, and each annotation is struck with one finger of ane paw. Typically, 1 manus plays the melody on the treble strings and the other plays rhythm on the bass strings.

Michael Bernier bowing the Stick.

A seated playing position (which keeps the Stick in a similar playing position relative to the thespian equally the standing position) is also popular, wherein a cross-member is laid upon the knees of the seated role player and the stick's belthook rests upon the crossmember.^{[3] [4]}

Origins, history, and pop contour [edit]

The offset Stick prototype

In 1969, jazz guitarist Emmett Chapman adult the two-handed borer technique (in which both hands play parallel to the frets) and applied information technology to his playing. At the time, Chapman was playing a 9-string long-scale guitar, simply decided to develop a new instrument for use with "free hands" to use the method'southward full potential. The Chapman Stick took five years to develop, during which Chapman also opted to gear up up a business to sell it. The first production model of the Stick was launched in 1974. On October 10 of the same year, Chapman brought his instrument to public attending past demonstrating it on the game bear witness What's My Line? ^[5]

Former Weather Study bassist Alphonso Johnson was among the first musicians to introduce the Chapman Stick to the public. Session player Tony Levin was likewise an early user and was playing the instrument from the mid-1970s: he would bring it to sessions and tours with Peter Gabriel, and featured it in his work equally a member of King Cerise from 1981 onwards. He would likewise employ information technology with Liquid Tension Experiment and in sessions for bands including Pinkish Floyd and Aye. Levin formed the band Stick Men, consisting of one drummer and two Stick players.

Emmett Chapman playing an early on Stick in 1969.

Recordings that have been influential on Stick players, because of the prominent office the Stick plays, include the 1981 Rex Ruddy album Field of study (played past Tony Levin) and Emmett Chapman'southward own album Parallel Milky way. Amy Grant'due south hit single "Angels" as well featured a Stick solo (played by Andy Widders-Ellis).

The Stick fabricated a bearded appearance in David Lynch's pic Dune as Gurney Halleck's baliset, although the scene where Halleck (played past Patrick Stewart) plays the instrument was removed from the theatrical version and tin only be seen in the extended versions. The piece being played in the scene is from Emmett Chapman's recording of his original vocal "Back Yard" from a cassette recording.

Wayne Lytle, creator of Animusic, commented that on his piece "Stick Figures", his inspiration for the semi-anthropomorphic bass guitar was the Chapman Stick.

Technical details [edit]

Structure [edit]

Brazilian pau ferro (ironwood) Stick manufactured in the 1980s

Chapman Sticks take been made from many materials.^[six] The first were made from hardwoods, well-nigh from ironwood, simply some from ebony and other exotic wood, until the early on 1980s. The side by side group was made from an injection-molded polycarbonate resin through 1989. These were followed by one-piece hardwood structures with an adjustable truss rod, and for a time from 2001 to the mid-to-tardily 2000s (although not currently available), the "Stick XG" (Extended Graphite) was fabricated of structural graphite, continuous strand carbon cobweb. Today, they are made from laminated hardwoods (including padauk, Indian rosewood, tarara, maple, wenge, and mahogany), and laminated bamboo, as well as graphite.

Diego Souto playing an ironwood Stick made in 1982.

In contrast to the guitar or bass, the Stick is set upwardly with very little relief in the fretboard. Information technology is very flat compared to a guitar, which has a slight bow. Combined with a long scale length, stainless steel pyramidal fret track, very low string activeness, and very sensitive pickups, this setup is advantageous to the borer style of play. The rear surface of the instrument is not curved similar a guitar neck, but has deep-beveled edges (as well a pattern trademark of the Stick).

Tuning [edit]

The original (now chosen "Classic") tuning consists of five bass strings (half dozen on the Grand Sticks), tuned upwards in all-fifths tuning, with the low string in the middle of the fretboard, and five melody strings (half dozen on Grand Stick), tuned upwards (this means from lowest-pitched cord to highest-pitched string) in all-fourths tuning, once again with the low string in the center of the fretboard.

The hardware is fully adjustable to adjust any approximate cord at any position. On the 36"-scale instrument, notes can range from low C (above B on a v-string bass) to high D (a whole footstep beneath the high E string on guitar). On the 2 guitar-calibration models (Alto Stick and Stick Guitar), the notes range from F below guitar low E to F# above guitar high East.

Tuning configurations may modify depending on the thespian'southward style: a player playing as a pb instrument will choose an overall higher pitch tuning, with more than separation or overlap between the tune and bass courses.

The stringing/tuning configuration of the Chapman Stick is advantageous to the player who wishes to play big, fully voiced chords with close inner-annotation relationships. In contrast to a standard guitar, where one tends to "run out of options" inside a particular fingering, the Stick tuning results in up to four or fifty-fifty five octaves of annotation choices under each manus'southward fretting position.

The classic tuning shows another advantage as well: The regular tunings in fourths and fifths remain consistent in each of the ii parts of the instrument; regular tunings facilitate learning by beginners, as well equally transposition and improvisation by avant-garde players. As well, the bass/melody partition allows microtonal tunings.

The manufacturer's website has more detailed information on tunings.^[vii]

Electronics [edit]

The Stick is available with passive or active pickup modules. Customized Roland GK-iii pickups are available for the treble or bass side of the instrument, assuasive the instrument to trigger or control i or two guitar synthesizers such as the Roland GR-20 or Axon AX-100, and also to drive other MIDI instruments or sequencers chained to the guitar synthesizer. The hammer-on style of playing produces a rising waveform transient that is easily tracked by this type of device.

Standard output is two-aqueduct, through a TRS i/4" phone connector, with bass and melody courses output separately. There are split up volume controls for bass and melody. The ACTV-2 and PASV-4 pickup modules too take mono operation modes.

The Stick can exist plugged into any standard guitar amp or bass amplifier, to expert effect. However, because of the very high impedance of the passive pickups, an instrument preamp is often employed, specially for full-range amplification systems (PA arrangement, keyboard amps, etc.).

British musician Nick Beggs uses a Grand Stick, fully MIDI-capable of triggering from both bass and melody strings. He has named this modified musical instrument the "Virtual Stick".

Models [edit]

Currently, there are eight models of the Chapman Stick. Some cord configurations are mentioned below, but current product models offer any tuning within physical limitations of stringing:

• The Stick (ten strings, 5 tune & 5 bass/half dozen melody & iv bass, other custom tunings and ready-ups, 36" scale length)
• The Railboard (10 strings, a 1-piece CNC-cut thru-neck aluminum axle with 9 pieces bolted-on including headstock, span, new R-Block pickup module, 34" calibration)
• Thousand Stick (12 strings, 6 tune & 6 bass/seven melody & v bass, other custom tunings and fix-ups, 36" scale length)
• 10-String Grand Stick (10 strings installed on a wooden or laminated bamboo "blanks" for the K Stick 12-string model, thus creating a wider fretboard & string spacing for a 10-string Stick. Center-to-center string spacing is 0.350" equally opposed to 0.315" on standard 10-string Sticks. The infinite between the "melody" & "bass" groups of strings is besides wider, at 0.500" instead of the standard 0.430". Same 5 melody & 5 bass/6 melody & 4 bass, custom tunings and set up-ups & 36" scale length as the standard 10-string Stick)
• Stick Bass (SB8) (8 strings, undivided "straight 4ths" B-Bb bass guitar or B-A electrical guitar intervals tuning, standard Stick 4 melody & 4 bass, other custom tunings and set up-ups, 36" scale length)
• NS/Stick (8 strings set up for plucking, strumming, or tapping in standard bass or guitar intervals, standard Stick 5 melody & v bass, other custom tunings and set-ups; co-invented by Chapman & Ned Steinberger, 34" calibration length)
• Alto Stick (x strings, v melody + 5 accompaniment, with shorter calibration length for a more guitar-like range, 26.5" calibration length)
• Stick Guitar (12 strings, 2 groups of 6, with shorter scale length for a more guitar-similar range, 26.5" calibration length)

Currently, the Stick, Grand Stick, and Stick Bass are 36"-scale, simply the older production models were 34" calibration.

Stick Enterprises has likewise manufactured some custom and limited-run instruments:

• SB7 Stick Bass – Original "Stick Bass" model with string-spacing close to the current x-string Chapman Stick, which is narrower than the SB8 eight-string Stick Bass. 2 Bartolini bass pickups (1 "Soapbar" & ane "Single Coil"-sized: only 1 selectable at a time) with mono-but output as opposed to virtually all the previously built and current to the original & upgraded over time passive "Stickup", newer active EMG "ACTV-2" Block, passive Villex "PASV-4" and "R-Block" railboard pickup modules, all of which have stereo-or-mono output. Only one product run completed in 1996–97 until replaced by the more than Stick-like SB8 in March 1998.^{[8] [9]} Only one Production Run of this item Stick model was built before beingness replaced by the SB8 Stick Bass.

• The Acoustick – an acoustic version of the Chapman Stick made for Bob Culbertson.^{[10] [xi]}

• StickXBL – A paradigm Stick with torso construction by BassLab using a hollow "tunable blended" fabric.^{[12] [13]} Only a minor number of these prototypes exist.

List of notable players and ensembles [edit]

• Carlos Alonso, leader of Glueleg
• Jeff Ament of Pearl Jam
• John Rest of Whorl and Current 93
• Nick Beggs (Kajagoogoo, Ellis, Beggs & Howard, John Paul Jones, Nik Kershaw, Howard Jones, Iona, Steve Hackett, Steven Wilson, Lifesigns)^[fourteen]
• Blue Man Grouping
• Zeta Bosio of Soda Stereo
• Brian Bourne
• Terry Burrows author and musician
• Emmett Chapman inventor of the Chapman Stick Touchboard and the Free Hands Two-Handed Tapping Technique
• Guillermo Cides solo Stick performer
• Bob Culbertson solo Stick performer
• Peter Gifford plays Chapman Stick on the tracks 'Sleep' and 'Who Tin can Stand in the Style' on the Midnight Oil album Red Sails in the Dusk and in concert
• Trey Gunn played Chapman Stick with Robert Fripp, David Sylvian, Sunday All Over the World, King Crimson and UKZ
• Paige Haley of Orgy
• Greg Howard solo and on the Dave Matthews Ring album Before These Crowded Streets
• Alphonso Johnson Weather Study, Santana, Gregg Rolie Ring
• Tony Levin solo and with Peter Gabriel, King Cerise, Yes, Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe (notably on live renditions of Close to the Edge), Pink Floyd, Stick Men, and Liquid Tension Experiment
• Sean Malone of Cynic and Gordian Knot
• Mark McCullough with Cerise Wanting Blue
• John Myung of Dream Theater and Gordian Knot
• Mike Oldfield plays Chapman Stick on his album The Songs of Distant Earth (and in some multimedia video clips on the extended CD) (although Oldfield plays with pick every bit opposed to two-hand technique)
• Pino Palladino on Paul Immature's No Parlez
• Jeff Pearce solo and in concert with William Ackerman
• Don Schiff solo and with Lana Lane and Rocket Scientists
• Mauricio Sotelo from Cabezas de Cera [es], Mexican progressive ring^[15]
• Akın Ünver, Solo Stick player from Ankara, Turkey
• Fariz RM

Come across also [edit]

• Left-handed tunings, which are chosen "inverse tunings" in the Chapman Stick community
• Affect guitar
• Warr Guitar
• Megatar

References [edit]

1. ^ ^{a b} Adelson, Steve. "Emmett Chapman and the Stick" ^{[ permanent dead link ]} – "GuitarPlayer.com".
2. ^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: "Chapman Stick Functioning by Guillaume Estace". YouTube . Retrieved 2009-07-07 .
3. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2014-09-08. Retrieved 2014-09-08 . {{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
4. ^ "Stickist.com – View topic – how do you sit downward and play". world wide web.stickist.com . Retrieved 27 July 2017.
5. ^ Chapman, Emmett. "Emmett on "What's My Line?", October 10, 1974". Archived from the original on 2009-03-09. Retrieved 2009-03-09 .
6. ^ Chapman, Emmett. "timeline of Stick advancements". www.stick.com. Stick Enterprises, Inc. Retrieved 12 March 2018.
7. ^ "Stick Tunings". www.stick.com . Retrieved 27 July 2017.
8. ^ Due north/A, Northward/A. "Chapman Stick StickBass SB7". Bass Guitar Museum. Retrieved 2013-11-22 .
9. ^ "Anyone accept an SB-7?". Stickist.com. 2003-07-nineteen. Retrieved 2013-11-22 .
10. ^ "The Acoustick". Archived from the original on 2008-12-07. Retrieved 2008-eleven-08 .
11. ^ Gloster, Vance. "The AcouStick II". Stickwire. Retrieved 2008-xi-08 .
12. ^ Chapman, Emmett. "StickXBL prototypes with BassLab resonant beam". Stick Enterprises. Archived from the original on 2008-12-07. Retrieved 2008-11-08 .
13. ^ "StickXBL Offers Extended Calibration". HarmonyCentral.com, Inc. 2003-07-19. Archived from the original on 2008-12-07. Retrieved 2008-11-08 .
14. ^ McIver, Joel (April 2019). "Godlike". Bass Player. Future Usa (381): 42–43.
15. ^ "Cabezas de Cera". www.cabezasdecera.com.mx . Retrieved 27 July 2017.

External links [edit]

• Stick.com - Official Site
• Basic Data almost the Stick in Castilian and English language

Stick With Me

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapman_Stick

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