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Chapman Stick

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A 10 string Chapman Stick

The Chapman Stick (generally known to its players simply as the Stick) is an electric musical instrument devised by Emmett Chapman in the early 1970s. A polyphonic member of the guitar family, the Chapman Stick has been used on many popular music recordings to play various parts (bass, lead, chords and textures).[1]

Chapman, originally a jazz guitarist,sought to create an instrument designed for the "Free Hands" tapping method of both hands parallel to the frets, which he originally developed for use on his guitar in 1969. The first production model of the Stick was shipped in 1974. Chapman brought his instrument to public attention by demonstrating it on the game show What's My Line? on October 10, 1974.[2]

The Stick was subsequently picked up on by several prominent musicians. Ex-Weather Report bassist Alphonso Johnson was among the first musicians to introduce the Chapman Stick to the public. Another relatively early user was Tony Levin, who was playing the instrument from the mid-1970s and would bring it to arguably its highest public profile on sessions and tours with Peter Gabriel. Levin has also prominently featured the Stick in his work as a member of King Crimson from 1981 onwards, and in sessions for bands including Pink Floyd and Yes.

Recordings which have been influential on many Stick players (due to the prominent role played by the Stick) include the 1981 King Crimson album Discipline (played by Tony Levin) and Emmett Chapman's own 1985 album Parallel Galaxy. Amy Grant's hit single "Angels" also featured a Stick solo (played by Andy Widders-Ellis).

Elsewhere in the public eye, the Stick made a (slightly disguised) appearance in David Lynch's film, Dune as Gurney Halleck's baliset, though the scene where Halleck (played by Patrick Stewart), 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 a quote 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 semi-anthropomorphic bass guitar from the Chapman Stick.

Description and playing position

Superficially, a Stick looks like a wide version of the fretboard of an electric guitar, with 8, 10 or 12 strings. It is, however, considerably longer and wider 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.[3]

Typically, the Chapman Stick is held via a belt-hook (worn at the front of the body) and a shoulder strap. The player hooks the instrument onto their belt and places their head and left arm through the shoulder strap. The instrument then settles into a position approximately 30 to 40 degrees from vertical, which allows both of the player's hands to naturally and comfortably address the fretboard. (In comparison, a typically held guitar's fretboard is more or less horizontal.) The player then hammers onto the strings with their fingertips in the same way that one would strike a piano key. The technique is very similar to that of piano in as much as the player covers both bass and melody notes together with both hands.

Technical details

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), other organic materials like bamboo, as well as graphite epoxy and other even more high-tech composites.

In contrast to the guitar or bass, the Stick is set up with very little relief in the fretboard, i.e. it is very flat, compared to a guitar, which has a slight bow. Combined with a long scale length, somewhat elevated frets, very low string action, and very sensitive pickups, this setup is particularly advantageous to the tapping style of play.

Tuning

The tuning options on the Stick are as wide as the player's whim, however the 'standard tuning' consists of 5 bass strings (6 on the Grand Stick models), tuned upwards in 5ths, with the low string in the middle of the fretboard, and 5 melody strings (6 on Grand Stick), tuned upwards in 4ths, again with the low string in the middle of the fretboard. Tuning configurations may change depending on the player's style; a player playing as a lead instrument will choose an overall higher pitch tuning, with more separation between the melody and bass courses; a player who is playing chordally across the whole instrument will choose a closer relationship between the bass and melody sides, tuned to lower pitch (called "Matched Reciprocal" tuning).

The stringing/tuning configuration of the Chapman Stick is advantageous to the player who wishes to play large, fully-voiced chords with close inner note relationships. In contrast to a standard guitar, where one tends to "run out of options" within a particular fingering, the Stick tuning results in up to 4 or even 5 octaves of note choices, under a single fretting position.

The standard tuning shows another advantage as well: The harmonic scale structures typical to western music form very stable, geometric, and "finger-able" patterns, which remain consistent across the whole instrument, facilitating transposition, and also making the instrument easier to learn than is immediately apparent. Also, the bass/melody division allows for microtonal tunings, which makes unusually exotic sounds possible.

The manufacturer's website has more detailed information on tunings.[4]

Electronics

The Stick is available with passive or active pickup modules. Customized Roland GK-3 pickups are available for the treble or bass side of the instrument, allowing the instrument to drive one 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 2 channel, through a TRS 1/4" connector, with bass and melody courses output separately. There are separate volume controls for bass and melody. The ACTV-2 and PASV-4 pickup modules also have mono operation modes.

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

The British musician Nick Beggs has significantly modified a Chapman Stick to a fully MIDI-capable instrument triggering from both bass and melody strings. He has named this modified instrument the "Virtual Stick".

Models

Currently there are seven 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 accompaniment, with shorter scale length for a more guitar-like range)
  • Stick Guitar (12 strings, 2 groups of 6, with shorter scale length for a more guitar-like range)

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

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

  • 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.[7][8] Only a small number of these prototypes exist.

List of notable Stick players (alphabetical)


References

  1. ^ Adelson, Steve. "Emmett Chapman and the Stick" - "GuitarPlayer.com".
  2. ^ Chapman, Emmett. "Emmett on "What's My Line?", October 10, 1974". Retrieved 2009-03-09.
  3. ^ "Chapman Stick Performance by Guillaume Estace". Retrieved 2009-07-07.
  4. ^ Alternate tunings
  5. ^ "The Acoustick". Retrieved 2008-11-08.
  6. ^ Gloster, Vance. "The AcouStick II". Stickwire. Retrieved 2008-11-08.
  7. ^ Chapman, Emmett. "StickXBL prototypes with BassLab resonant beam". Stick Enterprises. Retrieved 2008-11-08.
  8. ^ "StickXBL Offers Extended Scale". HarmonyCentral.com, Inc. 2003-07-19. Retrieved 2008-11-08.
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