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Dan Bobrowski View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 30 2004 at 15:50

A Brief History of the Stick


Emmett and Yuta Chapman
I created a new stringed instrument to embody all the advantages of the tapping method I had been playing on guitar. I needed an all-fingerboard instrument, an expanded playing surface of strings and frets with the room and the range to explore two-handed playing to its full extent. At the same time I reduced the design to the essentials, solely for this basic method.

A member of the guitar and bass family, The Stick introduced a full two-handed piano technique applied directly onto the strings. It has a longer natural sustain than guitar, and yet is extremely percussive, the "drumming" of fingers executing sharp, staccato rhythms. It also has a strong and distinctive bass voice. And so, the techniques of four major instruments - guitar, piano, bass and drums - are all brought together on this single TouchboardŽ instrument.

The technique came before the instrument, a sudden discovery while playing my guitar in 1969. No known guitarist, bassist, or fingerboard player had ever before used a basic three and four fingered technique in each hand simultaneously to play independent lines, scales and chords. It was unique, yet basic and logical - both hands aligned parallel to the frets and perpendicular to the strings, the fingers of each hand fitting sequentially into selected fret spaces at any point along the board.

This is the common orientation of a fingering hand, more or less at right angles to the neck, and has from antiquity been the manner in which pickers, pluckers and strummers of stringed instruments finger-stopped their notes, usually with the left hand. I dedicated this fingering role to both hands, each addressing the board from opposite sides, and I began to perform, teach, and demonstrate this new method, as well as inventing and manufacturing a new instrument to fully realize its potential.

By 1970 I was playing L.A. clubs with jazz guitarist Barney Kessel, using this light-touch method of independent hands to play simultaneous bass, chords and melody on my modified guitar. Later that year I built a bodiless version out of an ebony board and called it "The Electric Stick". Refinements of the instrument and the method then evolved together, with my first production run of Sticks in 1974, as well as my first nationally televised Stick performance on "What's My Line" that year.

Stick Enterprises was founded in 1974 to manufacture and distribute the Stick. Since then we have added many new features and created a variety of related tapping instruments, including 8, 10, and 12 string models, an 8-string NS/Stick bass guitar, and related accessories.

Emmett Chapman, President,
Stick Enterprises, Inc.

 

This is from the Chapman Stick website;  http://www.stick.com/history/stick/

The photo Sigod posted is a Warr guitar, similar to the stick.

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goose View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 30 2004 at 16:13

 for the Chapman Stick!

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 30 2004 at 16:15

And to Wizard/TRuestar, look at http://www.stick.com/method/ for a demonstration

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 04 2004 at 03:32

anyone heard of a theremin

 

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 04 2004 at 09:19
yep





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aqualung28 View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 04 2004 at 18:48

I am amazed that someone actually knows what I'm talking about.  You ever played one b4? It's a blast!

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 05 2004 at 01:09
theremins always make me think of cheesy 50s horror movies. 
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 05 2004 at 01:30
well there's good reason for that, considering it's been used in the soundtracks of 90% of those movies.  But, if used correctly, it can make a violin like or vocal sound. there are also some that can take in MIDI files and allow you to manipulate sound effects.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 05 2004 at 07:09

sadly I've never played one, no. My friend was going to get one off eBay but then realised he couldn't play any musical instruments . I might well have access to one on my degree course next year though.

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 05 2004 at 12:57
well those things are seriously fun.  If you get the chance, play the Moog Theremin. It's the best one.
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James Lee View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 05 2004 at 17:27

Roland has a similar device called the D-beam, and Korg does it with their Kaoss equipment. Both are similar, but use invisible sensors rather than an electrostatic antenna. It is really mindbogglingly amazingly fun to make sounds by moving your hands in the air.

We had some discussion about the theremin a while back- I'll see if I can dig up the thread.

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 05 2004 at 17:48



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Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 05 2004 at 23:48

 

There is also this thing called the Tannerin, which was used in The Beach Boys "Good Vibrations"


A custom Tannerin built by Tom Polk


The Tannerin Tom built for Brian Wilson
Tannerin

The Tannerin, built by Tom Polk, is an electronic instrument named after Paul Tanner, who originated its use in the 1950s. Dr. Tanner's instrument was formerly called an electro-theremin. The Tannerin produces a pure sine wave, variable over three or four octaves. It is played by sliding a knob along the length of the instrument, starting and stopping the tone with a contact switch located on the pitch knob and operated by one's forefinger. The Tannerin has fixed reference points on a dummy keyboard so the musician knows exactly where notes can be found.

An electro-theremin created the spacy sound on the Beach Boys classic Good Vibrations. Tom Polk built a special Tannerin for Brian Wilson to use on his 1999-2000 tour.

For more information on the Tannerin, visit

"O' lady look up in time o' lady look out of love
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O' you should have us fall"
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