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Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | Another variation on a familiar theme here, but very impressive nonetheless . . . http://www.heartstringslive.com/ |
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Location: Orlando, FL | Cool instrument, frequently played by progressive rock's hardest working bass player, Tony Levin. |
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Location: Flahdaw | Sorry, but those things look strange....especially when played while sitting. |
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Location: Chicago | I first saw an article on the Stick in 1970. Emmet Chapman was already very good at it. Since then, it has been a mystery why (admittedly brilliant) players such as Van Halen and Stanley Jordan are credited with "inventing" the tapping technique.... |
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Location: Route 66, just east of the Cadillac Ranch | This video inspired me to try one a couple of years ago. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JjimMO2SdE Don't be fooled by the fact that some folks make these look easy to play, because they're not. I've heard several knowledgeable folks say that keyboard players have a better success rate than guitar players. I suspect folks who can juggle on a unicycle have the edge. |
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Location: NW Washington State | I've had one since the late '70s, but you wouldn't want to hear me trying to play it.
Emmett started production in '74. There are lots of models and many different tunings: http://www.stick.com/
A good Stick player who can keep both hands independent makes any fingerstyle or tapping guitarist look feeble. Unfortunately there aren't many good Stick players.
Bob Culbertson: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTRD9sWcTUE
Leo Gosselin: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6clNkDTlH9g
Greg Howard: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcvnRhT2NZQ&feature=relmfu
Emmett Chapman explains it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvuiAobq2_Y |
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Posts: 32
| Only seen a few people ever play it live. Tony levin and trey gunn of King Crimson fame, and the bass player from john paul jones band (forgot his name). The other solo guys were not impressive with music but they could make some dense layered sounds. The warr guitar is very similar as well. Surprised someone like stanley jordan didn't switch to either of these options since they are far superior for tapping. |
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Posts: 2120
Location: Chicago | Stanley Jordan is savvy: he always maintained the image of a GUITARIST (6-string). This insured that he'd be compared to other guitar players and kept in their company. The Stick was, and always will be, a marginal instrument, a novelty. Stick players are also marginal curiosities, unfortunately. Nobody would compare a stick player to Wes Montgomery or Pat Metheny. |
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Posts: 247
Location: Seacoast NH | Designzilla - 2012-05-17 5:08 PM Cool instrument, frequently played by progressive rock's hardest working bass player, Tony Levin. You said it Zilla! Went to see Peter Gabriel many years ago -- one of the best shows I've ever seen. Tony Levin was absolutely amazing as part of his band! Seriously, he used different instruments or toys (chopsticks on his fingers instead of fingering or picking!) on every song and provided a huge variety of sounds and textures. That guy totally blew me away...
Edited by mbedard 2012-05-21 2:30 PM
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Posts: 10583
Location: NJ | jimmy webster did finger tapping in the 40's and 50's and so did roy smeck.
van halen did make it popular in fact maybe too popular |
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| dobro you are correct, he definitely did want to maintain the 'guitarist' image. Would have been great to hear a couple of tracks of him on stick to see what he could do (i'm sure it would be amazing). I've read of many other guitarists messing around with finger tapping long before van halen (*cough*douchebag*cough*). Still finger tapping is not the same as two-hand tapping (one or two fingers tapping a string as opposed to using all fingers) which is what makes the stick have more possibilities but also a steeper learning curve. |
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Posts: 10583
Location: NJ | hmmm you call one of the moderators a douchebag?
expect a vacation pal |
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| lol alpep, just calling evh one. |
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Location: Wichita, KS | I saw a fellow play one here in town a couple years ago. His version of the Beatles "Day In The Life" blew me away. |
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Location: Chicago | The beauty of the Stick is that it clears two "courses", one for each hand. It really is like a tapping keyboard. I knew Stanley Jordan in High School and he began as a piano player and guitarist. His tapping concept was always 'eight fingers' crowding in on six strings. The idea, I think, was a GUITAR concept with a few extra fingers rather than two separate hands, almost two separate instruments.... He had a Travis Bean set up in his bedroom that, at the time, was the perfect tapping guitar..... BTW Stanley's CDs, old and new, feature some standard playing with a pick too.... |
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Anybody ever hear of a "Chapman Stick"?