What are these creatures?

[Bartolini]

http://www.btinternet.com/~third.bass/stick.html

 

and check sounds at

 

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/dmelbourne/bass.htm

[Tom Capasso]

It's a Stick. A few companies make them. For the most part, you tap them. Tony Levin (among many) has used Sticks.

 

One night I saw a 4 piece rock band, where the bassist was playing a Stick. It was interesting (but I'm not running out to get one...)

 

Tom

[patrick_dont_fret]

Wow...I've never seen one of those before...guess I won't ever, with that price tag. Weird people make weird things, man.

[Adrian Smith]

Laundry and early-90s King Crimson has lots of stick, awesome stuff. I never played one though.

 

http://www.laundryroom.net

http://www.elephant-talk.com

[doc taz]

Man, I want one of those! Chapman Sticks aren't for everyone, but for those willing to expand their horizons while staying within the familiar tunings of a guitar and/or bass, you can't beat it. In some cases, you could fire your keyboard player if you have a good Stick player! With Roland having MIDI synths for both electric bass and guitar, it's possible.

[Wally Malone]

A friend had a stick for sale and let me try it for a few days. Didn't like it, it didn't feel like a bass.

 

Wally

[Mark Zeger]

Being primarily a keyboard player, the concept of the Stick has always appealled to me. I've wanted one since I saw Tony Levin with Peter Gabriel in the late '70s and on the King Crimson "Discipline" tour. The problem is that I have visions of playing it as well as Tony Levin, so I've never bought one.

[jeremy c]

Besides the Chapman Stick, their is the Warr Guitar and the Mobius Megatar. The Mobius Megatar is considerably more affordable than the alternatives.

 

Mobius Megatar asked me to be a demonstrator at NAMM two years ago and lent me one. I didn't think I could learn to play it fast enough and declined. After hearing the demonstator at the Warr Guitar booth which was was next door, I'm very glad I didn't try. The guy was awesome.

 

If you look at the method book for the Mobius Megatar , you will see that I wrote the preface.

 

I decided not to stay with the instrument for a variety of reasons. The amount of practice time I have is one, but the biggest one is that IMHO, the sound of a bass has to do with right hand technique and I was not happy with the sound of a 100% tapped instrument.

 

I will tap notes from time to time, but I am more likely to play with a right hand finger picking style when I want to play bass notes and chords at the same time.

[A.P. Non-Prod.]

Here is a link to a local 3-piece with a Chapman Stick player. I really love its sound because it is a little different and unique. Sulk, really great guys and artists. This material on mp3.com is pretty old but should be updated soon, as they are doing the mixdown on their new album.

 

Sulk at mp3.com

[fantasticsound]

I've seen the Stick used since the mid 1980's. Tony Levin was playing one long before the early 1990's, but I don't know if he used it with King Crimson before then.

 

Around 1992 I went to my favorite weekly open mic and was fortunate to hear a great duo. One musician played guitar and bass on a Stick. The other drummed on a Roland Octopad. They were fantastic. If I hadn't seen them, there would be no way I could've known the overdriven guitar and clean bass were played by the same guy. I'm not a big Jeff Beck fan, but someone told me they were playing some of Jeff's early 1970's stuff and other prog. rock and fusion. Simply devastating to see someone so adept at guitar and bass, and playing them simultaneously!

[I I mjrn]

I think one problem with some people's satisfaction with these instruments is that they view them as a substitute or replacement for an existing instrument ("I didn't like it cauae it didn't sound like a bass").

They really should be viewed as an new type of tool/instrument rather than a "better" guitar/bass/etc.

If you try to fit them into the conceptual template you have for another instrument, piano or xylophone might be better.

Approach them as an instrument with a wide range...both of pitch & function.

[jeremy c]

You're right, I wanted it to sound like a bass.

 

But in general, I don't like the sound of tapping instruments and if I want to play with two hands,

I'm probably better off just working on my piano playing.

[Wally Malone]

What Jeremy said.

 

Wally

[...]

I like the way a Stick sounds when it's being played by someone who is REALLY good at playing them... ie- Tony Levin or Trey Gunn. When someone who is not uber-god-like on said instrument plays it... well... it leaves a great deal to be desired. Stick is a very unforgiving instrument, and if your ideas and technique are not together, it is going to sound bad. Case in point, the two guys that I've seen locally who play bass and Stick in their respective bands. Ouch. One guy in particular, even when he was playing his 6-string bass, sounded like he wanted to be a guitar player or a keyboard player rather than a bassist... their songs were severely lacking in low-end, due to the fact that the guy rarely played a note below what would work out to be the 7th fret E on your A string (and that was when he was playing low mind you). Most of the time he spent above the 12th fret, and on his D, G, and C strings.

 

I believe Spinal Tap said it best when they stated: "there's a fine line between stupid and clever". Indeed.

 

King Crimson's "Live in Argentina: Official Bootleg" has a lot of Tony Levin and Trey Gunn playing stick, at the same time... and they don't get in each others' way. Good stuff, baby.

[Bartolini]

I suppose the guys who play these would be called stickists!

[patrick_dont_fret]

Most of the time he spent above the 12th fret, and on his D, G, and C strings.

What's wrong with that? I play high up all the time, it sounds cool and you can really get to chording up there. And with the addition of effects, you can really get some whacky stuff going on. There's no reason to say that bassists always have to be playing really low notes, that's like saying guitarists shouldn't play high notes, or something like that.

[doc taz]

Keyboard replacement or not, I'd still love to have one. I was wrong about the tuning bit; after reading some articles (mostly from Stick.com), the standard tuning seems to be in fifths, instead of the fourths most of us bassists/guitarists are used to. Just the sound of the Stick itself is enough for me. I'm not too worried about it being a replacement for my guitars or basses.

 

I'd probably get one after I get decent keyboard skills, though, come to think of it. I disagree with Bumpcity that you have to be "uber-god-like" to be a good Stick player. (I'm a big fan of well-done technical playing, but that doesn't stop me from enjoying groups like The Donnas.) Who knows, someone out there might have the ability do some things on it that we haven't heard yet?

[Mark Zeger]

It is true that Stick is a tough instrument to sound competant, let alone master. It requires accuracy and ambidexterity. Your sense of fretboard topography has to change. As with bass, Tony Levin sets a very high standard for what's expected of a Stick player.

 

That KC "double trio" truly was an amazing rhythm section for the interdependence of Tony Levin and Trey Gunn (whose choice of touchboard is Warr), and Bill Bruford and Pat Mastelotto. Seeing them live was like getting pummelled for 90 minutes. In a good way, though.

[Traktor Topaz]

Dr Taz said --

"I was wrong about the tuning bit; after reading some articles (mostly from Stick.com), the standard tuning seems to be in fifths, instead of the fourths most of us bassists/guitarists are used to."

 

And Mark Zeger said --

"It is true that Stick is a tough instrument to sound competant, let alone master. It requires accuracy and ambidexterity. Your sense of fretboard topography has to change."

 

These things are true *IF YOU GO ABOUT IT THAT WAY*. But you don't need to go about it that way. And in fact, it may not be very sensible to go about it that way.

 

If you go about it with a more sensible approach, then the following things become true --

 

(1) You can tune the bass strings just like a normal 6-string bass.

 

(2) What does that get you? It gets you clarity and simplicity -- because when you now place your left hand over bass strings just above fret two, and your right hand over melody strings just above fret twelve then the notes are identical beneath your two hands across all of the strings!

 

(3) You now have one mental model, and you can train your hands identically and simultaneously. This produces very fast learning. Every child learns that to tap the head and rub the tummy is difficult, but it's always EASY to tap the head and tap the tummy. Because that's how a human operates. In the same way, you learn faster when it's the same notes beneath both hands.

 

(4) Because we're now dealing in fourths, you will discover that 85%-95% of what you already know as a bassplayer (or guitarist) will transfer very easily and quickly.

 

(5) Using a smart method, which lets you operate with this simple clear view, and which selects smart building blocks, you can make remarkably rapid progress.

 

To ready my slightly-frothing sermon on the EVILS of INVERTED-FIFTHS TUNING (as is normally used on Stick instruments), please visit the Mobius Megatar website, and specifically this page --

 

http://megatar.com/english/Accessories/Tunings/Tuning_Sermon/tuning_sermon.html

 

And there has also been some discussion above about how tapped instruments sound different from plucked instruments. While this is a true statement, it is also true that the physics of *how* the instrument is built also greatly affect the sound. For example, a Stick instrument with no body and Mr. Chapman's pickups has one sound. But a Mobius Megatar instrument with a stiff body, greater string tension, and Bartolini pickups has quite a different sound.

 

To hear what this sounds like, we've loaded MP3 recordings of various players around the world playing via two-handed tapping. To hear them please click on the photographs of musicians on our 'testimonials' page which you will find here --

 

http://megatar.com/english/Testimonials/testimonials.html

 

I think that if you visit the Stick site, you can find recordings there as well. For certain, when you play bass with normal technique you have many articulation techniques available to your right hand and these are seldom used with two-handed touch-style technique.

 

Also, you're aware that plucking a string near the neck sounds different than plucking it near the bridge. When playing by tapping, it's as if you're always 'plucking' right at the bridge, and so for most of us, building the instrument and setting the effect chain a bit warmer than normal produces the most pleasing sound.

 

Of course, as always, taste varies. For me, the pleasure of playing basslines with simultaneous rhythmic chords, or of playing left hand chords while improvising or playing melody with the right hand is just so much fun that it caused me to become more and more involved until I got involved with making the Mobius Megatar instruments. These days I build more than I play, but it's still major fun, every time I play music this way.

 

While many, like my friend Jeremy Cohen who posted above, will prefer bass in the usual way, many others may be pleased to discover how surprisingly easy it can be to move to two-handed playing, when you use a sensible tuning and a sensible approach.

[thanny XIII]

Originally posted by tazzola:

Keyboard replacement or not, I'd still love to have one. I was wrong about the tuning bit; after reading some articles (mostly from Stick.com), the standard tuning seems to be in fifths, instead of the fourths most of us bassists/guitarists are used to. Just the sound of the Stick itself is enough for me. I'm not too worried about it being a replacement for my guitars or basses.

 

I'd probably get one after I get decent keyboard skills, though, come to think of it. I disagree with Bumpcity that you have to be "uber-god-like" to be a good Stick player. (I'm a big fan of well-done technical playing, but that doesn't stop me from enjoying groups like The Donnas.) Who knows, someone out there might have the ability do some things on it that we haven't heard yet?

I hate the donnas and i want them to die. They called linkin park emo. kittie is a far better chick band.

[Eric VB]

Yes, I'd like an affordable string tapping instrument! (I only knew of Chapman; guess I'll wander over to Mega and see what they have.)

 

When you think of all the different string instruments created over the millenia, this really is its own beast. It may have frets, and you may tune it like a guitar or bass (or violin-family in 5ths, for that matter), but it is neither. So it shouldn't be expected to sound like a pre-existing instrument.

 

Did musicians complain when the piano-forte, using a hammer device to strike the strings, didn't sound like a harpsichord (plucked strings) or clavichord (metal tangents that essentially tap the strings)?

 

So another way to view these instruments is as a clavichord without the keyboard interface.

 

[bTW, any tap instrument players out there ever experiment with fingerpicks or similar to give a harder attack to the tap? Are clavichord-like vibratos possible?]

 

I'm sure tap on guitar-like instruments goes back to the beginnings of time, but due to its general lack of volume on acoustic instruments I think it really becomes viable only with electric amplification. The current tap instruments then make two-hand tap a little more practical by taking care of muting issues and such. Building such an instrument without amplification would probably have been impractical.

 

If you don't mind giving up hammer-ons and pull-offs and whatnot, harp is another alternative. This is the antithesis of a tap instrument; you get the pluck with no fretting. Of course, you gain things like sympathetic vibrations (whether you want them or not), which is something MIDI still can't cope with.

 

Oh, did I mention MIDI? Why is it that a keyboard player can carry around one keyboard with multiple keyboard-instrument sounds -- piano, harpsichord, clavichord, etc. -- yet bass players are stuck with having to deal with, say, bringing both an URB and fretless EBG to a gig if they want both sounds? Why not a MIDI fretless EBG with a good URB synth? Leave the doghouse at home!

 

Which would be the better MIDI controller interface? EBG or a tap instrument?

[Eric VB]

Mmm ... MidiTapper. Sweet!

 

Rick Wade sounds pretty good wielding one, too. Is that the guy that did the demo you turned down, Jeremy?

[Basshappi]

I have always been facinated by touch/tap instruments.

 

There is much info to be found on the Tappistry.Org Forum.

[zeronyne]

The absolute pinnacle of touch-technique, in my opinion is Trey Gunn. He is so damn comfortable with the instrument. Check out the two videos of him (poorly shot, but the playing comes through loud and clear) on the Warr Guitars site. www.warrguitars.com

 

And you'll find that there are many ways to tune a Stick or Warr Guitar, despite Mr. Topaz's labeling of his variation as the "smart" way. There are tunings that do not cross the hands, there are some that are mirror-matched, some that are just like a 6 string bass interpolated, some strung like a guitar and so on.

 

Oh, and in case you think that tapping like this is only for fruity jazz or weird prog, I'd like to see anyone shred this hard on a bass:

 

BEHOLD THE ARCTOPUS

(Click on the second link, "Alcoholocaust" and then watch the quicktime video immediately below it)

[BenLoy]

Originally posted by thanny XIII:

I hate the donnas and i want them to die. They called linkin park emo. kittie is a far better chick band.

Hey man, those are my High School classmates you're talking about.

 

I don't like Linkin Park either. Do you want me to die?