The Chapman Stick is an electric musical instrument created by Emmett Chapman in the early 1970s. It belongs to the guitar family and typically has ten or twelve strings that are individually tuned. The instrument can play bass lines, melody lines, chords, or unique musical sounds. It is designed to play many notes at the same time, allowing it to handle multiple musical parts together.

The Chapman Stick has passive or active pickups that connect to an amplifier. With a special synthesizer pickup, it can also control synthesizers and send MIDI messages to electronic instruments.

Description and playing position

The Chapman Stick looks like the fretboard of an electric guitar but is much longer and wider. It has 8, 10, or 12 strings. Unlike the electric guitar, which is usually played by strumming or plucking the strings, the Chapman Stick is played by tapping or pressing the strings. Instead of one hand pressing the strings and the other plucking them, as is common with guitars, the Chapman Stick player uses both hands to strike the strings against the fingerboard near the tuning pegs or on the correct frets for the notes they want to play. Because of this, the Chapman Stick can play many notes at the same time, similar to a keyboard instrument. This design allows players to perform bass, chords, and melody lines together.

The Chapman Stick is usually held with a belt hook and a shoulder strap. The player attaches the instrument to their belt and places the head and dominant arm through the shoulder strap. The instrument is positioned at an angle of about 30 to 40 degrees from straight up, letting both hands comfortably reach the fretboard. The player hits the strings with their fingertips, similar to how someone presses a piano key. This technique is like playing the piano, where both hands play bass and melody notes at the same time, with each note struck by one finger of one hand. Usually, one hand plays the melody on the high strings, and the other hand plays rhythm on the low strings.

Some players sit while using the Chapman Stick. In this position, a bar is placed across the player’s knees, and the instrument’s belt hook rests on the bar. This setup keeps the Stick in a similar position as when standing.

• Saltatio Mortis bandmember Bruder Frank
• A street musician in Japan playing a Chapman Stick in 2023

History

In 1969, jazz guitarist Emmett Chapman created the two-handed tapping technique, where both hands move parallel to the guitar's frets. At that time, Chapman used a 9-string long-scale guitar but decided to design a new instrument to fully use the technique. After meeting Tim Buckley through Lee Underwood, Chapman performed the new instrument in Southern California with Buckley's third Starsailor band in early 1972. These performances helped Chapman test and improve the instrument. His experiments matched Buckley's style of exploring music in new and spontaneous ways, including unusual sounds and rhythms. However, Chapman never recorded music with Buckley.

The Chapman Stick took five years to develop. During this time, Chapman started a business to sell the instrument. The first version of the Stick was released in 1974. On October 10, 1974, Chapman introduced the instrument to the public by demonstrating it on the game show What's My Line?

Alphonso Johnson, a former member of Weather Report, was one of the first musicians to share the Chapman Stick with the public. Session musician Tony Levin also used the instrument starting in the mid-1970s. He played it during recordings and tours with Peter Gabriel and later in his work with King Crimson from 1981 onward. Levin also used the Stick with Liquid Tension Experiment and in sessions for bands like Pink Floyd and Yes. He formed a band called Stick Men, which included one drummer and two Stick players. When bassist Trey Gunn joined King Crimson in 1994, the six-member band could create music in many ways, such as as a double trio with two drummers, two electric guitarists, and two Stick players: Levin and Gunn.

Recordings that have influenced Stick players include the 1981 King Crimson album Discipline (played by Tony Levin) and Emmett Chapman's own album Parallel Galaxy. The British pop group Ellis, Beggs & Howard had a top 50 UK single in 1988 called "Big Bubbles, No Troubles," which used a Stick riff played by Nick Beggs.

Technical details

Chapman Sticks have been made from many different materials over time. The earliest ones were made from hardwoods, mostly ironwood, but also ebony and other rare woods, until the early 1980s. Later, from 1980 to 1989, they were made from a type of plastic called polycarbonate resin. After that, they were made from one-piece hardwoods with an adjustable truss rod. From 2001 to the mid-2000s, a model called the "Stick XG" was made from structural graphite and carbon fiber. Today, they are made from layered hardwoods like padauk, Indian rosewood, tarara, maple, wenge, and mahogany, as well as layered bamboo and graphite.

Unlike a guitar or bass, the Stick has a very flat fretboard with little curve. This is different from a guitar, which has a slight curve. The Stick’s flat design, combined with a long scale length, stainless steel frets shaped like pyramids, very low string height, and sensitive pickups, makes it easier to play using a tapping style. The back of the Stick does not curve like a guitar neck but has deep, angled edges, which is a special feature of the Stick.

The original tuning, now called "Classic," uses five bass strings (six on the Grand Sticks) tuned in all-fifths intervals, with the lowest string in the middle of the fretboard. It also has five melody strings (six on the Grand Sticks) tuned in all-fourths intervals, with the lowest string also in the middle of the fretboard.

The hardware on the Stick can be adjusted to fit any string size or type, allowing for many different tunings. On the 36-inch scale model, notes can range from a low C (higher than the lowest note on a 5-string bass) to a high D (a whole step below the highest note on a guitar). On the shorter models (Alto Stick and Stick Guitar), notes range from an F below the lowest note on a guitar to an F# above the highest note on a guitar.

Tunings may change based on how a player uses the instrument. A player who focuses on lead playing might choose a higher tuning to create more space between the melody and bass strings.

The Stick’s tuning is helpful for playing large chords with closely related notes. Unlike a standard guitar, where players often run out of options when using certain finger positions, the Stick’s tuning allows up to four or five octaves of notes under each hand’s position.

The "Classic" tuning also helps players learn and play music more easily because the tunings in fourths and fifths are consistent across both the bass and melody parts. This makes it easier for beginners to learn and for advanced players to transpose or improvise. The division between bass and melody strings also allows for microtonal tunings.

More details about tunings can be found on the manufacturer’s website.

The Stick can use either passive or active pickup systems. Custom Roland GK-3 pickups are available for the melody or bass sides, allowing the instrument to control guitar synthesizers like the Roland GR-20 or Axon AX-100, as well as other MIDI instruments. The hammer-on playing style creates a clear signal that these devices can easily detect.

The Stick outputs sound through two separate channels using a TRS 1/4" phone connector, with bass and melody strings sent separately. Volume controls are separate for bass and melody. Some pickup modules, like the ACTV-2 and PASV-4, can also operate in mono mode.

The Stick can be connected to standard guitar or bass amplifiers. However, because passive pickups have very high resistance, an instrument preamp is often used, especially for full-range systems like PA setups or keyboard amplifiers.

British musician Nick Beggs uses a Grand Stick that is fully compatible with MIDI systems, allowing it to trigger sounds from both bass and melody strings. He calls this modified instrument the "Virtual Stick."

There are eight models of the Chapman Stick. Some examples include:

• The Stick (10 strings, 5 melody and 5 bass or 6 melody and 4 bass, 36-inch scale length)
• The Railboard (10 strings, a single aluminum neck with 9 attached parts, 34-inch scale length)
• Grand Stick (12 strings, 6 melody and 6 bass or 7 melody and 5 bass, 36-inch scale length)
• 10-String Grand Stick (10 strings on a wooden or bamboo body, wider spacing between strings, 36-inch scale length)
• Stick Bass (SB8) (8 strings, tuned in standard bass or guitar intervals, 36-inch scale length)
• NS/Stick (8 strings, set up for plucking or tapping, 34-inch scale length)
• Alto Stick (10 strings, shorter scale for a guitar-like range, 26.5-inch scale length)
• Stick Guitar (12 strings, shorter scale for a guitar-like range, 26.5-inch scale length)

The Stick, Grand Stick, and Stick Bass have a 36-inch scale, but older models had a 34-inch scale.

Stick Enterprises has also made some custom or limited-edition instruments, such as:

• SB7 Stick Bass – An early model with narrower string spacing than the SB8, using two bass pickups but only one could be used at a time. It was replaced by the SB8 in 1998.
• The Acoustick – An acoustic version of the Stick made for Bob Culbertson.
• StickXBL – A prototype with a body made from a special hollow material by BassLab. Only a few of these were made.

List of notable players and ensembles

• Carlos Alonso of Glueleg
• Jeff Ament of Pearl Jam
• John Balance of Coil and Current 93
• Nick Beggs (Kajagoogoo, Ellis, Beggs & Howard, John Paul Jones, Nik Kershaw, Howard Jones, Iona, Steve Hackett, Steven Wilson, Lifesigns)
• Blue Man Group
• Zeta Bosio of Soda Stereo
• Brian Bourne
• Shiori Sekine as a member of Stico
• 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
• Peter Gifford, who plays Chapman Stick on the tracks "Sleep" and "Who Can Stand in the Way" from the Midnight Oil album Red Sails in the Sunset, as well as during live performances
• Trey Gunn, who 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 Band album Before These Crowded Streets
• Alphonso Johnson, with Weather Report, Santana, and Gregg Rolie Band
• Tony Levin, solo and with Peter Gabriel, King Crimson, Yes, Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe (especially during live performances of "Close to the Edge"), Pink Floyd, Stick Men, and Liquid Tension Experiment
• Sean Malone of Cynic and Gordian Knot
• Mark McCullough with Red Wanting Blue
• John Myung of Dream Theater and Gordian Knot
• Mike Oldfield, who plays Chapman Stick on his album The Songs of Distant Earth (and in some multimedia video clips on the extended CD), using a pick instead of the two-handed tapping method
• Pino Palladino on Paul Young’s No Parlez
• Jeff Pearce, solo and in concert with William Ackerman
• Don Schiff, solo and with Lana Lane and Rocket Scientists
• Akın Ünver, solo Stick player from Ankara, Turkey
• Fariz RM