Yesterday, my new (used) Chapman Stick arrived via UPS! As a few of you may well know, I was once a Chapman Stick owner. I traded it for an NS/Stick, which I use somewhat often, mainly in the U2 portion of a U2/Van Halen tribute band called Running With Desire. Perhaps not the best use of a tapper's talents, but it has been a challenge to conjure up The Edge's & Eno's treated keyboard ear-candy along with Adam's rock solid bass dwellings in a live setting. After getting in touch with my old bud George Soler, a Stick virtuoso since he first picked one up back in the mid eighties (sorry to date us both there George!), I realized I truly missed having a classic Stick to hold and smother with my own Taco Bell-infused greasy mitts. I probably could have gone about it in a better way, but the bottom line is I do have one in my possession once again: a gorgeous Pau Ferro (Brazilian Ironwood) model completely refurbished by Emmett himself. It plays so well I think I'm going to keep it forever this time! It made me realize the importance of the wood (thanks again to George for pointing this out so eloquently). My old model was a Polycarbonate and the difference is more than I would have thought. It has what I think are medium gauge strings, but they may in fact be heavy. I had hinted to Cambria, my phone and email contact with Stick Enterprises, that I may wish to tune the 6th, or lowest pitch "bass" string down to "A", a minor third below the Stick's standard tuning. That string is a larger one! The others may be correspondingly greater in diameter as well. The tension feels a bit stiff compared to what I remember. As it is now, I'm leaving it in the MR, or Matched Reciprocal tuning that I ended up gravitating towards so many years ago: CGDAE CGDAE (strings 1-10). Ah, the possibilities - what would be the tuning if I lower everything? A whole step lower: BbFCGD BBFCGD or A minor third lower: AEBF#C# AEBF#C#. It's hard enough dealing with the pianistic concepts presented with the free hands way of playing, the inverted 5ths on the bass side, the stereo output and subsequent independent signal processing... then to relearn the fingerboard just to get a couple of extra low notes. I don't think I have it in me. Perhaps I will occasionally lower that 6th string for sub-bass hooks, but I will keep that MR going as my MO. EADG is in my DNA!
Thoughts along these lines are 2 handed. On the NS/Stick, it is divided in half at the 4th to 5th string jump. Since the 2nd 4 are DAEB, well, then that becomes your 4 string bass. The 4 string guitar is then BbFCG, which is not in anybody's dna. Rather unwieldy. How about a take on Keef's 5-string open G Telecaster method, based on Gram Parsons' country originals - yeah, I read the book Life. That would be something life BGDG (best string tension compared to the current NS tuning) or maybe DBGG or DBDG, if strings could be swapped. just a very random thought.
Finally took some pics of this instrument. Been a bit of a challenge to get around to doing it, at least in a semi-proper fashion. Anyways, here are some glamour shots of the newly restored Stick, #1283. Yeah, the headstock is a bit dusty now that I look at it. But boy, the hardware has a nice gleam! Now, how do you tune it again?
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