Pic Of My Stick

What a beast of an instrument. I've only had it one day and love it. It's made from Iron Wood, was built in the 80's and is Chapman Stick #619. For being so old it's in great shape. Original owner sold it to me and did not play it a lot.


I can complain a little though.

• This stick has 10 strings in two groups of 5 with separate pickups and outputs. The melody side is tuned in 4th's kind of like a guitar and I am grasping that. The bass side is tuned in 5th's but descends in pitch rather then ascends. For a guitar player or bass player (I still play both) the bass side is upside down. However the magic in this tuning is that chord shapes remain the same on both melody and bass sides of the strings. Huh? 4th's tuned ascending have the same chord shapes (but inverted) as 5th's do descending. It's magic yes indeed BUT for playing one note bass lines is mind altering to say the least.
• I spent over 3 years in 2 completely different bands playing bass guitar and keyboards holding down a keyboard bass line and sing on top of that. But the last time I did that was 7 years ago. I have to work on my dexterity coming back, the stick has me thinking to much about where notes are.
  
• After one day I already want a 12 string model with midi pickups for keyboard sounds on both sides BUT...
• I got a lot of wood shedding to do before I can take this instrument out on a gig and judge the entertainment value in it. Then I can decide if I should invest more time and money.