chapman stick

mickie08 · Post by **mickie08** » Tue Mar 01, 2011 4:56 pm

Anyone eveer mess around with one of these? I've been playing alot of acoustic duo/trio (2 guitars and harmonica) shows as of late and this friend of the harp player showed up with one of these the other night. He was making some cool sounds with it...

http://www.stick.com/instruments/ns/

stewart · Post by **stewart** » Tue Mar 01, 2011 6:46 pm

i saw a busker playing one once. they're bizarre, like a cross between a guitar, double bass and a piano.

tony levin used one in king crimson in the 80s.

johnnyseven · Post by **johnnyseven** » Tue Mar 01, 2011 7:20 pm

You can only get away with playing one if you're good, bad stick players tend to sound awful. My friend plays and a band with about 20 members who turn up as and when, when I saw them play a gig one of them hada stick and was rubbish and it sounded terrible - apparently he's a load better now though.

Ankhanu · Post by **Ankhanu** » Tue Mar 01, 2011 7:22 pm

I got into the idea of tap-style instruments a few years back, but never developed the skills. Chapman Sticks are pretty neat instruments, and you might want to look into Warr Guitars too; similar idea, nicer implementation, imo. http://www.warrguitars.com/

Gabriel · Post by **Gabriel** » Tue Mar 01, 2011 7:26 pm

In a similar way the Pacman 9 string bass is pretty daunting yet awesome - mind I'd never be able to play it.

mickie08 · Post by **mickie08** » Tue Mar 01, 2011 7:41 pm

Oh, I have no intention of playing one, I am just curious as to anyone elses experience with them or having heard them. This guy seemed pretty damned good on it.

mellowlogic · Post by **mellowlogic** » Tue Mar 01, 2011 10:04 pm

► Show Spoiler

paul_ · Post by **paul_** » Tue Mar 01, 2011 10:24 pm

stewart wrote: tony levin used one in king crimson in the 80s.

Due to his endorsements in guitar magazine adverts in the '90s for them I have a hell of a time disassociating them from him. I've never seen one played in person but when YouTube came out it was one of the first things I looked up.

ekwatts · Post by **ekwatts** » Tue Mar 01, 2011 10:51 pm

To be honest, I can only really imagine Levin being able to get away with using one in a "conventional" band setting.

Although the more I think about it, King Crimson were hardly conventional.

Also, if anybody could tell me how Belew gets that fucking nasty solo tone towards the middle of the video I'd be grateful.

[youtube][/youtube]

Freddy V-C · Post by **Freddy V-C** » Tue Mar 01, 2011 11:00 pm

ekwatts wrote:[youtube][/youtube]

Does anyone know what the first song in that video is called? It's brilliant.

johnnyseven · Post by **johnnyseven** » Tue Mar 01, 2011 11:05 pm

Elephant Talk, it is on their album Discipline - great record, one of a number of great records by King Crimson.

Lucamo · Post by **Lucamo** » Tue Mar 01, 2011 11:08 pm

I need to listen to Discipline

Elephant talk has long been a favourite song of theirs for me. Reminds me of a more fucked up Talking Heads

ekwatts · Post by **ekwatts** » Tue Mar 01, 2011 11:13 pm

Belew had just come off an album and tour with Talking Heads (Remain in Light) when he went into King Crimson, so much of his stage persona had been borrowed from David Byrne. Check out some of the songs from Remain in Light, they have some utterly ridiculous guitar sounds (telephone sound is one of my favourites, I think).

johnnyseven · Post by **johnnyseven** » Tue Mar 01, 2011 11:15 pm

I think Adrian Belew has some kind of link with Talking Heads. King Crimson have a number of different phases all very different to each other. Records worth buying are In the Court of the Crimson King, Red, Larks Tongues in Aspic and Discipline to start with.

Re the solo, if it's the one at the end of the first song it just sounds like some kind of drive pedal and the 'effect' is done by the way he plays it. Could be an EHX Graphic Fuzz, there are videos of him from this era saying how he uses on on YouTube.

Don't you love the way the Robert Fripp is too cool to play his guitar standing up?

ekwatts · Post by **ekwatts** » Tue Mar 01, 2011 11:15 pm

I also just found this:

[youtube][/youtube]

I should probably create a new thread for this stuff, actually..

johnnyseven · Post by **johnnyseven** » Tue Mar 01, 2011 11:16 pm

That was the clip I was talking about.

Post by **Doog** » Tue Mar 01, 2011 11:17 pm

ekwatts wrote:I also just found this:

[youtube][/youtube]

I should probably create a new thread for this stuff, actually..

That's been posted on here at least twice, suuuuurely you've seen it by now? It's amazing.

ekwatts · Post by **ekwatts** » Tue Mar 01, 2011 11:20 pm

I think the King Crimson record that really grabbed me was Red, the very last album they did before a big break until Discipline came out. I fucking loved it. There's just three guys, Fripp, Wetton and Bill Bruford.

ekwatts · Post by **ekwatts** » Tue Mar 01, 2011 11:23 pm

Doog wrote:
ekwatts wrote:I also just found this:

I should probably create a new thread for this stuff, actually..
That's been posted on here at least twice, suuuuurely you've seen it by now? It's amazing.

Nope, never seen it before. Just did a search on youtube, watching it all now.

Belew is also responsible for some good guitar sounds on The Downward Spiral.

johnnyseven · Post by **johnnyseven** » Tue Mar 01, 2011 11:33 pm

johnnyseven wrote:That was the clip I was talking about.

Actually I got it wrong, that's the wrong clip - but there is one where he uses an EHX Graphic Fuzz.

When I went to London Met Uni to do my PGCE the music lecturer there was (and probably still is) David Cross who was the violin player in the King Crimson era just before Red was made - he left the band just before Red was recorded but I think he appears on it and co-wrote some of the tracks.