Oh boy. That story with the Chapman Stick. I still own it and every few months I will pick it up and doodle a little on it. And I use it often to record specific parts on tracks I am working on.
I had been interested in a Chapman Stick ever since I read about it in a Guitar Player issue in 1988 or so. When around 1997 our then BeebleBrox bass player Dan Immel sold a 10 string Chapman Stick that he had bought used and didn’t know what to do with, I picked it up for a quite reasonable price and then I really didn’t know what to do with it.
In case you are not familiar with what a Chapman Stick is: It’s a long neck with 8, 10 or 12 strings. On the back of that long neck, towards the bottom is a metal hook you somehow attach to your pants to hold the instrument at playing height (I use a tool belt because that metal hook tends to be a little cold). A strap attached to the top of that neck goes around your neck to hold the instrument upright. And then you don’t pick the strings but you tap them at the right frets. The strings are quite loose so tapping them produces a nice sound. Since you use both hands to tap, one hand for each side of the neck, you can conceivably play a lot of music a normal guitar doesn’t allow.
Of course you can tune it any way you want, but one of the standard tunings uses 5ths ascending on the bass side and 4th descending on the treble side. I tried to play classical piano music on the thing, but not really sure where to put it in my musical arsenal. Until our first daughter was born in 1999. All of a sudden time to practice was rare and I neglected the instrument.
In late 2002 Kwyjibo opened a whole new window for me. For the first time the Stick showed up on live concerts with me. In addition I had revised the tuning. One full track with the Stick appeared on The Rise of Kwyjibo (track 6) and another one many years later on my ‘solo’ recording Peter’s Money (track 7).
My biggest problem with the Stick has always been how to properly amplify it to cut through a band with a powerful drummer and bass player. But it is a great instrument and I wish I had more time to play it.