Chapman Stick

The Innocent Abroad (Musician 1984)

On his chordal accompaniments, Allan has been striving for a more "orchestral" sound, using layers of delays to get shimmering, pulsating textures from his sophisticated fingerings. "For my rhythm sound, I’ve designed a setup where all the signal processing is driven from one master board; I put each effect into one fader." His digital delays are two ADA STD-1s, two AMS units and a Yamaha E1010. The whole rhythm setup is run through a Yamaha PG-1 instrument pre-amp, some P2200 power amps and S412 speakers. The mixers are a Yamaha M406 and a M516. Allan also has an Ovation ‘83 Collector’s Series acoustic and a Chapman Stick.

Allan Holdsworth (steveadelson.com 2000)

TCG: I must ask you about your involvement with the Chapman Stick.

AH: Emmett (Chapman) built me some custom Sticks that didn’t have bass strings. There were two sets of strings, one tuned in 4ths and the other set in 5ths. It was like two guitars on one neck. He also loaned me a 3/4 size Stick that I wish I still had. I still own a regular size Stick with no bass strings. I like the instrument because of the string length. When yo do the tapping thing in the guitar the sound seems puny because the string is so short. I don’t really play the Stick much anymore or acoustic guitar for that matter, after the Synthaxe entered the scene.