Stick Bass®

The Stick Bass® model in our Touchboard® line of tapping instruments.

by Emmett Chapman
June 1998

The 8-string stereo/mono Stick Bass (SB8) with wider string spacing and your choice of ACTV-2™ or PASV-4™ pickup modules is our third tapping instrument in ongoing production.

The Instrument

Overall shape and dimensions of Stick Bass are identical to the standard 10-string Stick®, 43 1/2 inches in total length with a 34-inch scale length (bridge to nut) as on The Stick and bass guitar. The 3 1/4 inch wide fingerboard is flat and untapered as on the standard Stick.

SB8 features the round stainless steel Fret Rods™ (mostly submerged beneath the wood) or the newer 90 degree pointed and crowned Fret Rails™, the patented rear adjustable truss rod, large shell inlays spaced perfect fourths apart all along the board, and all of the trademarked designs of The Stick including the distinctive headstock, the rear beveled neck and the diagonally shaped pickup module. The fingerboard is untapered with strings running strictly parallel as on other Stick models.

All components are fully adjustable to accommodate all tunings and gauges of eight strings. Recommended SB8 tunings include the following:

• 8-string bass tuning with open notes from very low B, going up in straight fourths to E, A, D, G, C, F and highest Bb.
• A "guitar" modification of the above tuning with the highest two strings detuned a half step, from F to E and from Bb to A, thereby retaining the guitar's major third interval between second and third strings. The highest six of the eight strings are tuned like a guitar that has been transposed down a 5th.
• A closer guitar version starting at a low E on bass, going up in fourths to A, D, G, C and F, then up a major 3rd to A followed by a highest D. The guitar tuning of the highest six of these eight strings is a whole step below actual guitar. (SB8's long scale length would make it difficult to tune to the guitar's highest E).
• A "Stick" 4ths and 5ths tuning with bass and melody string groups to match the inner 8-strings of a 10 or 12 string Stick. The four melody strings descend from the far outer string in uniform 4ths, followed by four bass strings ascending in reversed 5ths, forming a matching relationship with the 4ths.

The patented bridge/tailpiece unit has been redesigned for eight wider spaced strings (.400" center to center spacing between all strings at both bridge and nut) and is adjustable in all three dimensions to accommodate any custom tuning (as with our 10 and 12 string models). There are no custom charges for tuning the SB8 to your specifications. We set it up at our shop for optimum low action, light two handed tapping.

SB8 comes with your choice of the ACTV-2™ or PASV-4™ pickup modules.

The Big Picture

Our Touchboard® product line of four primary tapping fretboard instruments now includes:

• The 8-string STICK BASS®
• The 10-string standard STICK®
• The 12-string GRAND STICK®
• The 8-string NS/Stick®

Stick Bass is designed and set up for the that same uncompromising low action and light touch, which best accommodates the basic two handed tapping method I created in 1969, that is, of both hands oriented equally at right angles to the neck and strings, approaching the fretboard from opposite sides. Each hand independently taps and holds the strings by simple movement of the fingers aligned in successive fret spaces, as with the normal single fingering hand of a guitarist. The objective is to form a line of fingering attack parallel to the strings with each hand for fast, fluid scalar lines in the melody and bass.

The sound of this instrument is exceptionally strong and musically clear, combining the best elements of The Stick (the tapping attack with long sustain and the speedy low playing action) with those of guitar and bass guitar (the single coil sound of EMG's stacked double coil pickups and the special heavier gauge round wound strings).

See our price list for cost details on the SB8.

All the Best,
STICK ENTERPRISES, INC.

Emmett Chapman