Monday, June 25, 2007

My gear: FX and amps

Let me start by describing my gear. The chapman is a unique instrument developed around the concept of Emmett Chapman's two-handed tapping technique. It incorporates elements of guitar, bass, piano and percussion, and rather than plucking or strumming the Stick, both hands tap the strings onto the frets, making multi-part arrangements easier to realize.

I am using a 10 string chapman stick with 5 bass and 5 guitar (melody) strings. The instrument output is stereo, left for guitar, right for bass, so it's possible to process them independently! That's why as a stick player you need effects and amplification for both guitar and bass instruments....

Like many stick players, I use direct input boxes and preamps to process my sound and use a regular amp or AUX input of a guitar/bass amp because passing the signal into a guitar amp only actually limit the sound capability.

So enough chatting, here's my setup:
  • Instrument
    • 10 string chapman stick with integrated roland GK2A pickup (midi output)
    • Lag roxanne floyd electric guitar
    • Takamine electro acoustic guitar
    • Yamaha Clavinova piano
  • Amp
    • Roland microcube: regular input for guitar and AUX for bass trough my BDI21 bass driver
    • Marshall VS65R: I own it since 9 years, for heavy guitar work...
  • FX
    • Behringer BDI21 bass preamp & DI box: process my stick bass output and feeds my Roland microcube in the AUX input
    • Digitech RP7: I own it since 7 years now, rich american guitar sound with an integrated 12AX7 lamp!
    • Roland GR30: incredible guitar synthetizer, crazy sound powered from my stick builtin GK2A midi pickup
    • Brand new Guitar Rig 2: this native instrument software is an incredible guitar effect unit that can process 2 guitar sounds which is exactly what a chapman stick player needs! I just bought it and I am experiencing replacing all my effects with this plus a laptop, way less cables and way more capabilities but that comes with a higher complexity and learning curve... so far I am impressed though. I bought it with the hardware USB2 sound card and pedal board which allows live playing and a real good old guitar wahwah and stomp box command style :)
That's a lot of gear! But I like collecting musical instruments and devices.... In my next post I will share some sounds from those devices.

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Chapman Stick debut

Hi all, I just received my first Chapman Stick 3 months aga and I am opening this blog to share my progress and my discoveries on that crazy 10 string tapping thing!

I am living in downtown Paris (11th) and welcome any opportunity to play and train with other musicians.
You can reach me by posting a comment on that blog, I will then send you my email address privately.

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