Pre-dating EVH or Stanley Jordan, and on an acoustic guitar!

Funnily enough, I was reading about Roy Smeck recently, check this out from 1932!
 

 
(tapping at 1:30)

 
This is what I like when it comes to tapping
 




 
Kenny
 

Hi,
 
Grrrrrrr ... forgot to listen to this last night at home!

Ah the Chapman stick....There's one of those in the Trilian library, sounds great for when you're looking for some bass that's light on the low end. Very easy to sit in the mix. 

Hey sharke ,
 
It looks like I'm gonna pull a "Jonathan Higgins from Magnum PI"  by telling a J H long winded style story
 
Back in the late 70's I worked at Sam Ash Music on West 48 th street ...
Occasionally we would get afternoon visits from a young very talented guitar player with a nice sized Afro ...
This Cat would usually come in the store when the store was slow during the off peak hours .
He would  grab a seat ,  whip out his guitar and start playing the most amazing stuff with 2 hands on the neck ...
Bach , Jazz Standards , Rock , Chordal  Improvisations w solos on top ,...
Every last one of us that worked there were absolutely mesmerized by this guys talent and fluidity on the guitar ....
The guy I'm talking about is Stanley Jordan . It turns out at the time that Stanly was out busking by playing out on the NYC streets ...
He was very friendly to us all , he was very approachable and we used to love when he came in the store to serenade us  ..
For a while there he would come in about twice a week ..then we didn't see him for a while because he made it 
 
A number of years later I got to see Miles Davis Live at the Pier . Stanly Jordan opened up for him at that show 
 
J H style story # 2 ,
While I was working at S. A. M.....I fell in love with The Chapman Stick . We sold them there at the time .
I got so interested in The Stick , I started playing it just about every day while at work ...( a store demo )
Eventually I wound up buying a Chapman Stick used. A Rosewood 10 string that was a proto type ..
Emmet told me it was the 4th one he had made  ..
I had gotten pretty good at playing it , "about a third as good at playing The Stick " as the Musicians video I posted ...
(hey man , i can roll w that )
I had hit some hard times and i needed some money to help keep a roof over my head ...
To this day I still miss not having a Chapman Stick ....
Who knows ? I may have given up some point had I been able to keep it .
Yet,  I still want to get one again and now they are like 2 Grand .
I'm not gonna let that stop me ...I keep wanting to get a Chapman Stick  again .....I will ...
 
anyway nice chatting with you ,
all the best ,
 
Kenny
 

I spoke to someone here who told me he used to see Stanley Jordan play on Wall Street before he was famous. 
 
I remember hearing him for the first time, I was about 14 and had only been playing guitar a few months. I was over at my dad's house and he put on "Magic Touch," the first track would have been Eleanor Rigby. I was totally blown away! I remember going home that night and trying to get something similar going......NOPE. 
 
However the other side of the coin is that I can't help thinking two guitarists playing the same thing would sound better....and I'm not sure I like the tone you get from tapping. I've also seen people doing some pretty amazing things on the Chapman stick but thought the same thing. On the other hand, there is something to be said about the musical cohesion of playing both parts yourself. I still listen to Eleanor Rigby now and then and while I'm no longer blown away by the technique, I really like the notes he plays. He's basically a great jazz pianist who plays piano on the guitar. 
 
I too would love a Chapman stick. Not enough to shell out 2 grand though..... 

Hey sharke,
 
I'm pretty much a hundred percent with you on a few of the points you have made .
 
I happen to like a robust guitar tone ..not a thin plink'y tone . Also once the visual is gone , if I close my eyes and it ain't happening and I no longer want to listen to the performance  ....I must not be happening 
 
As far as Stanly goes , Yes , his playing was so innovative and different that I had to give him a pass on a few Key Things ....
Now a days he probably doesn't know me from a hole in the wall but back then I did talk with him a number of times one on one ... this took place  at a time when he had yet to have a firm footing in his career ...
BTW ..before he had made it he sounded every bit as good as anything I had ever heard him play since ...
I think the main thing was he got to play with better Cats and make some dough ....
He did the Miles gig totally solo in front of a few thousand folks and brought the house down...
 
Two things come to mind on where I differed on my opinion during some conversations with him back then .
 
#1 , I asked him what he thought of the Chapman Stick and he did not have anything favorable to say ...
that one I let slide ....on that point I don't blame him ....heck , he broke new ground with a regular guitar ...
 
#2 , At the time I was hanging out with Joe Pass a lot and he was certainly one of my all time favorite guitar players So I asked Stanley  what he thought of Joe's playing .He laughed right in my face and then he told me that he thought Joe sounded like a one handed piano player that one i did not let slide
 
One nice thing about back then in NYC was most of the really good guitar players I met were very merit based ...
If you could play ...you could hang w them ...unless of course if there was a RUB
One of these day I may to decide to drop some names...honestly I don't think right now is the right time or place .
 
One thing is for sure  a lot of them were very dedicated to getting better ..one story I can tell you ,
 
I used to hang around with Ed Cherry all the time because Ed took me under his wing for a couple of years...
Ed was Dizzy s guitar player for many years after Rodney Jones had recommended him to take over the guitar chair ...  
Ed used to drag me all over the place all hours of the day an night ...
One Night after doing a gig w Dizzy Ed tells me he want's to meet up with a real good guitar player and Jam ...
So I say yeah I'll go ...it's like 2 AM and we head into Harlem by subway and we get to a real run down looking apt building and we head up the stairs ...4 or 5 flights no elevator ...
Ed knocks on the door and a guy answers the door with no shirt on , we walk in and the only pieces of furniture are  2 chairs a cot and a little metal closet ...lol
We all shake hands and Ed whips out his Super 400 and the guy looks it over and hands it back to ED ...then he gets down on the wooden floor and bangs out something like 85 fricken push ups w out even breaking a sweat LOL
I'm like Oh oh what did I get myself into ? ....the fella grabs his guitar out of the case shows it to Ed and at that point I figure it's time for me to sit on the floor because there is only 2 chairs in the place ....
 
These 2 guys start playing and it was like holly Effing $hit ..this Cat was burning ....
He was a freaking Monster on the guitar ...he spanked Ed , Dizzy's guitar player right before my very eyes and ears ...
then he hands me his guitar and I'm like NNNNOOOOPPPPE  I'm just here to listen
 
Wound up sitting there for hours ...this guy was just like sitting there and talking to Yoda ....
Very deep Cat and player ..both Ed and I hung on every word he said ...
I will never forget this experience as long as I live ....
 
If there is a lesson ....
it may be  you never know where you can find inspiration ...
A lot of the greatest players out there may be cats that you will never hear about because they may have no desire to be popular ....one thing is for sure they are out there
 
oops the Johnath Higgins in me made me tell the OT story
 
any way have a good one, 
 
Kenny
 

If not a Chapman Stick, how about one of these beasts..?
 

I met Bob Culbertson in San Francisco, May of 2014. Amazing concert and super nice guy. Fell in love with the Stick then and there! lol
 
My wife and I, both musicians, enjoyed a nice long visit with Bob after his show. Talked about the Chapman Stick, performing, music we liked and life in general. Great memories.
 
If you ever get the opportunity to see Bob perform, it's well worth the effort.