Now, design a tuning to make navigation of the instrument amazingly simple, and streamline the look and feel for optimal accessibility.

A Stick physically resembles the fretboard of an electric guitar—it is, however, considerably longer and wider and is strung with 8, 10, or 12 strings.

The player hooks the instrument onto the belt and places the head and dominant arm through the shoulder strap.

The instrument then settles into a position approximately 30 to 40 degrees from vertical, which allows both of the player's hands to naturally and comfortably address the fretboard.

At the time, Chapman was playing a 9-string long-scale guitar, but decided to develop a new instrument for use with "free hands" to use the method's full potential.

On October 10 of the same year, Chapman brought his instrument to public attention by demonstrating it on the game show What's My Line?

Amy Grant's hit single "Angels" also featured a Stick solo (played by Andy Widders-Ellis).

Combined with a long scale length, stainless steel pyramidal fret rails, very low string action, and very sensitive pickups, this setup is advantageous to the tapping style of play.

The rear surface of the instrument is not curved like a guitar neck, but has deep-beveled edges (also a design trademark of the Stick).

The stringing/tuning configuration of the Chapman Stick is advantageous to the player who wishes to play large, fully voiced chords with close inner-note relationships.

In contrast to a standard guitar, where one tends to "run out of options" within a particular fingering, the Stick tuning results in up to four or even five octaves of note choices under each hand's fretting position.

The hammer-on style of playing produces a rising waveform transient that is easily tracked by this type of device.

British musician Nick Beggs uses a Grand Stick, fully MIDI-capable of triggering from both bass and melody strings.