When I was 16, my tech teacher gave me a King Crimson DVD. I was haplessly intrigued by the strange instrument Tony Levin was playing.

Now, I'm 19 and working, and have ordered me a stick. No, its not a chapman stick. Its a custom build by a small luthier. After a few years, if the playing gets serious enough, I'll happily invest in a REAL stick.

I have been playing guitar for 6 years and have been dabbling in piano off and on for a while as well. I sought to combine the two.

I plan on using my stick for progressive/avant-garde metal. I hope to get a new generation into sitcks

1st ... let me welcome you to the forum and to "tapping."

2nd ... I hope your tapping instrument is great but others have produced well made tap instruments and none play or sound like a Stick. So if it's not quite what you expected please don't assume the Stick would be the same. Emmett IS the master and creator and the only Stick IS a Stick made by Stick Enterprises. (I personally owned a different brand ... well made, not crap, but NOT the same and IMO not in the same league!)

3rd ... If you don't mind me asking, who's making your tap instrument and are they modeling it after a Stick or is it an original take on the borrowed idea? Is it a ONE OFF design just for you or do they actually produce their own tapping instrument?

In any event ... welcome to the forum ... you're gonna love two hand tapping and will love this forum ... but I think I'm safe in saying you'd love tapping much more on the best instrument made for the job, the Chapman Stick! (Maybe you'd be better off looking into a used Stick? ... Just a suggestion. What did you expect ... This IS a Chapman Stick forum after all! We LOVE our Sticks!)

Lefty,
We used to have a "Mod's And Mutants" category in the photo section that unfortunately
seems to be gone since the crash but there are some interesting pictures of hybrid
instruments in the users gallery even an idea after my own heart ; someone rigged
a harp Stick (in Russia) that looked very well done. Yours would be interesting to see. Anyway with this new creative venture you are embarking on even if your stick is not a Stick you might want to stay close to the forum because inevitably questions will arise. In the beginning
the instrument is odd to most musicians because of the inverted bass and the tendency
is to want to change the bass strings so that they are descending like a regular bass instead of ascending as on the Stick. Many of us have crossed these trecherious waters and heard the
sirens call and I admit I switched too but I soon switched back. "inverted" up-side-down bass
is a very cool thing. So there are lots of good people here with clear ideas that cover
a wide spectrum...Are we not Stickists! And maybe anticipating a future question
there are no "lefty" Sticks like there are no lefty pianos but you can string it any way you want That is a Zen-Stick-koan-comment...
*j*
.~

Sorry it took me so long to reply

To answer your questions, it is being built by a man named Kevin Siebold. It is a one off. I dont think he has built a lefty before. What makes it a lefty is the placement of the electronics. Its an all-wood instrument with an asymmetrical body shape, so "handed-ness" is relevant.

The bass strings will be inverted. I dont want to look like I have a guitar with 12 strings in a row haha.