Touch guitar

The touch guitar is a stringed instrument of the guitar family which has been designed to use a fretboard-tapping playing style. Touch guitars are meant to be touched or tapped, not strummed.[1]

Touch guitar
Double-neck, headless touch guitar
String instrument
Classification String
Hornbostel–Sachs classification321.322
(Composite chordophone)
Inventor(s)
Developed1950s—60s
Related instruments

History

The touch or tapping technique was formally codified by American guitarist Jimmie Webster in his 1952 method book called the Illustrated Touch System.[2]

Dave Bunker playing a double-neck touch guitar

Webster credited pickup designer Harry DeArmond with first demonstrating the potential for touch-style playing.[3] Webster himself collaborated with Gretsch Guitars on a guitar stereo pickup design for the Touch System (which fed the bass and melody output to two separate amplifiers), but the concept was not commercially successful.[4]

Unlike Webster's approach, which was to play on a single-necked instrument, guitarist and luthier Dave Bunker designed, built, and patented (in 1961) the first double-necked, headless,[5] touch-tapping instrument called the DuoLectar.[6] While both guitars employed a two-handed tapping technique, Webster used a single-necked instrument while Bunker used his double-necked DuoLectar guitar.[7]

Webster's tapping technique can be heard on a 1959 record.[8] In 1960, Bunker first demonstrated his double-necked instrument for the Portland Oregonian newspaper,[9] and then on the nationally broadcast television show Ozark Jubilee.[10] His designs ultimately led to his double-necked touch guitar in 1975.[11][12]

Other designs followed. Among them was the single-neck Chapman Stick (developed by Emmett Chapman in 1970 and produced in 1974[13]), the single-neck Warr Guitar (first produced in 1991[14]) and the single-neck Mobius Megatar.[15] Other touch guitars have included the Solene, Chuck Soupios's dual-necked BiAxe[16] (patented in 1980 and produced during the early 1980s), and Sergio Santucci's TrebleBass.

Stanley Jordan playing a single-neck touch guitar

Merle Travis occasionally used a tapping style[17] on his single-neck, strummed guitar, as did Roy Smeck, George Van Eps, Barney Kessel and Harvey Mandell.[18] Subsequent years have seen Eddie Van Halen, Stanley Jordan, Steve Vai, Jeff Healey, Fred Frith, Hans Reichel, Elliott Sharp, and Markus Reuter all feature the use of tapping techniques.

References
  1. "Types of Guitars: Detailed Guide". PrimeSound.org. 17 December 2021. Retrieved 10 January 2022.
  2. Webster, Jimmie (1952). Illustrated "Touch System" for Electric and Amplified Spanish Guitar. New York, NY: Wm. J. Smith Music Co.
  3. Bacon, Tony (2005). 50 years of Gretsch Electrics : half a century of White Falcons, Gents, Jets & other great guitars. [United States]: Backbeat Books. ISBN 9781476852805. OCLC 974231751.
  4. Bacon, Tony (2005). 50 years of Gretsch Electrics : half a century of White Falcons, Gents, Jets & other great guitars. [United States]: Backbeat Books. ISBN 9781476852805. OCLC 974231751.
  5. Dickerson, Deke (2013). The Strat in the Attic: Thrilling Stories of Guitar Archaeology. Minneapolis, MN: Voyageur Press. p. 120.
  6. Objects for use : handmade by design. Smith, Paul J., 1931-, Busch, Akiko. New York: H.N. Abrams in association with the American Craft Museum. 2001. ISBN 0810906112. OCLC 46385863.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  7. Roberts, James (2003). American basses : an illustrated history & player's guide. San Francisco: Backbeat Books. ISBN 0879307218. OCLC 52518941.
  8. Webster, Jimmie (1959). "Webster's Un-abridged". YouTube.com. Archived from the original on 15 December 2021.
  9. "New Guitar Tickles Ears When Touched By Maker". Oregonian. 24 April 1960. Retrieved 27 December 2018.
  10. "Dave Bunker - Duo-Lectar". YouTube.com. September 1960.
  11. "Dave Bunker submits patent application for his dual-necked Duo-Lectar electric "Touch Guitar" to U.S. Patent Office on September 16, 1957". www.historylink.org. Retrieved 28 December 2018.
  12. Seven, Richard (25 June 2000). "Why Dave Bunker Is Not Singing the Blues". Seattle Times Newspaper.
  13. "www.stick.com - History". stick.com.
  14. "Info". Warr Guitars.
  15. "The Megatar".
  16. The Biaxe. YouTube. 4 January 2009. Archived from the original on 15 December 2021.
  17. Wade, Graham (2012). A Concise History of Rock Music. Warwickshire, UK: Bill's Music Shelf. p. 314. ISBN 978-16191-1016-8.
  18. Scapelliti, Christopher (19 June 2015). "Watch the Duo-Lectar Double-Neck "Touch Guitar" in Action Circa 1960". Guitar World.
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