Editor's note by Guillermo: I have been fortunate enough to visit Emmett while I was performing in the US. He kindly offered to rework and set up my old injection molded polycarbonate stick.
I watched Emmett Chapman: take into his hands an instrument as if it were the most delicate thing. When it was ready the following day, he gave it back to me in a special way, not like something that is simply delivered. I thought I saw in his action a particular care, as if that instrument somehow still belonged to him. That image impressed me strongly enough to inspire a chapter in my book (which you can find on the Articles Section on the Stick Center Website).

Guillermo Cides: - As a luthier of fretboard tapping instruments, do you feel that the work from your hands somehow continues to belong to you?
Emmett Chapman: - No, I feel there's a deeper logic here. It's just an "instrument", after all. We sell them to customers complete with a culture, a method and some inspiration. Sure, I get them back, and I repair them, sometimes after 20 or more years, but I regard them as instruments only, as a means to perform and express your music (as well as my own). I think of The Stick as a tool for human recreation within one square foot of space (a worthy utilitarian goal compared to golf courses), and as a means of striving for human excellence, physically, mentally and emotionally in integrated fashion. This aspect of performance "communicates" to audiences over and above the sum total of "the notes in the grooves".
It would make as little sense to assert that the players of my particular tapping technique "belong" to me as to claim some sort of spiritual ownership of all the instruments I've made, now in the hands of others, each with his or her own individual dream. I don't make any such claims, but one thing I know for sure, my own music is my own.

Guillermo Cides: - Should The Stick be more popular than it already is?
Emmett Chapman: - Yes, probably. It's hard to know how popular it really is. It pops up as a subject in the strangest encounters among diverse people. Pop culture is force-fed to the world, while a real legend has a life of its own and can survive sparse times. Still, dreams, legends and natural leaders are "assassinated" all the time, if not literally, then figuratively by way of character and reputation - and the pop culture takes another poll of its popularity to feed to the news. There are no guarantees that anyone's dream can survive in the wash. There's one cause for optimism, however. Music listeners and players (that 20% or so of humanity that doesn't have to be told what they like) have always loved this instrument and the music.

Guillermo Cides: - We all know the history of the competition. Does it influence you personally? I refer to your daily work.
Emmett Chapman: - Yes. When you build up something successful, you must defend it, not against competition, which is healthy and constructive in any society, but against exploitation and degradation. Regrettably, Yuta and I must spend valuable time defending our personal and professional reputations in as friendly a way as possible against various attacks, false rumors, constant Internet "guerilla marketing", and ridicule by a dedicated small group of Stick players who organized themselves against us in the early '90s. They continually identify their goods and services with The Stick while attempting to discredit my contributions to this art and alienate our customer support and public good will. Still, we manage to maintain our innocence and good faith with each customer on a daily basis, and to sail through such opposition with some semblance of grace and professionalism (I'm speaking mainly of my wife Yuta here, who has to deal with most of the twisted "politics" forced upon us).

Guillermo Cides: - What is the source of your confidence in your day to day work?
Emmett Chapman: - I'd have to say it's genetic. My mother and her Italian father
from Bari had this characteristic. Nothing really gets me down. It's a rare day, maybe once in two years, that I'm unable to work because of some emotional or physical problem. Also, the little things in life are attractive to me and no matter what's on my mind, as Yuta and daughters can attest, I'll respond to the magic factor of the moment.

Guillermo Cides: - What has surprised you most about the course of your own career and that of other Stick players?
Emmett Chapman: - The best kept secret - you never reach a plateau on The Stick. On guitar you finally reach the fingering barrier, at least in technical facility (this much and no more layering). Stick is more like piano but with fingers directly on strings, and you can always layer on another contrapuntal line, a thumb, something up-hand, down-hand, and added sub-technique. You never run out of orchestration.
Another secret - you can get very old, or be very out of practice, or even mess up your hands, and still keep up your musical momentum on The Stick. What has surprised me most about the Stick artists whose careers I've followed, is how they somehow survive and preserve their artistic priorities no matter what the music world offers them in return. They manage to find a place for themselves and fulfill their musical dreams, because as artists they need to do this. As for my own career, however you'd describe it, I totally enjoy my work, constantly get carried away with one intense task after another, and hope at some point soon to make time for Stick recordings and concerts.

Guillermo Cides: - Why hasn't an acoustic model of The Stick been developed?
Emmett Chapman: - Bob Culbertson has one, the "AcouStick" TM, and he and I are working on a second prototype together with an excellent classical guitar builder. Between the three of us we have a contract that covers possible future production. Bob has played some concerts that include this new acoustic Stick model, and though it's the same incredible hands of Bob, it's definitely a different sound, extremely Spanish guitar like.