Category:Fretboard tapping instruments

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Fretboard tapping instruments are those where the vibration of the string is created specifically by tapping the strings to the frets to make them vibrate, as opposed to picking, plucking, bowing or strumming as on other instruments. Some of the instruments in this category are hybrids that combine tapping with other playing techniques as well.

Specific methods of tapping have been developed for these instruments, including the Touch System, invented by Harry DeArmond and promoted by Jimmie Webster and Dave Bunker on his Touch Guitar, and the Free Hands method invented by Emmett Chapman, used on the Chapman Stick, Warr Guitar, Megatar, etc.. The methods generally differ in the use of the right hand (which, for example, is arranged parallel to the frets in the Free Hands method and parallel to the strings in the Touch System).

Some tapping instruments (such as the two Tapboards) are one-off instruments designed by or in collaboration with specific musicians for a specific approach. Other tapping instruments have been designed for or developed into commercially-available production-run instruments with multiple models and players.