Instrumental Developments
In the 1950's, Rock & Roll flourished and splintered into sub-genres, and with the explosive increase in electric guitarists, it was inevitable that other guitarists rediscovered Webster's "creep-along" right-hand touch technique, and others rediscovered how to elevate the fretboard into a vertical position to play with Chapman-style tapping. Some bass-players and acoustic guitarists have developed other tapping techniques.
In recent years there seems to have been a dramatic increase of "tapping" in popular music. But our story begins many years ago.
Mr. Leo Fender
 Leo Fender ran a radio shop in Southern California, and he was always tinkering. His story has been told in detail in the book 'Fender -- the Sound Heard Round the World.'
Among his projects was a slide (or Hawaiian) guitar, pictured here. This is the first guitar that Fender ever made. Notice the nonstandard dot-marker pattern with double-dot markers spaced a fourth apart. This excellent marking system relates notes on adjacent strings, but the pattern never become standard on later guitars. (Mobius Megatar has adapted this dot-marker pattern on its instruments.)
Fender guitar #1 wasn't a great guitar, and it played quite out of tune! But one thing led to another, and its descendant became the Fender Stratocaster electric guitar. The Stratocaster design brought electric, amplified guitar to musicians around the world, and directly led to the electric bass, and most probably to all specialty tapping instruments.
Here's a salute to the man who made it possible! The modest instrument shown here probably made tapping possible.
In the years following Fender's developments, a number of specialty instruments designed especially for tapping have evolved. Here is a sampling...
Box Guitar
 Stuart Box, originally living in the USA, migrated to Australia, taking his Box Guitar designs along with him. There he designs and sells his specialty tapping instruments. Unlike some of the other tapping instruments which have scale lengths similar to electric bass instruments, Box Guitars are generally constructed to guitar scale lengths. Which makes sense because they're often advertised as 'Two Guitars on One Instrument.'
The model shown here is Box's 'S.R. Series' which boasts headless design with Steinberger (or Bunker) -style tuners at the base of the instrument. The instrument contains dual truss rods and a slim neck. Popular Seymour Duncan pickups and lots of selector switches make different simultaneous sounds possible.
Box also manufactures the 'L.M. Series,' a touch-style guitar with a traditional tuning head, and the 'J.C. Series,' which has a stratocaster-type body.
Solene
 Richard Eberlen's unusual stringed musical instrument, tuned as a standard 7-string guitar. 'Solene' is the Greek word meaning pipe, which is the shape of the instrument. The cylindrical body and fretboard provide a new playing surface for tapping technique. Since it's tuned like a guitar, guitarists can visualize and think about intervals in a familiar way. The Solene was granted US patent number D363,946.
Warr Guitar
 Mark Warr's instruments are called 'guitars,' but their scale length is more akin to a bass. These are large instruments, built with world-class components, quality tonewoods, and heavy-duty construction. Warr's stated intention is to produce the best tone possible.
The instruments have the novel feature that they can be played with full two-handed tapping technique (in the popular near-vertical position), or they can be played using standard guitar picking and strumming techniques (in the normal guitar near -horizontal position). Warr's innovative counterbalanced strap locations permit the instrument to remain in either position.
The electrics consist of high-end Bartolini pickups along with a custom 18-volt active system also designed by Bill Bartolini. Many professional touch-style players have embraced the Warr guitar, citing it's powerful tone and quality construction.
The Mobius Megatar specialty tapping bass
 No discussion would be complete without mention of our instrument. The photo shows our 'ToneWeaver' tapping bass with its 'FourBart' Bartolini Pickup Array.
The ToneWeaver features the Novak 'Fanned Fret' system. This enhances the instrument's tone by making the low bass strings longer, and the higher-pitched melody strings shorter. The bass gains depth and authority, and the melody gains focus and sweet clarity.
See the remainder of our website for lots of information about the different models of touch-style basses made by Mobius Megatar!
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History of Touch-Style reprinted courtesy Touch-Style Territory (www.traktortopaz.com). This article copyright 1998 Action Marketing Corporation, Carson City, Nevada USA
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