Tapboard

The term Tapboard is used to describe two separate guitar-based instruments designed to employ variations of the tapping technique. One of these is played by guitarist Francis Dunnery and the other by bassist Balazs Szendofi. Unlike other tapping instruments such as the Chapman Stick, harpejji and Warr Guitar, both Tapboards are one-off custom designs and have never been produced commercially.

While still a member of progressive pop band It Bites, guitarist Francis Dunnery developed a two-handed tapping technique while recording demos between 1988 and 1989. Despite a reputation for virtuosity, Dunnery lacked interest in the heavy metal tapping styles exemplified by the playing of Edward Van Halen, Randy Rhoads and others: instead, he accidentally invented a new variant on the tapping technique by laying his electric guitar on his lap and "idly tapping" on the fretboard with both hands to create polyphonic chording and fast-attack scales, drawing on his additional skills as a drummer and keyboard player. Dunnery was interested enough in his discovery to continue with his approach. He collaborated with Dave Farmiloe (chief repair technician at Arbiter Guitars, who were at the time the UK distributors for Fender Guitars) in order to develop an instrument for the technique. Initial suggestions for the design included "a sphere with strings on", but Farmiloe eventually came up with the less unusual final design.

The Tapboard consists of a single piece of mahogany upon which are mounted two standard guitar necks glued flush together, side-by-side. Both of the necks' fretboards are deeply scalloped to aid control of note articulation. There are twelve strings (with twenty-four machine heads available), all with an extremely low action and "reverse strung". The Tapboard features two sets of pickups (one of which is apparently taken from a Hohner Clavinet previously owned by The Boomtown Rats) mounted in a substance which appears similar to "Blackpool rock."

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