Members Jimi Ray Halen Posted August 30, 2005 Members Share Posted August 30, 2005 Originally posted by ZED I play around at home with a bow on guitar but think it would be way too cheesy/ridiculous to do at gigs. If by cheesy/ridiculous you mean holding the entire audience spellbound then yeah, I agree. The guy I know amazes people with it. Standing O every time. Of course they're mostly already standing at the end because everybody approaches the stage when the bow comes out to play. I wish I could hold a room like that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members lchyi Posted August 30, 2005 Members Share Posted August 30, 2005 I cannot emphasize wiping down your guitar enough. That white dusty stuff from the rosin is TREE SAP. So once it gets hot or sticky, say goodbye to your finish, it'll be there forever. You should grab a beater guitar like a Agile or something and then use it on that. Don't use it on your Goldtop LP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bobmeredith Posted August 31, 2005 Members Share Posted August 31, 2005 I prefer the Nigel Tufnel technique myself: where you strum your guitar with a Violin! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tim gueguen Posted August 31, 2005 Members Share Posted August 31, 2005 Another possible inspiration for Page bowing a guitar is David Lindley. Lindley bowed banjo, if not other instruments, when he was a member of Kaleidoscope, who Page apparently thought very highly of after seeing them while touring with the Yardbirds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rockfan Posted August 31, 2005 Members Share Posted August 31, 2005 Rosin to play a steel-stringed instrument? I wouldn't recommend that unless you are playing a violin or cello. I tried to bow once, couldn't do it. Gave up on it. I use an Ebow now. Some great string sounds after some practice using it. I also use my GR-1 for string sound on the guitar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Detox Posted August 31, 2005 Members Share Posted August 31, 2005 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members garyd Posted August 31, 2005 Author Members Share Posted August 31, 2005 Originally posted by Codmate It takes a while to get a technique going. Put some rosin on the bow (it'll make your strings all shiny! ) and de-tune a few cents first. Start with the lowest (in pitch) E string. Don't bother fretting a note yet. Place the end of the bow on the string so that it is only touching that one string and push down *hard* with your forefinger. Move the bow forward, gradually releasing pressure. As you bring the bow back towards yourself gradually increase pressure again. Well done - you are now a cello Originally posted by acravero You can do okay with the E strings, but trying to bow any of the middle strings individually will become an exercise in futility. Just get yourself an e-bow (or a Zeta). Originally posted by Codmate Lol - true. Without a rounded bridge you're not going to get the middle stings on their own. You can do whole chords though, which can sound great Originally posted by acravero Start by scoring the rosin with a knife or scratching it up with some rough sandpaper. Then, if your bow is new, tighten it (not too tight, there should still be curve left in the bow) and swipe the rosin on the bow hair about 50x. If your bow is NOT new, you don't need to do that. Then, just do about 3-5 full swipes of rosin each time you play, and you should be good to go. Don't forget to loosen the bow when you are not playing. There should still be a little tension on the hair (not floppy), but not as much as is required for playing. Good luck! EDIT: I forgot to mention that you should wipe the rosin off your strings and guitar body when you are done. It has a tendency to cake on varnish/finishes, and can be quite tricky to get off if you leave it too long. This advice really helped me out. Thank you. Originally posted by Craq depending on the bridge your guitar has- and how hellbent your are- you could raise the action of the middle strings a little bit............. I tried this on a cheap Strat I had lying around and it kind of works, but not as well as I'd hoped: when you start fretting notes the bridge height doesn't come in to play enough to get single notes. Worth trying though Originally posted by Jimi Ray Halen If by cheesy/ridiculous you mean holding the entire audience spellbound then yeah, I agree. The guy I know amazes people with it. Standing O every time. Of course they're mostly already standing at the end because everybody approaches the stage when the bow comes out to play. I wish I could hold a room like that. Wow... right thats it, if you can get an ovation by doing it well, then I'm going to stick at it. It's so much fun to try and master this sort of thing, as it is still pretty unusual and a totally different approach from the more conventional double-stops and power chords.TIP: Something I learned a few hours ago and wanted to pass on. I have made a 'violining' patch on the GT-8 which has a clean amp sound and vibrato effect switched on, sounds like an old Twin. I have set up the expression pedal to toggle the rate of the vibrato, from around 30 to 80. By sweeping the pedal back and forth at the right moments, you can get that gorgious 'slowly speeding up' finger vibrato effect of the violin.I'm also thinking that by learning more chordal inversions it could be possible to work out some classical pieces in rudimentary form too. I look forward to finding out! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tin whistle Posted August 31, 2005 Members Share Posted August 31, 2005 I used to mess around alot with a bow way back. You need a guitar like an LP or similar thats arched and has the strings high above the guitar body. This is because you'll need to be able angle the bow without the body getting in the way. Its difficult to play/useless using a bolt on type fender body. You must rosin the bow for it to grab the strings. I was using a Tokai LP back then. I had no problem playing both single notes and chords. Use some slow delay with several fading repeats... it'll sound phenomenal. By the way, if you go by Page's playing of a bow...(no offense because I was a zep freak and saw them live many times) he didn't really play it to its full potential. If you play alot of have steps you'll likely summon beelzebub himself! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Detox Posted August 31, 2005 Members Share Posted August 31, 2005 Har! I chuckled all the way through this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tin whistle Posted August 31, 2005 Members Share Posted August 31, 2005 I vaguely remember a friend of mine playing me a song by, I think, Bloodwyn Pig, that had the same whole lotta love riff but played by horns. I'm thinking the point my friend was also making was that LZ lifted it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Detox Posted August 31, 2005 Members Share Posted August 31, 2005 Originally posted by tin whistle I vaguely remember a friend of mine playing me a song by, I think, Bloodwyn Pig, that had the same whole lotta love riff but played by horns. I'm thinking the point my friend was also making was that LZ lifted it. As well as lyrics from Willie Dixon's You Need Love (check out the Muddy Waters ver.). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rockfan Posted August 31, 2005 Members Share Posted August 31, 2005 Originally posted by tin whistle If you play alot of have steps you'll likely summon beelzebub himself! I'll pass Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members angus_old Posted August 31, 2005 Members Share Posted August 31, 2005 I remember reading somewhere that Page had the strings really curved on the LP he used for bowing so he could reach the middle ones Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tin whistle Posted September 1, 2005 Members Share Posted September 1, 2005 Originally posted by onbongos I remember reading somewhere that Page had the strings really curved on the LP he used for bowing so he could reach the middle ones I don't think thats the case. Anytime I've seen them and in pics, he uses the same LP that hew bangs all the other songs on. Anyway, its not necessary to have a special bridge...you can get plenty of sound as I described previously. If he DID have a special bridge, he sure didn't take much advantage of it judging from the sounds he produced. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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