Electric bass and bow?

My school held it's annual Battle of the Bands on Friday and one of the bass players did something I'd heard of but never actually seen live.

I was on the stage fixing something while one of the bands was playing (I'm a sound tech) when the bassist of the band that was one pulled out a bow and began playing with it on his electric bass. I mean, I was standing right beside the bass amp and I could barely make out any sound but that could have been because I'd spent the entire evening being deafened. I could also see the bow fraying like crazy...

My question is, how effective is this in reality: playing an electric bass with a bow? Does it have any practical purpose? :) :huh:

As far as I'm concerned, having been present for the event, it seems to be nothing more than a mark of incompetence on the part of the bassist. Perhaps he'd heard that "upright basses" are played with a bow and thus assumed that there's no real difference between the mechanics of his electric bass and those of an orchestral bass. Wouldn't surprise me in the least.

There's no practical way to get good sound out of standard electric guitar strings with a standard bow, so yeah...

Plus the fact that neither the electric bass or the guitar have a bridge.

My question is, how effective is this in reality: playing an electric bass with a bow? Does it have any practical purpose? :P :horrified:

Sometimes players who want a different sound will flip the violin bow over and tap the strings with it, it's creates a really tinny and hollow sound but has little other value, also it's a waste of a violin bow too :laugh:

So in reality it has no real "use" per se. unless you're really looking for something different

Plus the fact that neither the electric bass or the guitar have a bridge.

Yes they do

Sometimes players who want a different sound will flip the violin bow over and tap the strings with it, it's creates a really tinny and hollow sound but has little other value, also it's a waste of a violin bow too :laugh:

So in reality it has no real "use" per se. unless you're really looking for something different

Tell that to Mahler. :P It's a cool effect if used judiciously.

Also, I think bob was saying that he was attempting to play arco on an electric bass. That's ludicrous. An electric bass doesn't have the right type of bridge to support arco techniques. He would have been playing all 4 strings at once, and it would sound like crap.

So in short, no, this is not a technique that is normal, nor should it be encouraged. For the bow and the audiences' sake.

There's no practical way to get good sound out of standard electric guitar strings with a standard bow, so yeah...

Well Jimmy Page used a bow on his electric guitar in the bridge part to "whole lotta love" to get some really nice sound effects out of his guitar.

I always wanted to try one out on a bass with flat wound strings on it, I dont know if I could skip strings at all since the bass strings are pretty level with eachother but you might be able to get some nice effects if you stick to one or two strings.

There is a tool called an energy bow, (or more commonly, an ebow) which uses a magnetic field to vibrate the strings.

It sounds amazing on bass.

Damages the strings dood. You can only use it on the outside ones anyway. Be a sport and get an Ebow!

I can't picture it doing much on a bass... Makes some decent sounds on a guitar, but still doesn't seem worth the price of replacing the bow every show.

I can't picture it doing much on a bass... Makes some decent sounds on a guitar, but still doesn't seem worth the price of replacing the bow every show.

You need light gauge strings.

Check out some of the videos of Michael Manring using it, sounds amazing.