If I were to put special smooth strings (standard E-A-D-G) on a regular sized electric bass guitar could it be played with a horse hair bow? I ask because I saw a bass guitar the other day which was the usual size and shape but had a stand/leg like a double bass so it could be upright.
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well yes with a caveat…I messed around with this on my 6 string electric…finding a horse hair bow was hard enough for under $100.00 high end ones are $275 and up…I even held one in my hand worth $10,000.00 (not a joke) with that said…the bridges of electric basses and guitars are not arched allowing you to single out strings for bowing…I found it fun and erie to use and mainly worked on my lower strings E A D and then wound up just drop d tuning it and messing around….
that is the caveat…if you adjust your basses bridge to an extreme so you can single out strings then yes it works and you do not have to have special strings. It just so happens I play the Chrome series of strings which are just flat(ribbon) wound and one regular string for the low E and there was no problem….in any situation to get the strings to vibrate…I still have the bow and the rosin (which you will need) and from time to time I play with it…but the rosin will sticky up everything….the guitar/bass body, the strings, pick guard, bridge, everything.
It’s fun and if you can get a bow cheap then I recommend everyone play around with it for a little bit as it sounds great…but messy and not efficient as stated the bridges are flat and that just ruins the experience
G
look at a bass guitar and a cello side by side and see if you can see the difference, if not, go back to watching Sponge Bob and wishing on shooting stars, next you’ll be asking how to do harmonica riff’s on your flute
Listen to Sugur Ros.
This isnt really an answer. but they are from iceland. and the guitarist uses this method.