$310

Hello everyone!

I think this would fit in the 'Accessories' category...

I am interested in getting cool guitar effects (like the eBow gives you) that go beyond using a pick or finger-style. Does anyone have any interesting accessories they use and can recommend?

Thanks!

I'm a big experimental gearhead (sorry to use the name haha), but I love trying to use things like that in ways other than their intent.

Example: Have you ever tried playing upright bass with a pick?
Taken an eBow to the strings of piano? <--- THAT one's fun.

Just some ideas. My favorites are eBow, TalkBox, and Acoustic Bow, among others. Oh and you can get crazy cool sounds depending on what you use as a "pick." Anything from a quarter to a business card. You can even wrap your fingers in different material and check out what happens to the sound. This works especially well on an acoustic or classical guitar. Fun times.

Just to toss a few ideas around on ways to find inspiration in new sounds.

Peace,
ShackMan

An eBow to piano strings sounds like something I want to try...

Wrapping your hands in different materials before playing is a good idea too.

I don't own a talk box but they seem more versatile than Peter Frampton would have us believe..

My neighbors will hate me after these experiments...

So will piano technicians. I'm kind of notorious down at WVU with the tech there for experimental piano pieces. Have fun dude and let me know what you come up with! There are millions of crazy cool combos out there that you can find, I'm sure!

LOL @ Shackman! You have to be his very favorite person! Try using the goose end of a goose feather for a pick. It gives a diferent sound too. When the feather is plucked from the goose, the keratin in the goose end is sort of like organic plastic. But with the quill attached it gives it a softer sound. Try it. It's what they used to play mountain dulcimers with way back when.

Really now, Eddie? This needs exploration, right away!

Well, at least once I find a goose...and catch him. HA!

I do have a friend with a dulcimer, though, so I might even get to try it out on that.

A goose feather pick! That just made my day.

This is not guitar, I know, but if you have a piano laying around and some dimes, I once tried to insert the dimes between the higher strings of the piano. Doing this gives the piano a cool sound, like high-pitched wood blocks...

Gearhed, that's a big thing with John Cage and subsequent composers. That's called prepared piano. Objects ranged from dimes, quarters, screws, rubberbands, woodblocks, all the way up to a brass plate over the entire bottom two octaves. Take a listen to some of that. I highly recommend his 1st Sonata for Prepared Piano and Joelle Leandre's Hommage a John Cage for starters.

If you're looking for other cool sounds from a piano, Henry Cowell's "The Banshee" is an AWESOME creepy little piece. It's played entirely with your hands on the strings. The performer never actually touches the keys. You scrape and pluck and hit the strings on the action of the piano. Good times. The best recording is one from 1934 if you can find it. It's performed by the composer himself!

Recent experimentation: Wrapped my first two fingers in springs. Used an envelope filter and a rotary speaker emulator.

Funky stuff.

That sounds funky shackman. So you tell me how that works? you wrapped your first two fingers with springs going horizontal? Then you synthisize the sound but what is a rotary speaker emulator? What kind of sounds are you getting? It sounds cool.