Unorthodox Attacks for the guitar (electromagnetic or otherwise)

[Dante5Inferno]

I'm really intrigued by the concept of making different sounds with the guitar without using the orthodox picking, strumming, etc. attacks, particularly using electrical fields like the E-bow or Eddie Van Halen using a drill. I've even heard of people using electric razors onstage.

Does anyone have other innovative ways of creating sounds with the guitar?

[loudneighbor]

You know, I was thinking about just that the other day.

Have you ever heard Godzilla roar? Let me explain...

In the old Godzilla movies, Mr. Badnews himself had this very distinctive roar.

Now the secret to this roar, I am told, was taking a cello and dragging a rough slab of leather across the strings.

If you are looking for a new sound of 'monstrous' proportions, this may prove interesting. I have never tried it, I must admit.

Let me know how it turns out if you do.

[shakey]

If you have one of those cell-phones where you can program in a tune, then program a tune put the phone over your pick-ups and get some-one to ring you, works best if you put some effects on it, especially delay.
Shakey

[StrungOutString]

Running your strings along the mic stand is a great trick (for a slide effect), if you work at it you can actually get this to sound good.

[nobody]

They used to sell these toys called the Jibber Jabber and they were basically a mic and a speaker in a telescoping megaphone style casing and it had a roller knob for weird vocal effects (kinda like a phase/flange kinda thing) anyway, you could hold the speaker to the pickups adn point the mic at your amp and it would start feedingback on itself and you could use the effect things to create crazy sounds.

Another one, point your TV remote at your pickups and push buttons, it's produce electronic bleeps and blips.

I have an Exacto knife handle with the gnurling on the shaft that I scrape against the strings, the gnurls will catch the strings as it slides around.

A lot of people have used vibrators to 'excite' their strings.

[skip tracer]

i was going to mention the remote control thing..this sounds really good with a tremolo and wah. i've also used an electric razor. holding a cd player up to the pickups and pressing play makes an interesting sound..

[3D Steve]

james iha used to use a lasertag gun on his pickups....
same as the remote i'm sure.
if you've got high output PU's, you can use a short slap delay...like 1/8 of a second, crank the amp and slap the strings...keep them muted...it sounds like an electronic percussion thing...

[j_stashko]

You know those and cranked flashlights or the ones with a generator inside and you push a lever to make them spin the generator and light up the flash light. Well if you put them near your pickups when pressing the lever it makes a crazy mega low-end growling noise, coolness.

[Clayton38]

I used to put the old gameboy up to my emg 81 and get the Mario theme song going at parties.

[daveyboy]

i gotta try that remote control thing tonight

[symPATHETIC]

does this work with single coils??

[Ice age coming]

Its fun to use a strong magnet over the pickups it makes a nice sound specially with effects (this can maybe destroy the pickups so use a old guitar you dont car about:D)

[benpapillon]

Yes, it does work on my Squeir Strat which has single coils

[VillageIdiot]

For ultimate ****-rock... in a band situation you and the other guitarist run over and slide your strings together while playing a chord- kinda goodish in the climax of a song.

And I say ish. :D

[brensema]

hold guitar out horizontally and balance metal slide on middle strings (parallel to string) directly over pickup (humbucker works the best) with distiortion...I think that the slide acts as a sort of passive lipstick pickup and interrupts the mag field of the humbucker. This can pick up cool low freq bumps and oscillations from other electronic equipment. Really fun with screwy delay settings.

[Wayjurn]

One word: bows. Not E-bows, but just plain bows. If you've ever watched Jimmy Page play before, you know what I mean. There's a thousand and one ways to abuse these things. They're easy to get, too.. music stores throw them away ALL THE TIME for little things like cracked frogs or chipped ends.

[skip tracer]

in a song im recording (a cover song), i rubbed the strings on the arm of the couch. i also rubbed a quarter on the strings with a lot of reverb and distortion for a kind of dinosaur sound.

[phlanger]

electric toothbrushes make a feedbacking sound

hammers for a dulcumer(ukrainian instrument) are a fun sound too

[boyecho]

also. any ANY toys that make noises. ray guns. gi joe figures with those huge lazer/machinegun/nuclear bomb attack noise backpacks. [they were also on cheesy keychains. man or astroman used those to good effect]. cell phones work good. i had a lead part that was getting very boring to play, but it was distinct, and people liked that song for it. so one day i programmed a cell phone to play somethign that sounded like the last half of it. and when i got to the last half of the lead, i was facing my amp. i hit the 'play' button on the phone and held the guitar over top of it. it was hilarious.

[Wayjurn]

I think someone mentioned portable CD players in here. GOD those things are fun. I cranked the distortion on my bass rig and sat for a half hour holding the CD player to the pickup and pressing 'play' and 'stop' over and over again.

[Lenin]

about bows... i have a violin bow, as that i am a violinist, and i am wondering if
you have to tune your guitar different to get more that an open chord sound or
if there is a way to play single notes.
try taking a tuning fork and holding the vibrating part over the pickups.

[cold & ugly]

i just got my hands on a Braun Epi-silk-something-or-other but still havent had a chance to use it on my Epiphone LP.... thing is this model has an extral tickler-thingy on top on the epilations thing... so ontop of the little metal pluckers it has a skin sensitive cover that rotates to tickle or relax the skin while pulling the hair out... sounds intriging....

... i would really like to get my hands on an e-bow... but i would preferably wanna get to know how they work so i could make my own type....


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www.geocities.com/collective_reflections

and for awesomely-kewl pedals and effects... check out:
www.3mspedals.com
they also show u how to make them urself!!!! so.. build away...

[phlanger]

whats that -voodoo machine- really like? tell us about it.

[joeinthebox1980]

i've used a screw driver - not the pointy end, mind you - and i would kinda bounce them off of the strings... with some reverb, some distortion/overdrive.. and it makes some interesting sounds.

also, try strumming with coins... a quarter or a dime, not too hard or else you may damage the guitar and the strings... but if you if you pick/strum softly with coins... you get kind of a metallic sort of sound. it's just different. :)

[joeinthebox1980]

Originally posted by Lenin
about bows... i have a violin bow, as that i am a violinist, and i am wondering if
you have to tune your guitar different to get more that an open chord sound or
if there is a way to play single notes.


i had a friend who had a bow and just strung two strings on his guitar... i suppose which strings are up to you.

that way he could get individual strings or use both if he wanted.

[Elnwood]

I once saw this guitarist put something something around one of his fingers of hid right hand (like sandpaper or something) and scrape it rapidly up and down on his strings near the bridge. I'm not exactly sure what it was or what effects he was using (probably a multi-FX unit), but the sound was almost exaclt like a vinyl record scraping, like a DJ.

If anyone has any idea what this was, I'd like to know.