Bass Looping and Bowing Techniques

["Rick Walker/Loop.pooL" <GLOBAL@cruzio.com>]

Scott Kungha Drengsen wrote:
"I've been quite taken w/looping my "6 string electric upright bass with
a bow" as of late.(but it takes so long to say that I just say "electric
cello")The bow gives great textural control! At least 2 songs on my new
CD will have it."

What an amazing coincidence, Scott:  Just this evening (and before I read
this post of yours)
I got out the two bows I use (a cheap but durable plastic acoustic bass bow
and a small and very hip little teensy
Suzuki method violin bow-------the smallest size made, I believe.) and 
spent
a couple of hours
playing  musical saw, then brass candy dishes, then a large gopichand
(monochord instrument
from India) and finally my 3/4 scale electric bass.

The tiny Suzuki bow is really great for electric bass I have found and you
can purchase them for the
unbelievably cheap price of $25.    I can also twirl it, mid piece,
and use the back side of it as a slide or as a hammer (as in hammer
dulcimer).   I even went out
and purchased some very, very thin brass sheets so that I can wrap a 5" 
inch
section around the bracing
of the bow to create a portable slide.

I love that when you bow the strings and then take the bow off of the them,
that the volume swells
strongly...........a very cool ambient effect.

The bow on the Gopichand was particularly cool.   I was getting some really
cool electronic and almost
industrial sounds out of it.   I just love when I can make acoustic
instruments sound like electronic instruments
with lots of processing.    Bowing the candy dishes is particularly cool,
because when you stop bowing, the sound
stops abruptly and it sounds remarkably like a backwards sample of the same
bowl being struck:   very ethereal!!

I look forward to hearing what you are doing with your bow and I look
forward to playing with you again soon.

yours,  Rick Walker