A veteran pro sound-guy mentioned to me that an E-Bow could work on a bass guitar. I can’t figure how one could overlay the gizmo over four thicker not six thinner strings. The Heet E-Bow looks very overpriced for a piece of plastic; there’s a Joyo Infinite Sustainer that’s about 2/3 of the price, but at that site, they warn: “Try to use any ebow kind of device on a bass guitar, acoustic guitar will produce limited results as the material and weight of the string increases.” An eponymous site offers a link to YT videos, showing one used on a bass, but I reckon this isn’t for amateurs. Surely somebody must have tinkered to craft one for a bass? Or is there some law of physics, acoustics, or commonsense that prevents such a novelty? Advice? Alternatives?
Sorry, but it sounds like a rather weird concept to me.
I thought @JoshFossgreen reviewed one o’ them there things in one of his gadget videos?
Hmmm I’ve watched all his gadget videos (I think?), and don’t recall ever seeing that before.
The Heet thing looking at it has a pickup that works like a guitar pickup. So yeah, I can see why acoustic does not work well with it, and bass too. I imagine that you could wind a pickup for the Heet that would work with a bass, but a bass pickup and guitar pickup are different. I can see why results would be limited
Charles Berthoud did a neat video with an e-bow on fretless
and here’s one with Rich Brown https://youtu.be/8elGoeHeX5Q
Zander Zon also has a lot of great e-bow bass stuff on his Youtube page.
@JoshFossgreen reviews one at 3:17 here:
As Josh says, It’s kind of a weird gadget.
Thanks, @mgoldst + comrades. I knew somebody must have tried this out for a bass. Interesting that unlike the e-Bow, the Aeon appears to fit onto one string rather than over them all as on a guitar. I appreciate the nod, and to @JoshFossgreen for his inimitable flair in demo-ing oddities.