Does anyone know where I can buy a smooth steel rod bow - similar to a screw driver to use as a bow for an electric guitar.

Trying to get the glissando guitar sound like the Steve Hillage sound on the Rainbow Dome album. (The guitar sounds more like a synth when played like this with delay, phaser/flanger & reverb)

This glissando effect I'm trying to achieve is a totally different sound to what you get using an e-bow or slide. (It might be possible to achieve similar results using both an e-bow and slide but this is not the method used by Steve Hillage or Daevid Allen.

The sound I want is achieved by gently bowing the strings at the point of where you fret making a constant drone which you use the bow as a slide. Have had limited success using a screwdriver - however ideally need something flat not round and smoother. Seeing the recent Steve Hillage DVD they all appear to be using proper bow rods not screwdrivers from a tool box!

Considering how fantastic this sound is I am suprised I cannot find anything out-there to buy? Am I searching for the wrong item ?

Any advice appreciated!
Thanks

First thing that comes to mind is the acrriage guid rod out of a scrapped desktop printer. These are normally chromed or stainless steel.

--------------------
Nik
Godin, Axon, Tonelab, Repeater & the skin of my teeth!

i use a metal tent peg..but i also use a screwdriver..i have a few gliss rods my tent peg is nice and rusty so i get volume when i gliss but the smoother screwdriver is for the really quite bits....i like to put a bend in the gliss rod i find it easier to use..

ps daevid allen uses his wammy bar and im sure so does steve hillage.sid barret who started this whole sound off (i think)used a screwdriver

hope this helps

pps its a pity you stay so far away from me because i am trying to start a gliss orchestra

--------------------
www.myspace.com/onemanandalaptop

Thanks "paul tha other" & "shingles"

I think I'll give the tent peg idea a go.

I dont have a wammy bar on my Godin Radiator or Variax 500, but might consider buying a wammy rod with a decorative handle on it so I look the part as well!

Dont know why someone is not manafacturing something propper ?

Gliss on everyone!

Gliss Guitar?? .... DoG's use a chromed bar that came off the suspension of some weird vehicle about the thickness of a Biro, but about 8 inches long...

--------------------
nibbled to death by an Okapi http://www.soundclick.com/tubilahdog

I'd suspect you'd need something not quite chromed and shiny - something with a bit of "grain" to it's surface, so that the friction will excite the strings.

Check your local model shop for piano wire.

Andy

--------------------
When the going gets weird, the Weird turn Pro.

A local metal working shop? Brazing rods, or just rods in general should be readliy available.

--------------------
Wild Hope FB

Don't want to alarm you, but apparently SH has been known to use a vibrator - yes, I mean what you think I mean - something like this:

http://www.turnmeon.co.uk/P/Vibrators-Smooth-and-Sleek-Vibrators-6-Ladyfin ger-Smooth-Slimline-Vibrator-Silver(2377).aspx

Makes sense in a lot of ways - not quite an E-Bow, not quite a Gizmo (whatever happened to that idea?) and not quite a bow, but... When interviewed jointly with Miquette Giraudy (Mrs Hillage), she'd hastily point out that this idea had nothing to do with her!

More boring but quite effective is using an ordinary drumstick; the natural irregularity in the surface of the wood acts almost like bow rosin and gives subtle tinkly harmonics when drawn across the strings.