Anybody uses piranha guitar bow?

[moi]

Piranha Guitar Bow - For acoustic and electric guitar
I recently acquired it and just couldn’t make it working. I applied the resin to the bow’s hair as it’s said in the manual. Hairs became covered with a kind of sticky resin dust. But I couldn’t produce any musical bowing with my electric guitar, just some unpleasant weak grinding sound. Also it seemed just impossible to make any lash sustained bowings, just some sort of short tremolo.

[woomanmoomin]

Well, I'm not sure I would buy any fancy product for this application. I'm probably just going to get a violin (or viola or cello) bow. (It worked for Jimmy Page and Sigur Rós. I used to have a violin bow but my flatmate broke it.) That said, there is a knack to getting good bowing sounds out of a guitar. A lot of it is down to arm and hand position and movement, but you also have to bear in mind that an electric guitar is probably not going to behave at all like a string instrument out of the box, you know. If your strings are strung low, they will not have the tension you need for good sustain. Also, it will not be easy for you to bow them without pushing the bow and/or the strings against the fretboard, pickups or body of the guitar, which will obviously mess up the sound produced.

Bows like this probably work best with guitars that have slightly curved fretboards, as these give easier access to individual strings. On the other hand, it can be nice to run a bow (a real bow, at least) along all the strings at once! Either way, there is probably a lot to be said for using bows with hollow-bodied guitars, as these resonant more like acoustic string instruments than solid-bodied guitars do.

[Honch]

I agree.

The people of old band 10cc (Godley and Creme) left that band just to produce and market a similar gadget of their own. It was called the Gizmotron, but featured batteries. The individual "bows" for each string ran ON THE SIDE of each string, cause otherwise, when you pressed it down, it where pressed down so much that each string fretted out. The "bows" contained of small plastic jagged wheels rotating in a certain direction. You had to keep the momentum going. As for the dynamics, it where poor. It failed to catch on in the business. Way too unwieldy to operate and install.

I considered the Pirahna for a while, to be used on a fretless bass. I think 4 strings are more easy, to hone in, and aim at without touching neighboring strings.

I think, however, as there are absolutely neither any SOUND samples not YouTube like demo videos on their site, it seems very elusive, almost some elaborate prank. They don't have any reviews/testimonys either.

It is VERY hard to keep any momentum going on with the piranha, and as with a regular bow, you have to press so hard, that the resin will have just enough resistance to the strings. Also, there's too much difference in guitar strings, as you go over to the plain strings the sound becomes totally different and it just squeaks. You need spun/wound strings to get some friction going on, and that's why it should be more easy on bass, where all string are wound. On violins and cellos, all strings are wound.

However, as the Piranha bow itself is arched, the strings does not need to have that high radius as they usually have on cellos, or violins. It's made like that to make it easier to aim at one string only. I think the movement needed from your hand to keep up the same momentum as with a regular bow is almost impossible to achieve. You can - at most, if you're lucky - reach staccatto and tremolo impersonations, since each time you turn it, it will be a clear attack stroke.

/honch

Originally Posted by moi

Piranha Guitar Bow - For acoustic and electric guitar
I recently acquired it and just couldn’t make it working. I applied the resin to the bow’s hair as it’s said in the manual. Hairs became covered with a kind of sticky resin dust. But I couldn’t produce any musical bowing with my electric guitar, just some unpleasant weak grinding sound. Also it seemed just impossible to make any lash sustained bowings, just some sort of short tremolo.

[octatonic]

I have tried using an actual piranha before.
I wouldn't recommend it.

[lordmiguel]

the more rosin the better. of course, your stings will be affected. it needs to be quite sticky. it is tougher on non-wound strings as mentioned, and takes practice.

most people have luck on the lowest 2 or 3 strings. fretting out is common, as are harmonic squeaking noises. try the neck pickup.