Effect to get bowed Cello tone?

[Badfish]

Hey,
I own an ebow, several volume pedals and a behringer slow motion (a surprisingly success slow gear clone).
Slow gear was the least useful way in my experience.
The best way for me, which gives the most control over dynamics is a volume pedal fed into reverb (and delay can help as well).
Using an ebow on bass by itself is also ok, but its usually used mainly on the G string as it not easy to get used to change strings fast with it,
And it's best when combined with a volume pedal.

But again, playing on the bridge p'up with volume pedal swells into a nice reverb/delay will get you there.

 

[slawie]

A POG2 will do the trick. Play it all above the 12th fret though.
I will post a sample on my reverbnation
slawie

 

[groovebass5]

A quick note on the EBow if I may. First of all it will do the trick to get a cello like sound. I feel that is most usable on the D and G strings and gets the best tone when you play towards the end of the neck. I prefer using it on my fretless the best personally. Using either reverb or delay helps too or even both!

It is also more versatile than you would think. As you move the EBow over the pickups you can varying levels on distortion depending on how you have your pickups selected.

Check out some of Michael Manring if you want to see a master of the EBow in action. Here's a good one with him on his hyperbass

 

[iiipopes]

One thing I used to do is use compression and a volume pedal: compression get the sustain, and use the volume pedal down so there is no perceived attack or articulation to the note, then immediately up so the full tone with sustain comes through the speaker.

 

[strictlybass_ic]

Might not be exactly what you're after, but reverbs with "shimmer" settings can do a nice airy, almost organ/orchestral kind of sound. Maybe give some of those a listen and see what that does for you.

 

[gsquare]

For me, it's the volume knob an my bass. turn it down and hammer on the note with a wide vibrato, then swell up. The hammer on tends to produce a brighter, harsher sound with more upper partials present in the tone then a finger pluck, which ends up being closer to a cello being bowed when you sweep up the volume. Only works if your in a setting where the audience isn't close enough or the room isn't quiet enough to hear the physical unamplified sound of you hammering on your bass, but for the right situation or recording, it can be a really cool effect.

 

[mikefromchurch]

I've gotten somewhat close to this sound by using a volume pedal (for swells) feeding a smooth sustaining fuzz (like a Muff) feeding into either a delay or a reverb with a long feedback setting.

Was kind of my thought. I actually mess arround with my guitar pedal sometimes. I get close to cello/Upright with an auto swell set to the fastest setting, full sustain, and a high reverb setting. It's not perfect, but it's a pedal made for guitar, not bass, and is rather low end quality. The auto swell makes an issue with faster work, so it's pretty much only effective for single whole notes, and have to play ahead of the beat. My advice, go buy an upright

 

[friendlybass]

volume knob or volume pedal. all those slow gear clones are just envelope triggered volume controls. I use my Dunlop dvp1 if I'm feeling lazy, otherwise I just turn the volume knob down, hit my note, and then turn it back up at the desired rate. pretty common trick for guitarists, I'm sure there's a youtube demo

 

[mikefromchurch]

another thought. get a cheap bow and a stool. If you run flats, you could position the bass in a way to play only G string. If you keep it simple it could work

 

[Deleted member 264575]

The EHX HOG 2 does it for guitar...probably would work on bass. Expensive (IMHO).

Demo - Cello effect @ 2:00 mark.

 

[floatingaxe]

+1 for volume pedal.
The thing I haven't liked about slow gear type effects is that the ones I've tried start from 0 and then fade up to 100. I want to start from maybe 80 and fade to 100. So I use a volume pedal. This also means you can change the "sweep" speed as you want for different notes.
I also use a fuzz set to mostly dry with just a hint of the fuzz to get the bowing effect.
On my fretless "jazz" I use the neck pickup with the highs and lows rolled off a little. Since the OP is using a P bass that probably isn't necessary, but definitely pluck near the end of the neck. I try to pluck at the half way point for each note, so for open strings I'm on the 12th fret and as I go up the fretboard I move my right hand to stay around the middle of the vibrating part of the string.
I did all this recently to fake an upright bass and I had many positive comments from people in the audience.

 

[Deleted member 264575]

I usually use my EUB for cello sound, but I agree that using a volume pedal on my fretless with a hint of fuzz works great too.

 

[Thunderscreech]

+1 for Ebow

 

[-Asdfgh-]

Sounds like an ebow might work with a piccolo-strung bass with some octave down?

 

[slawie]

I have posted a rather ordinary but you will get the idea sample
on my Soundcloud/slawie page.

 

[wintremute]

That Ebow looks pretty cool.

From their FAQs it says:
The EBow was designed for guitar string spacing. It gets its necessary alignment by resting on the strings adjacent to the one you're playing. To play the EBow on bass, you must accomplish this critical alignment in challenging ways. You can rest the EBow between the strings and tilt it sideways to get the string you want to play to run down the drive channel. You can use your forefinger and thumb off the edges of the EBow to create "grooves" that catch the adjacent strings. Or, you can just hold the EBow in the proper position through sheer will and determination. Light gauge strings and a touch of distortion can prove useful, especially in the harmonic mode.

Then it gave these links to check out people doing it with a bass: http://www.ebow.com/youtube.php?cat=36