depends on the stroke—how hard and how
quick you play—and how you lift the bow
from the strings.”
Regardless of the bow type or technique,
rosin is an essential supply for the bowing
guitarist. Rosin, which looks like a little
bar or cake of glycerin soap, is what violin,
viola, cello, and double-bass players use to
make the hair on the bow sticky so that it
grips the string and pulls it, thus creating
sound. As the bow moves, the string snaps
back to its original position and is caught
again by the rosined hair in a quickly
repeated cycle. Without rosin’s grip, bow
hair would slide over strings and produce
very little sound. “I’ve found that going for
something in between a cello and a violin/
viola rosin works well for me and doesn’t
kill the strings too fast,” says Westerhus.
For those wishing to create infinitely
sustaining strings with less wrist action
At a 2009 performance in Seattle, Fred Frith
uses drumsticks to coax a barrage of sound
from his Gibson ES-345—which is outfitted with
a pickup at the nut. Photo by Aaron
ANT H E MTM TRU •MIC TECHNOLOGY
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