Originally Posted by: MoonliteShredhow do you get the sound of a violin through your guitar? do you need effects or just plain technique. I heard eric johnson's can do it..

Hi, Moonlite

The violin-like sound can be attained in a couple of different ways:
1)with a slight delay and your choice of OD/dist, turn the volume knob on the guitar all the way down, then play a note on the fretboard, and slowly fade in/turn up the volume on the knob. Do that while changing from note to note, and you'll get a nice smooth violin-like sound. It works best with strat-body guitars due to the placement of the vol. knob. But you can do it w/ most other ones, with a little practice (CHEAT: you can buy a volume pedal instead, and use your foot to control the volume).

2) Use an eBow, to vibrate the strings. An eBow is a little effects gear you can pick up from most guitar shops. It is battery operated and produces an electro-magnetic field around the string you place it over, causing it to vibrate just as if you were using a violin bow (hence, e-BOW). These cost around $80, but are great tools to add to your arsenal of gear. They have 2 settings, regular and harmonics. In harmonics, the eBow emits an octave higher pitch, as if you were doing natural harmonics on the strings, and the sustain is, well...virtually infinite as longs as you hold the eBow on the string (and battery doesnt run out :) )

Hope this helps you achieve the best tone ever.

Cheers,
Thiago.