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I know about eBows and EMpicks and Wonds but they seem to all be for electric guitars. Are there any string exciters that work on the wound strings of acoustic guitars?

empty
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This intrigued me, as something that ought to work in theory, but I'd never actually tried.

I blew the dust off my E-Bow, found a battery & compared 3 guitars - fully steel-strung acoustic, brass-wound steel acoustic & an unplugged Strat.
I've only ever tried it before on an electric through an amp - usually with a fair amount of distortion &/or compression.

Without an amp & compression, the 'rise' of the note volume feels a little slower initially, but allowing for that [which is apparent even on the unplugged Strat] I got very similar results for all three.

Success. Yes, an E-Bow works on a steel-strung acoustic, even with brass windings.

I don't have a nylon-strung acoustic for comparison, but of course, at best you'd only get it to work at all on the wound strings & even then if they contained a good amount of steel.

Tetsujin
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  • Interesting. The consensus on the web is that the E-Bow has problems exciting the low E. – empty Feb 12 '19 at 20:23