EBow - anybody use one?

[KuruPrionz]

I'm de-cluttering and found the box for my EBow. It has the lessons cassette. I want to transfer that to digital so I can listen to it and try to learn some new tricks.

 

I usually have it close by, on the studio desk. It can provide lots of options with any steel string guitar including acoustic guitars. I'm not very good at it, never practice it - lazy.

I've also used it with my Fishman Triple Play to get new synth sounds (for me anyway).

 

I'm not sure I'd ever be good enough at it to use it live. I like simple live, one less thing to think about.

 

Decades ago I saw it demonstrated at the EBow booth at NAMM in Anaheim and the player was amazing, he'd been practicing and it showed.

 

Do you have one? Have you used one? Anything to add, I wanna learn more!!!!! Cheers, Kuru

[Scott Fraser]

I think I bought my first EBow at NAMM, probably 40-ish years ago. It was the chrome silver model, no switch. I'm on my second one, black plastic with the power switch. The newer ones are much upgraded & get the string going faster & more controllably. It's been a pretty constant part of my live thing all along, although I'm doing pretty weird highly processed electronic music with the guitar, which often doesn't sound remotely like a guitar.

[KuruPrionz]

although I'm doing pretty weird highly processed electronic music with the guitar, which often doesn't sound remotely like a guitar.

 

This is exactly what I love about it! It's another set of instruments. Last year I posted this on Metapop, just for fun: https://metapop.com/opossum-apocalypse/tracks/that-itch/130532

 

I played separate tracks of 4 the B notes on an 8 string lap steel into a DI, ran the mic out into my interface for one track and the parallel input/output out into a wah pedal and then to the interface for a second track. I had the "harmonic" switch setting for a couple of the tracks, which is where the other notes come from, that and sliding around a bit.

 

I did that for a bass tuned BEAD too, but I only played the open B string. Somebody guessed it was an ARP Odyssey and a Mini Moog before I spilled the beans.

 

I suck at keyboards but the EBow lets me do crazy cool stuff without keys.

[Dannyalcatraz]

I have one- and a Fernandes Ravelle with a sustainer- but I don"t really use either much. Not that I don"t LIKE them, but more that they don"t fit my playstyle all that much, which is very rhythmic.

 

...not that I"ll ever let either slip my grasp! Every once in a while, I want to go on deep space explorations, and either tool is a great tool for such a journey.

[Winston Psmith]

I have an E-bow, my 2nd - I wore out the switch on my first one, long ago. I also have a T.C. Electronics Aeon, which is similar in concept. The E-bow is better, period. I've used it with Electric and Acoustic Instruments, including Guitar, Bass, Mandolin, and even to drive strings on old Zithers and Auto-Harps. If it has magnetic strings, you can probably find a way.

 

The E-bow demands some finesse in handling. It should more or less ride on your strings, rather than need for you to press it down to trigger a response. The E-bow is heavy enough to press down on super light-gauge strings sets, like .008's, and even .009's. There are few uglier sounds than an E-bow causing the strings to crash against your Guitar's frets, because the strings are nearly pressed against the fretboard. A .010 or .011 set does nicely, without sagging under the pressure. IME, it's happier with HB's, and your Neck PU.

 

A Volume Pedal is your friend, working with an E-Bow. First off, it allows you to pull back when you engage the E-bow, unless you want to tear through your speaker cones, and possibly your eardrums. Second, it lets you get swells of E-bow driven sound, adding to the faux-bowing effect. Reverb adds depth, and long Delays can create waterfalls of sustained Guitar tones. E-bow through Distortion and Phaser or Flanger can sound like a UFO Death Ray or a Power Saw.

 

In terms of technique, try this - have your Neck PU On, Bridge (or Bridge & Middle) Off. Set your E-bow slightly behind your Neck PU, towards the Bridge, resting on the strings, then slide it up towards your Neck PU. This helps you to find the sweet spot, where your PU responds best to the E-bow, and it allows you some control over Volume and Attack, by bringing the E-bow closer to the PU's pole pieces, or sliding back away.

 

For driving your 1st or 6th (or 7th, or 8th, etc.) strings, it's a bit trickier, as you only have one string to rest the E-bow on. I find that holding the E-bow at a slight angle, away from the string I want to drive, while resting it on the one available support string, gets me a good footing to drive the string. FWIW, the 1st string is generally more manageable than the 6th.

 

Switching strings in real time just takes practice, but it can be done. Deliberate, thoughtful movement works best. Switching to immediately adjacent strings is very tricky, as you're cutting off the sound of whichever string you were just driving. I find that lifting one side of the E-bow off of the string it's resting on, then slowly lifting it so as not to contact another string until you're ready to trigger another note. There is no method that allows you to slide it over from one string to another, unless you want to set off a round of banging and crashing noises.

 

I've had mixed success triggering Guitar Synth tones with the E-bow; very often, I've had to tweak the Sensitivity, and the Attack Time specifically for use with the E-bow.

 

The Aeon is around 1/2 the price of the E-bow, and it's much more compact. However, it doesn't have as much "drive" as the E-bow, very likely relating to the strength of the EM field. Some users found it so weak they gave u on it right away. It also feels awkward to me, but that could simply be because I've been using an E-bow for over 30 years, and I've gotten used to it, whereas I haven't gotten used to the Aeon yet.

[Caevan O’Shite]

I've tried 'em before; they're cool, but personally, I prefer getting sustain and harmonic-overtones by other methods that aren't limited to one or two strings at a time; such as feedback by more than one means (Hell0O0O, Sustainiac Model C!), or- I'm kinda giving up a little personal trade-secret here - when using particularly sensitive, powerful active pickups such as EMG's or the like, the breeze of an electric fan blowing across the strings.

 

Similarly, I prefer such methods over those pickup-based string-driver sustainers like those from Fernandez and Sustainiac. I have much more freedom with my methods, and sound more like myself and less like anyone else wielding an EBow or Sustainer-pickup.

 

Everybody and their Brother thought that Robert Fripp used an EBow on Bowie's "Heroes", and most people- including people playing onstage with Bowie now and then- used an EBow to recreate that live; but it turned out that Fripp deployed good old-fashioned feedback born of high volume and gain when he laid that down in the studio, plus some multi-tracked lines making it all even more betterer.

 

Everybody out there with EBows and Sustainer-pickups, as well as Boss Super Feedbacker and DigiTech Freq Out pedals- prove me wrong! Get all creative and personally expressive and do your own unique sounding things. I'd be GLAD to wrong!

 

I have one- and a Fernandes Ravelle with a sustainer- but I don"t really use either much. Not that I don"t LIKE them, but more that they don"t fit my playstyle all that much, which is very rhythmic.

 

...not that I"ll ever let either slip my grasp! Every once in a while, I want to go on deep space explorations, and either tool is a great tool for such a journey.

 

Dannyalcadude, break that out sometime along with your EQD Tentacle, Catalinbread Perseus (you've got both of those, right?), and some serious echo, and get thee interstellarly extragalactic...

 

A Volume Pedal is your friend...

Here, here! Hear, hear!

 

A Volume Pedal is your friend, working with an E-Bow. First off, it allows you to pull back when you engage the E-bow, unless you want to tear through your speaker cones, and possibly your eardrums. Second, it lets you get swells of E-bow driven sound, adding to the faux-bowing effect. Reverb adds depth, and long Delays can create waterfalls of sustained Guitar tones. E-bow through Distortion and Phaser or Flanger can sound like a UFO Death Ray or a Power Saw.

All of the above.

[Dannyalcatraz]

I haven"t gotten a Tentacle yet, nor the Hoof Reaper fuzz from which that pedal"s circuit was born. But one or both are on my list!

[Caevan O’Shite]

I haven"t gotten a Tentacle yet, nor the Hoof Reaper fuzz from which that pedal"s circuit was born. But one or both are on my list!

 

Oh- which octave-up fuzz or the like izzitt that you do have? (I thought for sure you had something like that... )

[Dannyalcatraz]

I have the Malekko Helium MKII. Which, of course, has zero relationship to whether I"ll buy a Tentacle or Hoof Reaper. ð

[Caevan O’Shite]

I have the Malekko Helium MKII. Which, of course, has zero relationship to whether I"ll buy a Tentacle or Hoof Reaper. ð

>snaps fingers< THAT'S right! The Helium MkII. I remember NOW...

[KuruPrionz]

More great posts, keep them coming. Pointing out what you find deficient is also useful, always has been.

 

I've certainly created my share of various sorts of feedback. What sets the EBow apart from feedback is that it can be done on an acoustic guitar or on a solid body electric guitar without disturbing anybody.

That is very useful to me in moments of inspiration in my condo in a multi unit complex.

 

In the end, there is nothing else like the EBow.

[Caevan O’Shite]

More great posts, keep them coming. Pointing out what you find deficient is also useful, always has been.

I hope I didn't come across as saying here was anything deficient about the EBow or anyone's using them; that wasn't exactly my meaning. Just kickin' the ball around about their use, and the types of musical effects that they fit within, 'n' yada yada. One could combine some of these various techniques with 'em, and/or layer tracks with and without them... and as I said above,

 

everybody out there with EBows and Sustainer-pickups, as well as Boss Super Feedbacker and DigiTech Freq Out pedals- prove me wrong! Get all creative and personally expressive and do your own unique sounding things. I'd be GLAD to wrong!

 

"Under the Milky Way", anyone?

 

"(Don't Fear) The Reaper"- Ohmhigawd!! A simple part, but PERFECT... !!

 

Steve Hackett, Genesis' "Carpet Crawlers"... Blissfully beautiful... !

 

>YOUR song here!<

 

I've certainly created my share of various sorts of feedback. What sets the EBow apart from feedback is that it can be done on an acoustic guitar or on a solid body electric guitar without disturbing anybody.

That is very useful to me in moments of inspiration in my condo in a multi unit complex.

Undoubtedly. While it's true that my beloved Sustainiac Model C (and its successor, Maniac Music's Sustain-Man) can do similar things at little or even zero volume, they're much more cumbersome mad scientist gizmos than the EBow, for sure! The EBow would be much more convenient! And, they might not be too practical with some acoustic instruments that an EBow can work well with, which might buck and howl 'in a bad way' in a way similar to their use in an environment of high-volume and feedback.

 

In the end, there is nothing else like the EBow.

Very true!

[Winston Psmith]

@Caevan - I've been on the Quest for Infinite Sustain for a very long time, so all of those toys have been on my list or under my feet at some point. I dig deep into the Feedbacker and Sound Hold effects on my Boss MFX, the Freqout is the very first pedal in my 21st Century Pedalboard, and I bought the Aeon because I felt like I should have a back-up/alternative for my E-bow. I'll probably just buy another E-bow to have on hand.

 

I'm also a long time Peavey Amp fan for one particular reason, a little trick I discovered back around 1980 with a Peavey Deuce. Turn the Post Amp knob down to Zero, bring the Pre Amp knob up to 10, then slowly bring up the Post knob until you get an intense, borderline-feedback level of Sustain every time you hit a note. You're welcome . . .

 

There's a track on my next album, where I used the Aeon because it has a particular "snarl" that the E-bow doesn't. It's one of the ugliest things I've ever recorded, but I'll forward it when it comes out, and let you judge.

[KuruPrionz]

everybody out there with EBows and Sustainer-pickups, as well as Boss Super Feedbacker and DigiTech Freq Out pedals- prove me wrong! Get all creative and personally expressive and do your own unique sounding things. I'd be GLAD to wrong!

 

"Under the Milky Way", anyone?

 

"(Don't Fear) The Reaper"- Ohmhigawd!! A simple part, but PERFECT... !!

 

Steve Hackett, Genesis' "Carpet Crawlers"... Blissfully beautiful... !

 

>YOUR song here!<

 

 

Brother O'Shite, you may have missed my link - 3rd post down, my second post. A bit of random on the fly Ebow madness for you. I don't listen to music in general so maybe somebody else does stuff like that too. I wouldn't be surprised.

And, I'll return the challenge - It's pretty rare in my experience to hear a completely original and identifiable electric guitar sound in general. Years ago I was washing the dishes in the kitchen and the TV (long since gone!!!!) was on in the living room.

I heard one note and said to myself "BB King is on TV." He was.

 

BB King

Jimi Hendrix

A few others

Somebody I've never heard of...

You?

 

As far as I am concerned, you are welcome to state your opinion about anything and everything, positive, negative or real world. That's what forums are for, no?

If everybody agreed with me I'd probably quit posting and go away!

 

Cheers, Kuru

[Larryz]

Kuru, I've never owned an Ebow and I have never tried to use one so I can't really comment. Except to say, that I don't think I would be very good at it LOL! I like Caevan's comments and DBM's tag line on every post (except this one so far LOL!): "if it sounds good, it is good". I like Scott's comment about his electronic guitar music, that doesn't sound remotely like a guitar LOL! I like your comment about BB King (I can name that artist in just one note- paraphrasing). For the most part, I don't need a guitar that sounds like something else while others find the beauty in pedals that make you sound like you're playing a banjo or an organ, etc. That would include ebows, sustainers, distortions, OD's, synths, etc. I'm not a purist like many acoustic only players with the only electronics they will use is a PA and a mic. I'm more of an electric player that plays electric guitars like I play my acoustics and about all I need is a little reverb. I do enjoy my acoustics as well. It's all fun and I appreciate comments and our discussions, whether we agree or not. I agree that that's what forums are for...

[desertbluesman]

I think I tried one a long time ago. I seem to recall buying one and never using it (This was way back in the last century)

[Caevan O’Shite]

Brother O'Shite, you may have missed my link - 3rd post down, my second post. A bit of random on the fly Ebow madness for you.As far as I am concerned, you are welcome to state your opinion about anything

 

This is exactly what I love about it! It's another set of instruments. Last year I posted this on Metapop, just for fun: https://metapop.com/opossum-apocalypse/tracks/that-itch/130532

 

I did miss your link. Cool. I like that. Well done!

 

I played separate tracks of 4 the B notes on an 8 string lap steel into a DI, ran the mic out into my interface for one track and the parallel input/output out into a wah pedal and then to the interface for a second track. I had the "harmonic" switch setting for a couple of the tracks, which is where the other notes come from, that and sliding around a bit.

 

I did that for a bass tuned BEAD too, but I only played the open B string. Somebody guessed it was an ARP Odyssey and a Mini Moog before I spilled the beans.

 

I suck at keyboards but the EBow lets me do crazy cool stuff without keys.

 

Very cool. And I really enjoy copping keyboard sounds or getting quasi-keyboard-like character using my guitar and various pedals and approaches and techniques- and not necessarily a pedal like a "synth pedal" or the EH 9 series that just allows me to plug my guitar into it and get keyboard-x sound out of it (though I have enjoyed the EH B9 that my Grrrl got me for Christmas a few years back). I prefer the challenge to get there by trickier means, and also, the more individualistic kind of tones and textures that I can find along that bumpier way.

 

...and everything, positive, negative or real world. That's what forums are for, no?

If everybody agreed with me I'd probably quit posting and go away!

 

Cheers, Kuru

 

Don't go away! And- I did not mean at all to say that I dislike the EBow or other gadgetry mentioned here and there, or what has been or can be done with them; only that, I have my own alternatives that preclude that for me, maybe I don't necessarily enthusiastically like them for my own use.

[Dannyalcatraz]

Apparently, there"s something similar to but cheaper than the eBow called the SoundStone (or something similar).

[Winston Psmith]

The SoundStone looks like a cross between the E-bow and the Aeon, in terms of design. At $35, I'd say if anyone is curious about String Drivers/Sustainers, this is an affordable way to experiment with one.

 

FWIW, I find the Aeon's "upright" design a bit awkward. The E-bow is bulkier and heavier, but I have no problem placing it in position on the strings; the Aeon is much fussier, in that regard.

 

It is worth mentioning that ALL of my Electric Guitars have HB's in the Neck position, which undoubtedly influences the sound, and possibly the effectiveness of the E-bow or Aeon's magnetic field. SC's, P-90's, Active PU's or Split-coils may have very different responses. In short, YEMV, as with anything else . . .

[Scott Fraser]

It is worth mentioning that ALL of my Electric Guitars have HB's in the Neck position, which undoubtedly influences the sound, and possibly the effectiveness of the E-bow or Aeon's magnetic field. SC's, P-90's, Active PU's or Split-coils may have very different responses. In short, YEMV, as with anything else . . .

 

I've E Bowed my Strat, SSH Steinberger copy, HB equipped PRS, & HB equipped Taylor & they all respond pretty much the same, which is that the E Bow is providing a very substantial amount of string vibration. So it can get loud with any pickup.

Also, 'proper' E Bow technique is to carefully place the 'tunnel' between the string guides over the active string without touching the string. But pushing into it, onto the string, the E Bow body becomes a slide, allowing a whole other type of sound & result. Especially good with both or all three pickups on, as the glisses simultaneously go up & down. And if you depress the apex of the magnetic field generator, which I guess is right behind the LED, right onto a pickup pole piece you get a very intense, demonic, chattering, scream of a sound, which just gets better with wild trem bar activity.

[p90jr]

I have one... love it. Used it with a looper lots... looped a bunch of eBow'ed harmonics once in the climactic ending of a set at a House of Blues venue, sound guy ran up thinking we have destroyed the PA and made some feedback problem he couldn't kill... "you gotta warn me if you're doing crazy stuff like that!!!"

 

used it to do the Fripp part in Bowie's "Heroes" for a show

 

use it with a slide. use it to play a harmonic and screw with the string behind the nut or bridge. Use it while screwing with whammy bars. overdubbed entire chord voicings in the studio with it... use it with reverse delay and reverse reverb, harmonizer pedals. organ-simulator pedals, Rainbow Machine, Fuzz Factory... anything else laying around.

 

hours of fun!!!

[Danzilla]

I still have an E-Bow, and pull it out when channeling my inner Steve Hackett/Steve Rothery moods. It's a good tool to have available.

[hurricane hugo]

[font:Verdana]I need to get a new one, or maybe some other sustain option. Drove my first one into the ground, I used it so much.[/font]

[Mark Schmieder]

I have the E-Bow Plus, but owned the original one when it came out. For a couple of decades now, I have been waiting for Michael Manring's bass e-bow prototype (a joint research project with Heet) come to fruition as a real product for purchase, but doubt it will ever happen. I long ago learned practical ways to make the E-Bow effective on most bass guitars though. No real need for the Plus model feature-wise; I rarely use the special harmonic mode. Slightly different weight that I like, and I prefer it to the competitor's model.

 

The trickiest part of using it on guitar especially, is avoiding sudden spikes when string-hopping; I have to use a careful and dextrous muting technique and then the timing can get tricky, which then makes it hard to achieve the expressive phrasing one was aiming for. In short, playing E-Bow is not for amateurs! It takes a lot of practice and careful listening, and might best be relegated to just one guitar in order to maintain perfection.

 

And yeah, as mentioned already, single-coils get loud real fast, so there's no inherent advantage in using the E-Bow on a Fender vs. a Les Paul for example). And it can cause feedback on a hollow body guitar.

 

I've been listening to a lot of Steve Hackett lately, so the timing of this thread is perfect.

[RABid]

Back in the 80's I played with a guitarist who used and Ebow. Those Ebow leads were the only thing he did well. At least he sounded good twice a night.

[Caevan O’Shite]

Back in the 80's I played with a guitarist who used and Ebow. Those Ebow leads were the only thing he did well. At least he sounded good twice a night.

 

Haahhaahhaahhaahhaahhaahh!!