Frequently
Asked Questions
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. Michael Manring has perfected the use of EBow
on bass.
We've designed
prototypes, but we forgot where we put them.
No. But
neither does a pick. One of the coolest effects is the EBow
arpeggio.
It's harder
than learning to use a wah-wah, but easier than learning to play a violin.
The EBow
was conceived in the late '60s and introduced in 1976. The first model
was chrome plated plastic and turned on and off automatically. They have
a very nice clean sound. The second model, introduced a few years later,
was black with a red EBow logo. It had an improved drive field and an
on-off switch. The third model was black with a white logo. It had improved
sensitivity making arpeggios and crossing strings much easier. This model
is the fourth generation and is called the PlusEBow. It has an improved
sweeter regular EBow sound (less mid heavy), a smoother, more controllable
drive (less runaway) as well as the new harmonic mode and a cool blue
LED. To get the slower activation and mellow sound of the original EBow,
tilt the later models away from the strings.
There are lots of playing tips in the Player's Guide.
In the
early days, it was used by Tom Petty, Big Country, Duran Duran, Blondie,
Bauhaus, David Bowie, Blue Oyster Cult and Bill Nelson. More recently
Van Halen, Smashing Pumpkins, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pink Floyd, Peter
Gabriel and the Psychedelic Furs. It's used a lot by The Robert Fripp
String Quintet, The California Guitar Trio, Fred Frith, and Love and Rockets.
Peter Gabriel used it live on Red Rain on the David Letterman Show.
John Cage used EBows on a strange piece for 10 harps. It's used live by
U2 on Unforgettable Fire. Buddy Emmon's uses his on Pedal Steel
Guitar and Chris Proctor ebows his acoustic guitar. We hear it on the
radio all the time. If you hear of someone that's
not on our list, please
.
There's
EBow on the Chili Pepper's Falling Into Grace and One Big Mob,
Elton John's The One, Van Halen's Spanked, Soundgarden's
Black Hole Sun, Def Leppard's White Lightening and Stand
Up, Metallica's Unforgiven, Phil Keaggy's Amazing Grace,
and you can here Michael Manring use it on bass throughout his latest
album, Thonk. Check out our list of record cuts
that feature the ebow.
While we
cannot guarantee this, of course, we have scattered reports to that effect.
Most do.
You can get amazing sounds from the git-go but many of the nuances come
only with practice. While most guitar accessories alter the signal that
leaves your guitar, the EBow is a dynamic device that interacts
with your strings and pickups. It can be a bit awkward, at first, but
you'll come to appreciate its balance and design as you explore the EBow
technique.
The EBow
was introduced in the summer of 1976 at the NAMM
(National Association of Music Merchants) Show in Chicago. Jerry Garcia
was our very first customer.
Any way
you like. We prefer EBow or ebow, though a lot of you love that hyphen
thing, E-Bow.
For the
years preceding the EBow's debut in 1976, it was called the "Energy Bow"
because it bowed the guitar string with an energy field. Around
the shop, we began referring to it as the "E" bow for short. Fewer syllables,
less of an effort. When it came time to introduce the product, we spent
months considering snappy, overly-clever names but settled on the familiar,
EBow. The EBow is an "electronic bow for guitar" so, now the E stands
for either "energy" or "electronic" or "eunice".
A passive
humbucker gives you the largest playing area and helps tame the extra
treble of the EBow. A humbucker also provides two HotSpots for different
tones. A single coil pickup has a slightly smaller playing area and a
thinner tone. It may require rolling off some highs. The same can be true
of active pickups which also might sound better with their volumes lowered
to about half.
With two
or more pickups on, the tone changes and the volume of the EBow sound
is reduced, bringing it closer to that of your picking volume. Also, you
can play over one pickup and then the other for two different sounds.
For the least noise when crossing strings, play over the HotSpot with
just one pickup on.
If you have
a magnetic pickup in the sound hole, the EBow should respond as it would
on a solid body electric, though the strings tend to decay more quickly
and activate more slowly. Acoustics with bridge transducers, piezo pickups
or microphones will be much quieter and, of course, there is no HotSpot,
which is necessary for bowing strokes and spiccato. However, you can get
a very clean, natural sounding string tone. When moving from string-to-string
on an acoustic without a magnetic pickup in the sound hole, you should
mute the SupportStrings to reduce the noise of the EBow on the strings.
Solutions
to this range from pockets to velcro. A bit of velcro on the EBow and
on your guitar or strap or mic stand should hold the EBow securely when
not in use. Another solution is to mount a pouch or small table on the
mic stand. Since you can do fast runs with percussive attacks and arpeggiate
chords with the EBow, you might consider using the EBow for the entire
song.
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