The Player's Lounge / GUITAR TALK / Backstage Banter / e bow / Latest Posts

RE: e bow

lespaul57 — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 16:37:57 GMT

dulc ,yes you are right about the slide does something different ........but the ebow is way out there far as the sound it makes that is not the same as a slide ........me i;m true blue axe player ,never use any stomp box,s .play clean ,and for alot of reasons ..me i love the sound of a good axe ....can make them do alot with just the fingers .....and if the axe is tuned right ,,,,the tones ,the feed back from good tube amp is all i need .....the hell with all the gizmos .......but that is just me ......old school......and like i said good axe ,,,,good tube amp .........is all i need ........but some of this new stuff is uncanny ,,,,and yes the price is out there ,but hey cheap is what ya get cheap ....... my 2 cents

RE: e bow

Dulcimerist — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 19:42:03 GMT

All that changed for me was getting the idea to try out the eBow at the harmonic points of strings. ;) Perhaps some more exploring of it will yield some interesting results. Borrowing my friend's eBow is a free way to try it out.

The $80 tag on it still makes the eBow too overpriced, though, in my opinion. It can be sorta cool on a song here or there, but there are much better ways to spend $80 that would get more use during a gig. If I could find one for under $50, I might be tempted to grab one. :cool:

The eBow can't really be compared to a slide, as they do two very different things.

RE: e bow

lespaul57 — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 12:57:57 GMT

stu ..first dulc,said was not worth the money ,then he said try it again ..am i missing something here????????????/lol all i know is this little gizmo is way out there ......brings more then any slide will for sure ............any hey glad i got some of you off the sofa and getting back into this thing we love .....music .............:w00t:;)hell yeah lp57

RE: e bow

rodeostu — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 11:34:47 GMT

Exactly. Though I'm not sure Tesla really deserves too much credit for the idea of resonance, that came long before, but that's the whole idea - the device, ebow/sustainer drives the strings at the frequency they'd vibrate at naturally.

RE: e bow

Dulcimerist — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 09:19:48 GMT

In other words, the eBow would be much more efficient if it utilized Tesla's principles of resonance. :cool:

Now I suddenly have the urge to borrow my friend's eBow again, trying it at different harmonic points along various strings...

RE: e bow

rodeostu — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 07:55:13 GMT

Exactly. But for the ebow to drive the strings effectively, it helps to have a good idea of what frequency they're vibrating at. The Fernandes sustainer uses the second pickup for just this purpose. Now, the eBow wouldn't necessarily have to know the frequency, but it would be able to "pick up" and drive the strings much more readily if it did.

RE: e bow

Dulcimerist — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 02:42:16 GMT

Yeah - The eBow never even touches the strings. It uses an electromagnetic field to vibrate the steel in your strings. You have to be pretty spot-on over the string to get it to work. This isn't something that you can rapidly riff with, string to string; but it's cool for slow ballads.

Iron Butterfly initiated the development of the eBow, which adds a lot to the coolness factor of this. The ones they make today work much better than the old '70s prototypes. ;)

If you're a guitar legend like Phil Keaggy, you can do some insanely cool things with it, though!!!:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_Wd9EVHUJI

RE: e bow

lespaul57 — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 14:17:11 GMT

STU ,HEY THANKS FOR SETTING US RIGHT ON THE EBOW:w00t: ....YEAH YOU ARE RIGHT ......AND YOUR 2 CENTS IS ALWAYS WELCOME :cool:;)........THANKS FOR THE IMPUT ...........YEAH WHAT HE SAID .....LOL......LP57

RE: e bow

rodeostu — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 08:00:13 GMT

I believe the delay Dulcimerist mentioned is an inherent function of the way the ebow works. Unlike similar devices, such as the Fernandes sustainer, which, because they're connected to the guitar's pickups, know what frequency to drive the strings at, the eBow has to find it by trial and error, hence the delay before it starts "bowing" the strings.

RE: e bow

lespaul57 — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 06:59:51 GMT

well now sorry if it was posted on the wrong place :w00t::cool::cool:...but yeah i thought it was way cool ,and never used one but our lead player has it down ....and i think it is in the right place at the right time far as usen it ,far as playing it ,not sure never used one befor ,but looks like same deal as a slide .which you do have to have the touch for it to work wel:cool:l......any hey thanks for the reply :hehe::;)......lp57

RE: e bow

Dulcimerist — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 03:58:33 GMT

Shouldn't this have been posted into the Guitar Gear forum?

I borrowed a friend's eBow, and I thought it sucked. It does take a bit of practice to get the right "touch" to it, though. The best results I got were by using it combined with some screamin' overdrive, which was cool! I couldn't get the cello sound I was hoping for, though.

The main thing I noticed is that there's a slight delay to its response, sometimes sounding as though there's a reverse effect running. It's a bit fun and interesting, however. I definitely wouldn't pay the full $80 price tag for it.

e bow

lespaul57 — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 08:29:46 GMT

our lead player pulled this thing out last night when we were going over some new tunes we are learning...the sastain this thing does on the neck of the axe is way freaking cool;) ...any how me being old school player never seen this thingy befor .but on those southern rock tunes ,it fits so well on those long notes .:cool:let alone brings out the lead licks ,,,,yet still not over powering .....lp57