Ebow shmeebow

[whojamfan]

Anybody using these cool little devices? Stories? Applications? I've got one, but admittingly, haven't used it all that much. I like what was recorded on the cassette it came with. Any thoughts?

[tennis_nick]

I had fun with one once, but it was long time ago. Read the ad on Musicians friend and see if you catch the funny part!

http://accessories.musiciansfriend.com/ ... sku=219005

[jps]

Here is the ultimate expression of Ebow-dom.


Notice Michael has two eBows in his hand.

[teb]

I've always liked this one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwq0i6jP7dQ

[jps]

Phil has always been one of my favorite guitarists. I first saw him in '71 with the Harp.

[kiramdear]

I'm still waiting to be convinced. The samples are interesting at best, to my taste.

[JakeK]

Never owned one, never planned to.

Mike Campbell has been known to use one, notably on tracks, "Fooled Again (I Don't Like It)", "Luna" and live versions of "Good to Be King"

[sloop_john_b]

Owned one, found it to be pretty useless, have no idea where it is.

[JakeK]

More than likely, it's somewhere where you wouldn't expect to find it, John!

[winston]

Sarah has one and I believe she quite likes it. Perhaps she will notice this thread when she visits next and give us her thoughts.

[wayang]

Our guitarist always uses his ebow for his solo on "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat"...it sounds good'n'crazy. I firmly believe that Mingus would approve...

[paologregorio]

I wanted to try an EBow before I even learned to play guitar, due to the influence of bands who used them such as The Church, and Big Country. I have two; an older, black plastic with red script standard model that's been dropped, superglued, and resoldered back together a couple of times, as well as one of the new E Bow Plus models (I lost my original, and didn't find it in a suitcase in the trunk of my `48 Chevy until after I'd bought the new one), which has the two way switch (regular, and harmonic). I actually prefer the older model, since the simple one way switch makes sure I'm always on the same setting, and since I'm able to work the bow to get it to produce the harmonic sounds when I want. The Plus model will also produce the harmonic sound on the regular setting when worked the same way. I generally don't use the E Bow live, but I always use it for a couple of songs during recording. When we have the minicon jam sessions, I use the Ebow in conjunction with some overdrive and delay to emulate the "bagpipe" sound of the solo on the Church's "Under the Milky Way".

The problem/instant temptation with using an E Bow is that new players tend to get overly fascinated with the unit's single note sustaining capability, with the result that one's use of the device ends up being 2 or 3 long sustaining notes throughout a verse/chorus, sort of like using one finger on a synthesizer (I'm guilty of using an E Bow this way myself in the past, I'm sure). This is fine for backing/atmospheric parts, but if the E Bow is used for a prominent part of a song it should really be doing something a bit more interesting, otherwise, the effect of using the E Bow on the track sounds like someone who just bought an E Bow, played with it a couple of times, and was instantly fascinated with it to the extent that one thought it would be cool to stick on a track and turn it up to 10-it sounds rookie-ish, if that's the proper description. That style of E Bow playing it's place, but as I said, parts like that should be atmospheric, not dominate the way the bow is played.

I really like using the E Bow and would like to find a way to use it more live, but that would require getting to almost Phil Keaggy-ish type playing (I can do some of this stuff, but obviously nowhere near his level), and perhaps for 2-3 songs max, otherwise Sfd's live set would end up sounding like/being dominated by moody, dark shoegazer music, and that's definitely not us. I'd also prefer not to have the band's set turn into a 45 minute long E Bow demonstration.

Have I put everyone to sleep already with this lengthy post?!

[winston]

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz waassat? No! Just kidding that was most informative Paul.

[kiramdear]

I find it is a very peculiar sound, like a viola at half actual speed, and the feeling it gives me is one of sadness. Very interesting indeed, but I would use it sparingly.

[ozover50]

I've considered buying one a number of times but I'd really like to spend a heap of time with one just to make sure it doesn't end up being another addition to the 'Aitch gizmo drawer' - things that are never or very rarely used.