maugorn@c3pe.UUCP (Steve "Maugorn" Haug) (03/04/88)
Does anyone out there remember a device called an E-Bow.
This was a small box that one held in one's hand, and when activated
and held near an electric guitar string, would vibrate it for you
via some resonance property. It was battery operated. The sound
it would produce would be similar to bowing a string, because the
attack of the sound would be a slow rise in volume from zero rather
than the sharp immediate sound of picking.
Does anyone still make these devices?
How much does one go for?
Are they available anywhere?
How do they work?
I have a theory about the last question. I believe that these
boxes work much like feedback from speaker. They emit some waveform
that resonates the string and then causes this resonance to be picked
up as sound in the pickup. The trick is that the guitar can still be
played, and the notes still sound, so it would have to be some wide
range of resonances that it produces. Does it just induce a current
that then is influenced by whatever frequency the string is tuned/fingered
for? I have encountere effects like this playing with a guitar that
had part of it's output piped into a pillow speaker that I held nearby.
However, the E-Bow is in no way directly linked to the guitar's output.
If I am correct about how it works, might I be able to build my
own by hooking up a VCO to a spare pickup and using it? Or is a
electromagnet of some sort enough?
Thanks in advance?
Maugorn
Please include E-mail in your replies, since we don't get as much
news as we would like in these boondoks.gypsy@c3pe.UUCP (the virtually invulnerable gypsyroach) (03/04/88)
well, mr. maug, here's what i know. they supposedly work by some sort of
magnetic means of vibrating the string. i seem to recall that *someone*
still makes them, but i forget who. they were real popular in the early
70's, but when they fell from favor people pretty much stopped making them.
the genuine article (i.e. the Genuine E-Bow (tm) ) goes for about $150, IF
you can find someone who has one they are willing to part with. i don't
how much the current ones run, if indeed they are still being made.
can anyone add to or correct my info.? inquiring minds want to know...
gypsy @ ..!decuac.dec.com!c3pe
"Does it now seem worth all the color of skies,
To see the earth through painted eyes?"
-- Nick Drakempmst1@cisunx.UUCP (Michael P. Metlay) (03/06/88)
In article <1283@c3pe.UUCP>, maugorn@c3pe.UUCP (Steve "Maugorn" Haug) writes: > Does anyone out there remember a device called an E-Bow. Yes; I played in a band with a guiatrist who loved them when I was in college. > Does anyone still make these devices? Nope, they're rare as hen's teeth these days. > How much does one go for? Upwards of $100, unless you're lucky enough to find a foon who doesn't know what he's got.|-> > Are they available anywhere? Advertise in the guitar trades; maybe you'll get lucky. > How do they work? Via an electromagnetic oscillating field. The E-Bow won't work on gut or nylon strings, to the best of my knowledge... it set up a sort of resonance in metal strings, by acting as a driving oscillator (insert physics lesson on second-order harmonic oscillation here|->), and had only to be brought near the string to begin driving it. Neat device; an alternative (less clean but more accessible, perhaps) is the Gizmotron, a motordriven thing that mounts on the bridge, and touches a rotating wheel to the string to start it vibrating (for a similar "bowed" effect). Kevin Godley and Lol Creme invented the Gizmo when they were with 10cc, and you can still find those around too sometimes. Hope that answers your questions OK. -- Mike Metlay nuclear physicist, electronic musician, Xpander Users' Group METLAY@PITTVMS.BITNET founder, MegaTraveller coauthor, indie comic metlay@vms.cis.pittsburgh.edu collector, Illuminati/Erisian. Fnord! PO Box 81175, Pittsburgh, PA 15217-0675 DISCLAIMER: These MY opinions bro'.
ajm7y@babbage.acc.virginia.edu (Aaron Margosis) (03/07/88)
You can still get a new E-Bow. Bill Nelson wanted one, found them
unavailable, and talked the former manufacturer into making them
again. This can't be rare, because I've seen the device and the
marketing info (including "how it works") here in Charlottesville,
Virginia.
The store where I saw them:
Heinz Musitronics
8 University Shopping Ctr
Charlottesville, VA 22903
804-977-2797
--
--Aaron
{
{ Looway looway, ahh, bay, wee gah go, ya ya ya ya ya ya.
{ --The Kingsmenrg2c+@andrew.cmu.edu (Robert Nelson Gasch) (03/09/88)
I recently saw an add in my friends guitar player or guitar world issue. The add was under the name Gibson so I'd say that the E-Bow is still produced. I examined one of those thing a while a go and it seems that they operate on the basis of an electromagnetic field which causes the string to vibrate. You should not have any problems finding it if you go through the last 2 issues of giutar player and /or guitar world. Rob
maugorn@c3pe.UUCP (Steve "Maugorn" Haug) (03/15/88)
In article <cWBKC9y00UgyMGo0U3@andrew.cmu.edu> rg2c+@andrew.cmu.edu (Robert Nelson Gasch) writes: > >I recently saw an add in my friends guitar player or guitar world issue. The >add was under the name Gibson so I'd say that the E-Bow is still produced. I >examined one of those thing a while a go and it seems that they operate on the >basis of an electromagnetic field which causes the string to vibrate. You >should not have any problems finding it if you go through the last 2 issues of >giutar player and /or guitar world. > Rob OK, I understand that it has to be based upon some electromagnetic field in order to work at all. What I am looking for is what exactly that magnetic field is doing. Is this thing JUST a battery powered electromagnet? Or is it, as I suspect, an oscillator hooked up to the current going through the electromagnet? What frequency(ies) of oscillation might we be talking about? I have made this effect by holding a small speaker with the output of the guitar coming out of it up to the pickups. This is easy, the guitar will feed back and resonate on it's own peaks and the frequencies to which the strings are tuned/fretted. How does this thing induce resonance without being dependent on the output or knowing how your guitar is tuned or what note you are about to play? Does it resonate on some peak common to all guitars of any shape/composition? White noise? Pink Noise? ...!netsys!cucstud!c3eng!c3pe!maugorn
max@trinity.uucp (Max Hauser) (03/16/88)
In article <1752@c3pe.UUCP> maugorn@c3pe.UUCP (Steve "Maugorn" Haug) writes: > >... Is this thing JUST a battery powered electromagnet? Or is >it, as I suspect, an oscillator hooked up to the current going through the >electromagnet? What frequency(ies) of oscillation might we be talking about? >I have made this effect by holding a small speaker with the output of the >guitar coming out of it up to the pickups. This is easy, the guitar will >feed back and resonate on it's own peaks and the frequencies to which the >strings are tuned/fretted. How does this thing induce resonance without >being dependent on the output or knowing how your guitar is tuned or what >note you are about to play? Very easily, presumably; the same way that variable-frequency oscillators work without knowing in advance what tuned circuit will be connected to them. Negative resistance: you need only overcome the built-in loss in the resonant element (be it LC circuit, crystal, or guitar string) in order to get it oscillating steadily. Indeed, Steve was doing this too in a roundabout way with the feedback configuration, although the coupling there may have been acoustic rather than electromagnetic. But it's no big deal to build a circuit with a pair of electrodes that will oscillate when any of a wide range of resonant devices is connected across the pair (I've done it countless times, and not always deliberately); doing the same thing with magnetic coupling would be only slightly more complicated. After all, if the resonant string is magnetically active and placed near a coil, it will induce a resonant component in the coil's impedance, just as it would induce a resonant component in the impedance of an acoustic transducer as well. As Jack Palance says, "Believe it -- or not!" Max Hauser / max@eros.berkeley.edu / ...{!decvax}!ucbvax!eros!max