Just sold some stuff on eBay that I’ve had boxed in the garage for a while. I was toying with the idea of buying an ebow, does anyone have one and if so are they any good (other than novelty value). I’ve got about £100 to spend on new guitar toys does anyone have any other suggestions?
Posted: Fri Aug 28, 2009 8:22 pm
by hotrodperlmutter
BRAND NEW DANO SHIT
Posted: Fri Aug 28, 2009 8:32 pm
by dezb1
hotrodperlmutter wrote:BRAND NEW DANO SHIT
Nah, I’m happy with the amount I’ve donated to the Dano hate fund for the moment.
Posted: Fri Aug 28, 2009 8:41 pm
by the isaac eaton
ebows are definitely not a toy, lots of fun but I can actually find a lot of uses for them, I want one. Get one then DO AN DEMO.
Posted: Fri Aug 28, 2009 9:23 pm
by benecol
I was thinking of picking up an eBow with my birthday money, but all the youtube demos put me off - they sound cunty, to my ears. Pedals that have wowed me in that pricerange are: Ibanez PM7 (you'd have a good £60 change too - great ring mod/phaser/weird thing from the people that brought you the DE7), Memory Boy (not had one, but they look ace, and you'd have change for an expression pedal) or SMMH (got one of these too, really love it, does loads).
Posted: Fri Aug 28, 2009 9:36 pm
by Reece
i think i might buy an ebow myself.
i've been humming and arring about getting one for a good two years and it feels like i should just bite the bullet and get one.
Posted: Fri Aug 28, 2009 9:46 pm
by dezb1
Reece wrote:i think i might buy an ebow myself.
i've been humming and arring about getting one for a good two years and it feels like i should just bite the bullet and get one.
Same here, but every time i watch the eBay demos it puts me off!
I was hopping avj might be online cause I think he uses the ebow quite a bit (I’m sure he mentioned it in an earlier post)
Posted: Sat Aug 29, 2009 12:29 am
by dezb1
Fuck it!
That’s me took the plunge and ordered an ebow, I’m off to Compile a list of songs to learn on it.
Awoooo We could be Heeeerrroooes
Posted: Sat Aug 29, 2009 12:31 am
by laterallateral
Should have bought a fleshlight, man.
Posted: Sat Aug 29, 2009 12:45 am
by Sloan
laterallateral wrote:Should have bought a fleshlight, man.
Posted: Sat Aug 29, 2009 5:17 am
by SpaceFace
This has to be the best ebow demo I ever seen. Phil Keaggy is the man.
Posted: Sat Aug 29, 2009 5:26 am
by Haze
LOVE the steve morse style picking around 3:10 in, hilarious stuff
pretty sweet use of a delay and ebow too... very interesting devices...
Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 8:31 pm
by dezb1
The ebow has landed,
I’ve been pissing the wife off for the last few hours playing ‘Heroes’ and ‘She’s a star’. It’ll take a bit of getting used to but it’s great fun.
Posted: Thu Sep 03, 2009 12:13 am
by jimib
ive had an ebow for a year or 2 and have NEVER even come close to doing stuff like this with it.
i guess im still a total ebow n00b
Posted: Thu Sep 03, 2009 12:36 am
by stewart
I've got one kicking about somewhere, they're no way worth the amount of money they cost.
Posted: Fri Sep 04, 2009 1:32 am
by Zack
Like a few of you, I also own an ebow. It's totally an interesting concept but usage is intense. I rarely use mine, which is part of the problem with not getting better at using it. I find the middle strings to be the easiest to play. If you haven't tried already, having the ebow at a position that will not make a sound and then dragging it to the point in which it makes a sound gets some rad swells. In general though, I think investing in making your own diy sustainer pickup that's around the Internet would be a better call to getting that type of sound. Of course it's only if you'd be into modifying a guitar and it wouldn't be the same as an ebow. I think it works a bit like the moog guitar, except not costing ridiculous amounts of money.
Posted: Fri Sep 04, 2009 3:23 am
by avj
dezb1 wrote:
Reece wrote:i think i might buy an ebow myself.
i've been humming and arring about getting one for a good two years and it feels like i should just bite the bullet and get one.
Same here, but every time i watch the eBay demos it puts me off!
I was hopping avj might be online cause I think he uses the ebow quite a bit (I’m sure he mentioned it in an earlier post)
Shit, nice memory! Sorry I didn't chime in earlier. Yeah, I use one a fair bit during live shows, but it's usually for a lead melody sort of thing or a bit of drone stuff.
I also went through YouTube demos before the purchase, and the only ones that ever caught my attention were the Keaggy ones that someone thankfully had found. That shit is incredbile.
If I could offer a bit of advice on technique, I would agree with Goots on the sliding for swells bit. A volume pedal is also a great treat for this, but I'd taken to using my EHX Microsynth's attack delay (and more recently, the POG2) to do the swelling for me. I've found it best to use the neck pickup, as the string has much more travel there compared to the area closer to the bridge and usually results in a better sound. You'll find the sweet spot with enough dicking around. Also, as I'm sure you'll find out, the EBow adds a lot of gain to the original signal -- so much so that I usually back the volume and tone off on the guitar a bit.
And as Keaggy showed us: for cool ambient textural stuff, gobs of fuckin' delay really takes it to a wonderful place.
Congrats on the purchase and enjoy the shit out of it.
EDIT: Oh, and I almost forgot. As the manual shows, there are the two positions on the switch. One is the "normal" and the other adds some additional harmonics or something. One of the featured uses for me live is using it in the "magic special harmonic shit" position and playing a lead bit on the high E string, and it almost perfectly duplicates the recorder/flutophone bit we recorded for the album -- which is actually not as horrid as it sounds.
It also seems the EBow site has been recently changed, and there's some great info there.