E-Bow

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

An EBow

The EBow or ebow (brand name or E-bow, for "Electronic bow" or Energy Bow)[1] is a hand-held, battery-powered electronic device for playing the electric guitar. Instead of having the strings hit by the fingers or a pick, they are moved by the electromagnetic field created by the device, producing a sound reminiscent of using a bow on the strings.

The E-bow is used to produce a variety of sounds not usually playable on an electric guitar. By varying the E-bow's linear position on the string, the player can produce different string overtones, and also fade in and out by lowering and raising the E-Bow.

An early pioneer of E-bow playing was Bill Nelson, who introduced it to Stuart Adamson of The Skids. Adamson went on to use it heavily with Big Country, and it formed an integral part of their well known "bagpipe sound". Blondie, Tom Petty and Blue Öyster Cult were also early users. The E-bow has also been a familiar element in the sound palette of guitarist Phil Keaggy since the early 1980s. Béla Fleck has used one on an acoustic banjo in concert, also creating a bagpipe like sound. Australian band The Church featured an E-bow solo in their 1988 hit single "Under the Milky Way." The sound of the band the Cocteau Twins was largely derived via the Ebow and a host of effects pedals.

While the E-bow is not normally used with the electric bass guitar, which has heavier strings, Michael Manring (who uses light bass strings) has persevered, and it features heavily on his 1995 album Thönk. He has even been known to use two at once. Steve Willett of Strange Boutique helped pioneer the use of bass E-bow in the 80s post-punk goth scene.

[edit] E-Bow and the acoustic guitar

Although the E-bow is most commonly played on the electric guitar because of the ease of use and the responsiveness you get from the pickup, the E-bow has also been used in applications with the acoustic guitar. Notably, this was used by Pink Floyd Guitarist, David Gilmour, in their 1994 song Take It Back on his Gibson J-200 acoustic.

Generally an acoustic guitar gives you a limited response for varying reasons, including the pickup and both the density and spacing of the guitar strings. But despite these limitations, using an E-bow on an acoustic guitar gives a rich, flute and clarinet-like tone with a slow-swelling response. Example usage (MP3 audio download © 2005 Michael Miles / Dock72 Music Group. Posted with permission by artist).

[edit] Usage

The E-bow is mentioned in (the title of) R.E.M.'s "E-Bow the Letter". It is also used in the song. Guitarist Peter Buck can be seen using one in the video for this song at approximately 1:27 to 1:30.

Radiohead's Ed O'Brien uses an E-bow on the song "My Iron Lung", both during live performances and on the original studio recording.

Sigur Rós bassist Georg Hólm plays with one on the untitled sixth track of their 2002 album, ( ) (this song is alternately known as "E-bow").

The band Rachel's has used bowed bass.

Former Nine Inch Nails guitarist Robin Finck used an E-bow on the eleventh track of their 1999 album The Fragile "La Mer". It was used live during their Fragility 2.0 Tour, and can be seen on the tour DVD And All That Could Have Been.

Robert Fripp has often been asked if he used an E-bow on record: he never has, relying instead on feedback from speakers, and (more recently) a Fernandes Sustainer.

The alternative-rock band Smashing Pumpkins have also made extensive use of the effect, most notably on the interlude "Sinfony," which consists entirely of E-bow. Guitarist James Iha also added E-bow to several songs on the Siamese Dream, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, Adore, MACHINA/The Machines of God and MACHINA II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music albums. Iha also used the E-bow on the Auf Der Maur song "Head Unbound" from Melissa Auf Der Maur's self-titled debut solo album.

The psychedelic rock band Voyager One of Seattle, WA has featured the E-bow on several of their songs, most notably on the track "Wires" from the album "Monster Zero" (released in 2002 on Loveless Records).

The band Opeth have used the E-bow on many of their albums, such as on the songs Bleak and The Drapery Falls on the album Blackwater Park. This album was produced by Steven Wilson, whose band Porcupine Tree also uses it heavily on their albums, such as In Absentia and Deadwing.

Artist/Producer Richard Barone has used the E-Bow as a trademark sound since his days fronting alternative pop band The Bongos, whose 1983 hit "Numbers WIth Wings" featured a prominent E-Bow intro. His solo albums also feature E-Bow solos and accents, most notably "River To River" and "Miss Jean," and he uses the E-Bow in live concert settings.

Solo artist Minutiæ Inertia of Portland, OR has used the E-bow on many stringed instruments to date: both electric and acoustic guitars, as well as fretless bass, and electric bass, often combined with keyboards and vocoder, creating an odd yet unsettling sound. The album "Munchausen Syndrome by President" (2006) features many E-bowed tracks slipping in and out of each other.

The British band James have used the E-bow on several tracks, most notably on the top ten hits Sound and She's A Star. In the former (when played live), the E-bow actually makes contact with the strings, producing a screeching sound.

British guitarist Daniel Ash of Bauhaus, Tones on Tail and Love & Rockets has frequently used E-bow to add extra atmosphere to tracks, for example Burning Skies and Christian Says by Tones On Tail and Seventh Dream Of Teenage Heaven on Love & Rockets' first album.

The popular British band Coldplay have also used the E-bow on many of their tracks. Guitarist Jonny Buckland's most well known use of the E-bow can be heard on the track "Spies" and the Live 2003 version of "Amsterdam".

Lead singer of Pearl Jam, Eddie Vedder, uses the E-bow during the solo in Wishlist as well as at the start of World Wide Suicide which is on the self-titled album, Pearl Jam.

My Dying Bride used the E-bow for the songs "The Wreckage of My Flesh" and "The Blue Lotus" from their 2004 album Songs Of Darkness, Words Of Light. The E-bow is also used on the song "L'Amour Detruit" from the band's latest album A Line Of Deathless Kings.

British indie band The Crimea used the E-bow in the song "Baby Boom" from their 2005 album "Tragedy Rocks"

Mike Hogan from The Cranberries used the E-bow in "Daffodil Lament", a song released on their album No Need to Argue.

Dave Navarro used an E-bow on One Hot Minute, his only album with the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Guitarist Peter Yates of the band Fields of the Nephilim uses an E-bow in the song "Last Exit For The Lost".

Guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen of the band Queens of the Stone Age uses the E-Bow extensively during live shows during "hangin tree" and other songs and in the studio as well. Troy can be seen using the device in the Queens of the Stone Age DVD "Over the Years and Through The Woods" and probably any live show you see them at.

The e-bow is also being used extensively in the pits for two Broadway shows, namely Stephen Schwartz's Wicked, as well as in Disney's Mary Poppins. Coincidentally, Tony winner William David Brohn orchestrated the music for both shows. The e-bow technique was effectively used to darken the mood of the music and make it sound eerie. In Wicked, the e-bow can be heard to prominence in the song "As Long As You're Mine" and in parts of "No Good Deed." In Mary Poppins, the e-bow can be distinguished in the numbers "Temper, Temper!", the beginning measures of "Chim Chim-Cheree," the 3/4 sections of "Step in Time," as well as the final measures of "Anything Can Happen."

Ryan Adams uses an e-Bow on the song “Anybody Wanna Take Me Home” from the album Rock N Roll (2003).

Pete Yorn uses an e-Bow on the song “On Your Side” from album Musicforthemorningafter (2001) and on the song “Turn of the Century” from the album Day I Forgot (2003).