E-Bow
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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 obtainable from the pickup, the E-bow has also been used in applications with the steel-string acoustic guitar. Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour used one on his Gibson J-200 acoustic in the 1994 song "Take It Back".
Generally an acoustic guitar gives a limited response for varying reasons, including 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.
- Sigur Rós bassist Georg Hólm plays with one on track #6 of their 2002 album, ( ) (this song is alternately known as "E-bow"). [2]
- Radiohead's Ed O'Brien uses an E-bow on the songs "My Iron Lung" and "Talk Show Host", both during live performances and on the original studio recordings.
- Former Nine Inch Nails guitarist Robin Finck used an E-bow on "La Mer", the eleventh track of the 1999 album The Fragile. It was used live during their Fragility 2.0 Tour, and can be seen on the tour DVD And All That Could Have Been.
- 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 popular English 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.
- Dave Navarro used an E-bow on One Hot Minute, his only album with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, as well as on the Jane's Addiction song "Summertime Rolls".
- Guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen of the band Queens of the Stone Age uses the E-Bow extensively during live shows, and in the studio as well, for "Hangin' Tree" and other songs. Troy can be seen using the device in the Queens of the Stone Age DVD Over the Years and Through The Woods.
- Herman Li of DragonForce uses an E-bow in the lead up to the guitar solos on the song "Black Fire".
- The e-bow is also used extensively in the pits of 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".
- The Edge (of U2) used the e-Bow on the song "With or Without You" when played live on the ZooTV tour in the early 1990s. Although similar, the studio version uses the infinite guitar, invented by Michael Brook
- Orange Lazarus use e-bow on "Birds" as well as "Talking Fast to Logic" from the album Talking Fast.
