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E-Bow Idea

#23
thanks gents!

this thread has actually helped me to re-discover the joys of e-bow land.

:hyper:

It's always sitting out in front of me - ready to use. But I picked it up only occasionally. I contemplated using it for the competition but it didn't make it.

There's a specific piece of music I have in mind for a solo bass e-bow feature. I haven't heard it in years, but instantly thought of it when playing around with the e-bow last week. I got online and ordered it.

It may be too complicated to pull off with the e-bow - but it's worth a shot.

In playing with the e-bow more now I do think I'd like to own one with a stronger field. A stronger field would increase the range of attack speeds available. This could be particularly helpful the higher up the neck you go - and thus the shorter the string length.
 
#24
jeff schmidt said:
thanks gents!

this thread has actually helped me to re-discover the joys of e-bow land.

:hyper:

It's always sitting out in front of me - ready to use. But I picked it up only occasionally. I contemplated using it for the competition but it didn't make it.

There's a specific piece of music I have in mind for a solo bass e-bow feature. I haven't heard it in years, but instantly thought of it when playing around with the e-bow last week. I got online and ordered it.

It may be too complicated to pull off with the e-bow - but it's worth a shot.

In playing with the e-bow more now I do think I'd like to own one with a stronger field. A stronger field would increase the range of attack speeds available. This could be particularly helpful the higher up the neck you go - and thus the shorter the string length.
Click to expand...
i agree...i think a stronger field would be awesome...thats what i was going to say before, but the guy specifically asked you! :)
 
#25
jeff schmidt said:
There's a specific piece of music I have in mind for a solo bass e-bow feature. I haven't heard it in years, but instantly thought of it when playing around with the e-bow last week. I got online and ordered it.

It may be too complicated to pull off with the e-bow - but it's worth a shot.
Click to expand...

Are you willing to share with us the piece your ordered, or is it going to be a surprise?

Joe
 
#26
Bassist4Life said:
Are you willing to share with us the piece your ordered, or is it going to be a surprise?

Joe
Click to expand...

The "surprise" will be if I can actually pull it off. ;)

It's a spanish solo vocal performance of an american classic.

I was probably hallucinating when I though "yeah! that'd be great to do on fretless with an e-bow!".

Until I heard it again yesterday. Talk about "reach exceeding one's grasp". The melody is totally do-able. But what makes the version I'm working from so haunting and beautiful is the vocal articulations.

Without those - it could just as well be MUZAK.

Lemme spend a little more time with it to see if it's even possible to do it justice and I'll spill the beans.

If I can't make it happen - someone else should. Just for me! :D
 
#28
You could always try playing with 2 at once :smug:
cf0fe475.jpg

IMG_0024.jpg
 
#31
Adhan is an amazing bit of music - one of things that I most admire is Michael is that he's a 'why not' kind of person - instead of thinking 'why do that?' he thinks 'why not?' - two Ebows? coming right up... And the end result is beautiful and haunting, and is another fantastic reason for getting lots of retuning capabilities on your basses... If only the Modulus headstocks were a bit bigger... :D

Steve
www.stevelawson.net
www.recyclecollective.com
 
#33
Steve Lawson said:
...one of things that I most admire is Michael is that he's a 'why not' kind of person - instead of thinking 'why do that?' he thinks 'why not?'
Click to expand...

This is what attracted me to Michael's playing. I love his desire to take the bass places it has never been before.

Joe

Ps. Is it possible to have extenders custom made for your headstock? In my "Extending the 6-string" thread I mentioned that I wanted to put an extender(s) on my future Spector 6. I wonder if I am going to run into problems.
 
#34
Bassist4Life said:
t possible to have extenders custom made for your headstock? In my "Extending the 6-string" thread I mentioned that I wanted to put an extender(s) on my future Spector 6. I wonder if I am going to run into problems.
Click to expand...

on Michael's hipshots, the levers are bent at an angle to make sure that they all fit on. On my headstock, I don't think I could even get the base-plates on the headstock. It'll be worth checking out before you go and buy them all (I recently bought two sets of hipshot ultralites for my 6 string basses, before discovering that they don't fit on my headstock :( )

Steve
www.stevelawson.net
www.recyclecollective.com
 
#35
Steve Lawson said:
It'll be worth checking out before you go and buy them all (I recently bought two sets of hipshot ultralites for my 6 string basses, before discovering that they don't fit on my headstock :( )
Click to expand...

Steve,

That is a huge bummer! Thanks for the tip. I am checking out the HipShot website right now:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

These extenders are supposed to be able to fit on Spector basses. They have the smallest base-plates. I wonder if they would work on your bass. These things are $111 each! :eek:

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

Joe
 
#36
Hello all. Inspired by this thread, I decided to have a play with the Ebow last night and attempt to keep the low E going while hopping back onto the C string to play melodies. Here's what happened after a bit of post recording ping pong delay and EQ:

http://www.alunvaughan.com/hopesandfears.mp3

It's nowhere near the level of Jeff's recording but I'm reasonably happy with it.

Happy new year!

Alun
 
#38
oversoul said:
please explain, you did this by doing string skipping with the e.bow?
did you use a fretted bass btw?
Click to expand...

Hi Oversoul. Yes it is a fretted bass, a Cort Curbow 6. I'd love to do this kind of stuff on fretless but I need to work on my intonation first :hmm:

Anyway, yes it's one take with the Ebow. The basic idea is to start the low E off with the Ebow, then once that's sustaining move over to the C string to play the higher bits. Then occasionally go back to the E while a note is sustaining on the higher strings to keep the drone going. It also sometimes helps to "fret" the 12th fret harmonic on the E so that you actually get an E rather than a B or G# from the Ebow.

The feedback stuff at the end it the harmonic setting.

The delay helps to keep everything going while you're repositioning the Ebow but it can be done clean (in fact I usually mess about with this stuff without an amp).

In theory, it should be possible to move the low note about and use fretted notes and other open strings under the melodies but I'm a way off being able to do that consistently.

Thanks for listening,
Alun
 
#39
thx alun, I'm getting an e-bow soon I hope (from a fellow Tb'er) and you have cleared two major doubts I had in mind, 1-the sound of an ebow on a fretted bass (IMO it can still be very expressive) and the ability to do those string skips, judging by the way people talked I tought standard bass strings would need their time to react to the bow and therefore faster positin changes would be kinda hard to pull out.
But I'm hoping the bow will play nicely with the top C F Bb strings on my upcoming 9 :)
 

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