Question about the E-Bow

[jasonmasters]

I'm looking at getting an E-bow and I was wondering if anyone who's had experience with them might be able to tell me the differences i might look forward to in using it with roundwound/flawound or the black tapewound strings?

Thanks!

 

[jasonmasters]

Edit:

I like the idea of the tapewounds, but my concern is that they won't resonate as well because there's less metal and nylon between the metal and the magnet...

 

[Hollywars]

I would actually email the people who make E-bow. They probably have the most experience with it.

 

[mr sprocket]

I have an ebow and have used it with flats, rounds, and tapes. You get a different tone from each type of string. I have tapes from status and the ebow works fine with them. My tapes are on an acoustic bass so I only get the basic vibration effect. The rounds and flats are on basses with pickups so you also get the extra tones of playing near and on top of the pickup.

I am still working out changing strings positions as the ebow guides are for guitar spacing but I am getting so usable sounds. With effects and octaver I am getting so really good synth pad sounds. A little chorus and fretless gets a singing almost horn like sound. The tapes get a more bowed sound which is what I am working on emulating.

 

[jasonmasters]

Nice! The bowed and/or horn sound is really what I'm going for. I'm thinking of getting a 3 string Krappy flying V made and stringing it up with 2 tape wounds and an un-wound-single string to tune to a high E for a more middle-eastern sound.... Should be pretty fun to bust out on stage for an occasional song

 

[JustDavid]

I'd heard a rumour that the E-Bow didn't work well on Es; too much mass for it. Any word/experience out there on this? TIA

 

[mr sprocket]

The E works alright even the low B will work. It is more of getting it in the right spot and distance from the sting. The closer and more centered the string is in the channel the better it works. Getting closer to a pickup helps but that also changes volume and the overdrive/fuzz kind of sound.

 

[ttasselm]

My brother's a pretty experienced guitar player who's really into creating post-rock stylings. He uses the E Bow and lots of delays/verbs/etc to create some really thick textures. Naturally, I hear him playing all of this quite often, so I've frequently tried the E Bow on all 4 of my basses (Mustang, Jazz, Mikro, home-made Fretless SR300 DX).

As another user mentioned, it's designed for guitar string spacings and is super responsive and easy to use there. On bass, however, I still can't consistently get a practical tone out of it even after hours of practice. Others may disagree with me, but I find that you have to really focus on your placement of it. It's tough to align it properly over the string, and you need a pretty steady hand to hold your position once you find a usable "sweet spot." Even when it does work, it seems to be a little lacking in volume.

On guitar, it's a totally different story and I love the E Bow. However, I would say that until someone finds a way to make a dedicated device, more effective for bass string spacing and guages, it's probably better to save your money. I don't see much of a use for it in any kind of live (bass) setting. If you have the cash laying around, you can try it yourself, but $100 can get you some much better items than an E Bow in my opinion.

 

[mr sprocket]

It does work better for guitar. Check out Michael Manring on youtube. He not only used one but sometimes two ebow at a time. I line up one of the grooves and let the other side in between the opposite string. I liked to see a good close up of what Michael is doing.

 

[queevil]

To the posters who asked and aswered the question about the tapes....thanks. I've been wondering the same thing. Thanks again.