EBow
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The EBow or ebow (brand name for "Electronic Bow" or Energy Bow) (often spelled E-bow in common usage)[1] is a hand-held, battery-powered electronic device for playing the electric guitar, invented by Greg Heet in 1969. 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.[2]
The EBow is used to produce a variety of sounds not usually playable on an electric guitar. By varying the EBow's linear position on the string, the user can produce different string overtones, and also fade in and out by lowering and raising the EBow. Furthermore, starting with the current generation of EBow (PlusEBow, the 4th edition EBow), the user also gains an additional mode known as harmonic mode, which produces a higher harmonic sound instead of the fundamental note.
A many different artists have used the EBow in a wide variety of musical styles. An early pioneer of EBow playing was Max Sunyer, who used it in a 1978 live album "Iceberg en directe", recorded and released in Spain Picap. It was used later on by 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". Jimmy Page used an E-bow in the songs "In the Evening" and "Carouselambra" on the Led Zeppelin 1979 album "In Through the Out Door", to create a "droning" effect. Contemporary Christian performer Phil Keaggy is also a prolific user of the EBow, more notably in his 1979 instrumental release The Master & The Musician, which features many different sounds created with the EBow. The EBow is frequently used by Radiohead guitarist Ed O'Brien in live performances of songs such as All I Need. It has also been used on Opeth's 2001 album Blackwater Park, in order to create ambient background melodies.
Besides its appearance in Rock and Jazz music, the E-Bow also made its way in the domain of contemporary art music, being used by John Cage in his harp piece A Postcard from Heaven (1982), Karlheinz Essl in Sequitur VIII (2008) for electric guitar and live-electronics, Elliott Sharp on SFERICS (1996), Arnold Dreyblatt in E-Bow Blues (released 1998) and David First in A Bet on Transcendence Favors the House (2008).
While the EBow 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.
Although the EBow is most commonly played on the electric guitar because of the ease of use and the responsiveness obtainable from the pickup, it has also been used in applications with the steel-string acoustic guitar. For example, Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour used one on his Gibson J-200 acoustic in the 1994 song Take It Back to great effect. 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 EBow on an acoustic guitar gives a rich, flute and clarinet-like tone with a slow-swelling response.
Furthermore, an EBow can also be utilised on a grand piano (with depressed sustain pedal) in order to create sustained sinusoidal sounds as it was used by Olga Neuwirth in Hooloomooloo (1997) [3] and Karlheinz Essl in Sequitur XIII (2009) for extended piano and live-electronics.[4]
Notable uses
Peter Frampton uses the Ebow in the intro to his instrumental cover of "Black Hole Sun," from the album Fingerprints, originally written by Soundgarden.
Queen guitarist, Brian May, used the EBow to mimic the sound of a complete Dixieland band, in the song "Good Company", from the album A Night at the Opera. That was probably one of the first uses of the EBow in a recording.
Drew Goddard, guitarist of Karnivool, uses the EBow to create a soundscape in the beginning of the song "Umbra", on the album "Sound Awake"
R.E.M. used the EBow in the song "E-Bow The Letter", from their album New Adventures in Hi-Fi.
Eddie Vedder uses the EBow in the Pearl Jam song "Wishlist".
James Hetfield of Metallica used an EBow to write the orchestral harmonies on the song Nothing Else Matters.
Andy Timmons uses the EBow extensively on the intro to his song, "Beautiful, Strange".[5]
Zakk Wylde also uses the EBow for the song, Here for You from the Ozzy Osbourne album Black Rain.
Enter the Haggis guitarist Trevor Lewington employs the EBow in live performances, most notably in place of the cello from the studio recording of the song Broken Line.
Russell Lissack, of Bloc Party fame, uses the EBow during live performances of the track 'Uniform'.
Australian band The Church used the EBow in their 1988 song "Under the Milky Way" for the "bagpipe" solo.
Steven Chen from The Airborne Toxic Event uses an EBow during live performances of their song "Wishing Well".
Ed O'Brien from Radiohead also uses an EBow during live performances, notably during the songs "Where I End and You Begin", "My Iron Lung", "Jigsaw Falling Into Place" and "How to Disappear Completely".
Mikael Åkerfeldt of Opeth uses an EBow in the songs "The Drapery Falls" and "Isolation Years."
Heri Joensen from Týr uses an EBow on the song "Ramund Hin Unge and Regin Smiður" during live performances.
LCD Soundsystem used an EBow on the song "All I Want" from the album "This is Happening."
Jamie Willcox of Pure Reason Revolution uses an EBow when performing "In Aurelia" and "The Gloaming" during live performances.
Jon Hudson of Faith No More uses an EBow on the song "Stripsearch" and on "Midlife Crisis."
Billy Corgan and James Iha of The Smashing Pumpkins used Ebow on the songs "Sinfony", "Soma", "Drown", "Perfect", "Stand Inside Your Love", "Speed Kills" as well as in many live versions of songs.
Joe Principe of Rise Against uses Ebow in the studios
Georg Hólm of Sigur Rós uses an EBow in the song "Untitled #6 (a.k.a. "E-Bow")" of the album ( ).
Paul Banks and Daniel Kessler of Interpol use EBows in the song "Take You on a Cruise" off the album Antics, and in the song "The Scale" from the album Our Love to Admire.
Vinnie Moore uses an Ebow in the songs "Rain", "The Maze", "In The Healing Garden", "Fear and Trepidation", "Over My Head" and "Into The Sunset" in the studios and during live performances.
Brad Delson of Linkin Park uses the EBow in the song "No More Sorrow" off the album Minutes to Midnight
Dream Theater guitarist John Petrucci uses it in the song "Space-Dye Vest" off the Dream Theater album "Awake".
References
- ^ The EBow FAQ
- ^ Sound clips of the EBow
- ^ Stefan Drees, Perspektivenwechsel. Tonraum-Deformationen durch Instrumentalklang-Verstimmungen bei Olga Neuwirth (2001)
- ^ Karlheinz Essl, Sequitur XIII (2009)
- ^ Andy Timmons