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500 Words EBow Adam P Hunt

Haunting, eerie, breathtaking, any of these words could easily describe a curious little handheld device known as the EBow.

Invented in 1968 by Greg Heet the Ebow has gone on to be an effect that unites guitarists as diverse as David Gilmour, Paul Stanley, Frank Zappa, Buddy Emmons and Dave Navarro. When the EBow debuted at NAMM 1976 Jerry Garcia was Heet’s first customer.

The Energy Bow or more commonly EBow was the brainchild of inventor Greg Heet. While Heet is no longer with EBow the EBow lives on and has a pretty dedicated following. Even though the EBow has gone through many revisions since it’s inception the general coconscious seems that the changes in the EBow are genuine improvements and not done as cost savings measures.

And just for the record the EBow is still produced in the United States and is not farmed out to job shops in the far east.

Small, simple to use, the Ebow is a small, J shaped device is usually held in the picking hand and vibrates a single string at a time and produces a sound that is somewhere between controlled feedback and guitar synthesizer.

While the Ebow has two settings, essentially a faster and slower string vibrating modes, I’m sorry to say that the EBow does not have true bypass wiring.

Even though the Ebow is more closely associated electric guitar usage the Ebow has found it’s way into the hands of acoustic guitar players, and Luciano Chessa has been known to use it with the dan bau.

Also, bassist Michael Marning has been known to use two EBows at a time while playing a fretless bass and avant-garde composer Olga Neuwirth has used one with a grand piano.

That’s not to say the EBow should strictly be limited to experimental music but it could be useful for overdubs and I ran across a video with Phil Keaggy that used an EBow to help simulate some convincing pedal steel sounds.

Using an EBow is pretty straight forward and EBbow’s website says:

“Playing the EBow directly over the pickup will increase your volume many fold and give you the crisp sound of super hot pickups. Moving away from the pickup gives you the mellow sound of a hollow body electric. This complete control over attack, decay and sustain, as well as a whole new range of tones and textures, makes the EBow one of the most expressive tools for the guitarist. “

Simple enough but on the surface a slide is pretty low tech too but not every one can be Duane Allman their first go.

My own experience with an EBow was brief but memorable. I particularly like using it with a delay pedal because it turned a lunk like me instantly into Robert Fripp.

Any one interested in an Ebow should check out http://www.ebow.com/home.php . There’s tons of videos, tips, and audio samples and if the site shows you anything it is that an EBow is more than a novelty, it’s a serious bit of musical equipment.

Adam P Hunt is a freelance writer who has previously written for The Library Journal and Premier Guitar Magazine. We are so happy to have him join us here at Guitar Radio Show.com.

Here’s a Dual E Bow Guitar solo from the Good Rats-

The return of Ovation Guitars to American production is something we are all jazzed about. Here’s our interview with Ovation production Manager Bill Xavier where he discusses what’s ahead for this great American Brand. Plus, an interview with long time Ovation player Geno White. Gene recorded his entire “Music in the Lighthouse” album using only an Ovation guitar.

For more on Ovation- http://www.ovationguitars.com

Get More Ulrich at- http:/http://ulrichellison.com

Can this guy play or what?!?

Check out Redd at- http://www.reddvolkaert.net

Here’s Redd at the Dallas Guitar Festival 2014- We had a Real Good Time-

How about some more? This is from 2015-

500 Words Cheap Guitars

I’m sure I’m not alone in this but I’ve often found myself fantasying about what guitars I would own if I had unlimited resources.

In my mind’s eye I own a vault’s worth of late 1950’s Gibsons and Fenders, a couple Tony Zemaitis, and some of pre-Beatle era Gretch for good measure.

Of course there would be a rehearsal room that had some classic Fender, Marshall and Vox amps to play through but because I’m a working guy my resources are limited.

I’ve had owned a couple of 50’s era guitars, a Gibson ES 125 and a Danelectro of some sort, but to be honest with you they both lived in their cases a greater amount of time than I actually played them.

As much as I liked them the two guitars had problems associated with vintage gear, such as underwhelming pickups, tuning stability and feedback.

Today I own a handful of guitars including my new favorite a Stewart-MacDonald pine body Telecaster. None of my guitars are what you would call “collectables” but instead they are a mix of functional off-the-shelf guitars set up to do a specific job.

As a player my ear and proclivity leans much more towards a vintage guitar sound but in order to capture more of that vibe I’m running a couple of vintage voiced amps with some relatively modern guitars.

I’m not going to fool myself to thinking that I can replicate vintage tones but I can at least live in a neighboring area code.

To me there are several reasons to buy a cheap guitar over a more expensive counterpart:

Most of the major brands offer lesser expensive versions of their premium level instruments.
Often times the lesser expensive versions can be found at a dramatic discount on the used market.
Playing live is risky because of the possibility of damage or theft.
They are a low risk alternative to buying collectables.
With a little massaging they can be star performers.

I can’t speak to your specific needs as a player but I can say even sub $500 can be dramatically improved having professional set up done either by a guitar tech or doing it yourself with guidance of several excellent home repair books.

Dan Erlewine’s “How To Make Your Electric Guitar Play Great!” is a very good guide even for non-professionals and so is “Complete Guitar Repair” by Hideo Kamimoto.

While there may be more after market pickups than you can shake a stick at don’t forget to change the pots and caps while you are at it. Replacing subpar pots and caps can radically improve the sound and response of even non-premium guitars.

Stickers on your guitar will always improve your tone too.

If you still aren’t noticing any improvement in tone you may want to buy a guitar cable suitable to the genre of music you play and even trying a different gauge of pick. “Cheap” doesn’t need to mean “bad”.

Adam P Hunt is a freelance writer who has previously written for The Library Journal and Premier Guitar Magazine. We are so happy to have him join us here at Guitar Radio Show.com.

Check out Joe at- http://www.joelouiswalker.com

Check out Nico’s USA Pickups- http://www.nicosusapickups.com

Here’s our review on Nico’s USA Pickups-

Experience Tone-

Check out Tony Savarino at http://www.tonysavarino.com