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Ebow
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EBow

EBow (PlusEBow) - monophonic handheld electromagnetic string driver, invented by Greg Heet in 1969.

The name Ebow stands for "Electronic Bow" or “Energy Bow” [1], [2]. Powered with 9V battery. The EBow produces an infinite sustain rich in harmonics.

EBow focuses a sympathetic oscillating magnetic field on a single string and causes it to vibrate. 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 [3]. PlusEBow has a switcher between “standard mode” and “harmonic mode”.

EBow was designed to play an electric guitar, but it is also used to play bass guitars. Some musicians use EBow to excite strings vibration on piano and other instruments with strings. It can even be used to play snare drum wires (snare head) if they are tight enough)

The same physical principles that underlie EBow were used to create inbuilt guitar systems like “Sustainer” (Fernandes Guitars) or “Sustainiac” (Stealth Pro). These systems drive the strings of an electric guitar into infinite feedback letting guitarists play with fingers or pickups as they usually do. Such guitar players as Robert Fripp and Steve Vai are known to use these systems a lot.

 

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