Xref: utzoo sci.electronics:2421 rec.music.makers:1402
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!cos!hadron!decuac!c3pe!maugorn
From: maugorn@c3pe.UUCP (Steve "Maugorn" Haug)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics,rec.music.makers
Subject: E-Bow
Message-ID: <1283@c3pe.UUCP>
Date: 3 Mar 88 20:46:01 GMT
Organization: C3 Inc., Herndon, VA
Lines: 32
Keywords: How do they work?


     Does anyone out there remember a device called an E-Bow.
This was a small box that one held in one's hand, and when activated
and held near an electric guitar string, would vibrate it for you
via some resonance property.  It was battery operated.  The sound
it would produce would be similar to bowing a string, because the
attack of the sound would be a slow rise in volume from zero rather
than the sharp immediate sound of picking.
    Does anyone still make these devices?
    How much does one go for?
    Are they available anywhere?
    How do they work?

    I have a theory about the last question.  I believe that these
boxes work much like feedback from speaker.  They emit some waveform
that resonates the string and then causes this resonance to be picked 
up as sound in the pickup.  The trick is that the guitar can still be 
played, and the notes still sound, so it would have to be some wide
range of resonances that it produces.  Does it just induce a current
that then is influenced by whatever frequency the string is tuned/fingered
for?  I have encountere effects like this playing with a guitar that
had part of it's output piped into a pillow speaker that I held nearby.
However, the E-Bow is in no way directly linked to the guitar's output.
    If I am correct about how it works, might I be able to build my
own by hooking up a VCO to a spare pickup and using it?  Or is a 
electromagnet of some sort enough?

					Thanks in advance?
					Maugorn

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