e-bow the double bass, was Re: Re:Re Ebow question

[burnett@pobox.com]

On Mon, 8 May 2006, ditch wrestler wrote:

>  Has anybody ever seen soembody use an e-bow on a double bass (you 
> know, the big upright ones, not the acoustic bass guitars)?

Not on an acoustic upright bass, but I have some experience with E-Bow on 
electric upright bass which is hopefully at least tangentially interesting 
to your question.

I use (on occasion) an E-Bow with an electric upright bass (Zeta 
Crossover), and have tested out an E-Bow on a NS Design full-size electric 
double bass. It works ok, for given values of ok:

1) given the string spacing is not a guitar, holding the E-Bow in air can 
be interesting. I have the same problem w/E-Bow on Chapman Stick, and my 
solution is usually to use the thumb as a pivot hinge to "clamp" the 
E-Bow.

2) Given the high amplitude of a long, heavy bass string, the string 
easily exceeds the "sweet spot" of the E-Bow field. So holding the E-Bow 
closer to the headstock, where the swing of the string is less, helps. 
However, that exacerbates the third issue:

3) The E-Bow is designed to work with the weight of a guitar string. Bass 
strings tend to be much thicker, weigh much more, and therefore take more 
time to get up to speed. For example, on my Zeta Crossover, it can take 
more than 30 seconds for the E-Bow to vibrate the E string enough to get 
an audible note.
(As a workaround, the E-Bow site has advice on how to speed up a note's 
appearance, even with guitar strings, including a quiet "tap" of the E-Bow 
on the string, picking or tapping the string above your fretting hand, 
anything to help overcome the string's inertia.)

I've considered building a magnum e-bow with more power, and perhaps a 
larger channel, for my use with bass.

best,
Steve B
Subscape Annex
http://www.subscapeannex.com/