Re: EBow - active/passive humbuckers

[Ruben Medrano <rubenmedrano@gmail.com>]

Hi Per,

as Jeff said if a pickup is too close to the strings the magnet of the pickup it will attract the string, and probably if will be more difficult for the Ebow to work fine. But this is only for the single coil pickups, even when you don´t use the Ebow, you must take care not to setup the single coil pickup  too close to the strings. It is a known problem of the single coil pickups, it can even give you "ghost notes" an buzzes if it´s too close. Normally 2mm is enough (it depens on each case) but try not to set it less than 1.5mm of the strings or you will have intonation problems and buzzes for sure.
For the humbucking pickups you don´t have to worry at all.

I hope I´ve helped you.

Cheers!

Ruben

2013/11/6 Per Boysen <perboysen@gmail.com>

Thanks for the link, Jeff - seems to be a good e-bow resource page.
Both guitars I use with e-bow are fretless and this means very close
action, so probably the low-strings-inefficiency of the e-bow you have
noticed is an issue here.

Good points about magnets, Charles! But even though the guitar pickups
do not affect the e-bow they just happen to be placed at the point
where the e-bow best drives the strings. And with the EMG a noisy buzz
is created by the e-bow's magnetic field when placed right over the
pickup. This guitar is not only fretless but also set up for tapping,
which means not only ultra low action but also as close distance
between pickup and strings as possible. Given the e-bow hum this is an
unlucky combination. On some rainy day I may try one of my Alumitone
pickups on that guitar, since they do not produce noise when the e-bow
goes close.

Greetings from Sweden

Per Boysen
www.perboysen.com
http://www.youtube.com/perboysen

On Tue, Nov 5, 2013 at 11:12 PM, Jeff Duke <jeffloops@gmail.com> wrote:
> I have used an E-Bow on many guitars but not EMG active specifically. I have
> found that if the pickup you are using is very close to the string it can
> take more energy to get it moving. Also if you move the EBow over the pup it
> will get much louder. Sometimes for some strings I will press down on the
> ebow to get a faster reaction. Also this may help:
> http://www.ebow.com/faq_page.php?id=13
>
> peace out, Jeff
>
>
> On Tue, Nov 5, 2013 at 4:26 PM, Per Boysen <perboysen@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> I like to sometimes use an E-Bow with guitars and I don't think it
>> brings strings into vibration as well on a guitar with an active EMG
>> pickup, compared to a guitar with a normal passive humbucker. Is this
>> a known phenomenon, e-bow less efficient with active pups?
>>
>> It's not an issue for five strings, only for the thinnest. The
>> thinnest string I have to tap or pull a pull-off on (ha, ha!) to kick
>> it off and then have the e-bow take over.
>>
>> Greetings from Sweden
>>
>> Per Boysen
>> www.perboysen.com
>> http://www.youtube.com/perboysen
>>
>