Re: EBow - active/passive humbuckers

[Charles Zwicky <cazwicky@earthlink.net>]

Hi Matthias,

Thank you for the question.
I consider myself to be an experienced user, as I have used an ebow 
for nearly 30 years.
The principal of operation is apparently not well understood and 
misinformation abounds, so I am trying to provide clarification.
As the drive coil of the ebow is brought closer to the pickup, it's 
highly clipped square wave signal is induced into the pickup, 
creating the characteristic buzzy tone.  The volume will also 
increase, but this does not mean that the string's vibration is 
greater.
 It's exactly like holding a police megaphone in front of a 
microphone, you're hearing the increased amplification of the signal 
through the cheap, clipped amplifier.

This is why I suggested the experiment below, using the ebow with the 
guitar unplugged.

-Chuck


At 2:45 PM -0300 11/10/13, Matthias Grob wrote:
> Chuck,
> I do not use ebow
> but reading you I get the impression that you try to convince 
> experienced users with theory...
> why should there not be an interaction between the magnet fields of 
> the ebow and the pickup?
> I do not see what your test would show?
>
> On 10.Nov2013, at 12:49 PM, Charles Zwicky <cazwicky@earthlink.net> wrote:
>
> >  I think people conflate the internal distortion created by the ebow's
> >  amplifier with it's effectiveness at driving the string.
> >
> >  Here's a simple test anyone can perform:  Unplug your guitar and turn
> >  on the ebow.  Move the ebow around the pickups. Do you hear any
> >  difference?
> >
> >  Chuck
> >  --
> >
> >  ...
> >  http://www.zmix.net
> >
> >  http://albumcredits.com/zmix


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