E-Bow/(thumb) pick technique question

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mettelus
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2015/08/03 21:41:26 (permalink)

E-Bow/(thumb) pick technique question

I am using a condenser mic on my amp, and wanted to get sustain for passages on a ballad. I have had an E-Bow for years, but rarely touched it, so figured would be a good time to try it out. I actually do not want the legato sound, so began using a thumb pick, which has made for awkward positioning but works. A couple issues came up -
  1. The humbuckers are very sensitive, but passive, so I cannot get a harmonic to release, yet have seen videos of people doing this (i.e. shifting back to a fundamental).
  2. I actually played with letting the amp provide the sustain, but did not give a desired "even" effect. Even using the pick, I was still getting legato effect on a few notes (hammer-ons/pull-offs), and this is what I am trying to avoid.
Being in a hurry, I ended up looping that section and swapping techniques (pick, fundamental ebow/pick, harmonic ebow/pick), and ended up comping these together (cheated). Then it occurred to me that this must be possible. Is there a "best" technique to get a harmonic to release? Especially with the harmonic setting, I cannot achieve this even pulling the ebow completely off the guitar (having the pick in use also limits how much the right hand can move).

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    stickman393
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    Re: E-Bow/(thumb) pick technique question 2015/08/04 00:13:07 (permalink)
    Picking the harmonic (fundamental or higher) to resonate is largely a matter of moving the e-bow away or toward the bridge. You can get a lot of control that way. If you just leave the e-bow in one position, you're not using it to the best effect.
    #2
    mettelus
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    Re: E-Bow/(thumb) pick technique question 2015/08/04 03:04:12 (permalink)
    Thanks for the feedback. That is what the videos were showing, but I cannot get it to. I need to play with it more for sure. I didn't see a single video of anyone using a pick, and that makes it awkward to slide down the heel of the E-bow to get a light palm mute on the bridge. I think the amp may have also been a bit too close to a normal feedback level, so the E-bow just gave it that extra kick and the amp took over from there.
     
    I am not sure what frequency focus the guts of the E-bow are on, but it takes very little to pull the A5 harmonics on the B-string especially. The other interesting thing is in a sonogram view of the clip the harmonics do not "look" very different in power (the A5 is singing in the green box). I had sent Carvin a question a while ago about the EQ response of the amp, but I never expected an amp to throw so many harmonics (all the way up to 18K on that part)... I thought the speakers (2x12") were too big for such? These are all single notes from the amp into a large diaphragm condenser.
     
     
    This alone has me intrigued enough I want to try out other setups to understand this better.

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    tlw
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    Re: E-Bow/(thumb) pick technique question 2015/08/04 07:31:02 (permalink)
    I don't know which speakers are in the Carvin, but 12" Celestions have some output at surprisingly high frequencies. It's 25-30dB or more lower than the mids but it is there.

    If the ebow is building up a lot of high harmonics then might that explain the plot, especially if the cone is centre mic'd? I don't use an ebow myself, for sustaining attack-free slidey stuff I use a Daevid Allen/Steve Hillage/Dave Brock style glissando technique which can be extremely bright unless the guitar tone is rolled off.

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    stickman393
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    Re: E-Bow/(thumb) pick technique question 2015/08/04 13:18:40 (permalink)
    I've used an e-bow quite a bit - not with a pick, true, just with hammer-ons. Using a pick would - I think - bias towards the fundamental frequency of the string, so if you're experiencing that, I'm not surprised.
     
    Here's the thing, though: It's always a little hit-or-miss. I have different guitars and different strings, and different pickup placements, and they all behave differently from one day to the next. Maybe more practice would help but basically, I always record several takes and keep the good bits. 
     
    And a fresh battery always helps.
    #5
    mettelus
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    Re: E-Bow/(thumb) pick technique question 2015/08/09 18:58:10 (permalink)
    I ended up using the same version I had when I made the OP. I used it for a 20s addition to the BOZ Remix Contest (at 1:20 in the track I submitted). Even at 25% power with a gain of 2, the amp was throwing some powerful harmonics in this section (it is mixed around -19dB). Mic placement was about 8" off the floor midway between the speakers at a spacing of around 2 feet.
     
    Making that addition may be a kiss of death, since I am sure Greg Johnson (who wrote, tracked, and originally mixed it) is one of the judges; but at least can be an example of "E-bow with a pick." I did a lot of first time playing with this mix, so definitely had my fun with it.

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    #6
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