Ebow useful or gimmick

There was a similar thread a few months back.
I think they are cool for some stuff but you'll probably struggle to use it on a regular basis unless you record a lot or play ambient/soundscape music.

Rustar wrote: »

I count nine! Which, as Tony Iommi and Django Reinhardt will tell you, is way too many for rock'n'roll.

Anyone ever tried one on bass? Is there a special 'bass version'?

I've used one on bass. It will work fine, the only thing is that it won't rest nicely on the strings like they do on a guitar, so you have to hold it at the right distance to get it to work. It makes it a bit harder to hit notes consistently.

I misread the title, thinking it was about elbows.......

I can imagine it being fun to noodle around with, but hard to find any practical use.

Big Wave wrote: »

Total gimmick - just like the Theramin fad of the late 90's.

If you've no imagination, your argument holds true. I get lots of use out of mine (but then again, I don't consider the theremin a fad either, considering it is the first electric/electronic instrument, hardly a ****ing gimmick).

Lots and lots of people use plectrums badly all the time. When'll that plectrum fad ever end? :rolleyes:

If you play a guitar with fifteen pedals, you can get a ton more sounds than someone with no pedals can. If you play a Theremin, you can get a ton of sounds that you can't get without a Theremin. If you play six keyboards, you can get millions of sounds you can't get without them.

If you play with an Ebow, you can get a ton of sounds you can't get with out one. What's bad about that??

Big Wave wrote: »

I should probably re-phrase - I'm referring to untalented musicians hiding behind pedals & gimmicks because they can't actually play their instrument or write a good riff or song or melody: like Jon Spencer Blues Explosion (uses a Theramin (badly) in every song, and is a horrible sloppy guitar player) and people like Lee Ronaldo (from Sonic Youth) who's solo stuff is just noise & feedback hiding behind pedals, etc. People then hail them as 'experimental', and it drives me nuts, because it's just pretentious noise. Primus is experimental, Pink Floyd is experimental, etc.

In your opinion it's just pretentious noise but for other people it's a cathartic explosion of sound. Primus and Pink Floyd aren't any more experimental than Sonic Youth, they all just sound different. As for Lee Renaldo, he can play very well but that's not what he wants to do, that's fair enough in my opinion. I'm not a massive fan of any of the artists you mention and although I get where you're coming from, I think you're writing off a lot of great music because it doesn't fit with your preconceived notions of music. One man's sloppy guitar playing is another man's soul.

You then have the people who like these bands thinking Theramins/Ebows/Moogs, etc were amazing, and then they get overused by people who get carried away with effects & gimmicks: they're the people I'm referring to.

Or maybe they actually like playing these instruments? How is a synthesiser any less valid as an instrument compared to a guitar or a bass? Guitars get used by a lot of people needlessly, many bands have more than one guitar player playing the same thing (with the bass following along). Does that make the guitar a gimmick?

A century ago, the saxophone was written off as a gimmick that would never catch on outside of a few specific contexts. Yet, as jazz as shown, it is one of the most expressive instruments available to a musician. The theremin can be equally expressive as players like Pamelia Kurstin shows.

Soundgarden used an ebow in 1 song - it was subtle, and it was used because it was the right song to use it in, and it was used in a specific part of the song to enhance it. A lot of other people buy these 'add-ons' and try to cram them into every song, because they want to be hip and look 'experimental' rather than actually spending time learning to understand music & learn their instrument; I've seen people on stage with 6 or 7 pedals, and 3 different guitars, 6 keyboards, etc, and they can't even play their instrument well. They're the people I'm condemning. I was too cynical in my first post - apologies.

I've seen bands with a normal guitar/bass/drums setup who couldn't play but obviously spent loads of money on Gibsons, Marshall amps, etc. because they want to be hip and look 'rock' rather than actually spending time learning to understand music & learn their instrument. It's not the instruments' fault that people are lazy. So to write off ebow/theremin/keyboards based on people not putting the effort in is silly logic because you may as well write off every instrument.

Big Wave wrote: »

No, you can get one sound off a Theramin.

See the video I posted above.

Eh, you get one type of sound with an Ebow too - that's what it does - it's very specific.

No more specific than a plectrum (and the analogy above is perfectly good, they are both implements for making a string vibrate). There are two settings on the ebow which give different sounds and depending on how you play, you can be as expressive as you can be with a plectrum or your fingers or a violin bow or a drumstick. You make the point of bad musicians not learning to use their instruments and hiding behind ebows and pedals yet you fall into the same trap by not bothering to explore what extended technique is capable of.