BOC: Theremin, now E-bow

[John McIntyre]

>From: Craig Shipley <craigs at PYRAMID.COM>

>An E-bow is  a hand-held device that contains a motor-driven set of Delrin
>wheels (the stuff that they make model-train wheels with). The wheel is applied
>to the strings of the guitar and creates interesting efx or "infinite sustain".
>Don't know much more beyond this (like, number of wheels, is the speed variable
>(I think it is...), etc.).

What Craig has described is not an E-Bow but a Gizmotron, developed by
Godley & Creme while they were still with 10CC.  (They left 10CC in part
to focus on the Gizmotron.  Their album _Consequences_ makes a nice
Gizmotron demo album.)

There were two models of Gizmotron: a six string model for guitar and a
four string model for bass guitar.  The speed was not variable (unless you
wanted to vary the voltage supplied to the motor), but the wheel spacing
was, allowing for different string spacing.  (The lack of standard string
spacing on bass guitars is supposedly what scuttled the plans for a bass
E-Bow since the E-Bow rides on the strings adjacent to the one being
excited.)

The big advantage of the Gizmotron over the E-Bow is that the Gizmotron
could excite any or all of the strings at once, while the E-Bow is one
string at a time and cannot switch strings quickly.  The big drawback
of the Gizmotron is that the wheels wear out fairly quickly.

Both devices face marketing reluctance in that they require some adaptation
in your playing style: too many musicians want a magic box that does all
the work without them having to learn new techniques.

John McIntyre
Physics - Astronomy Domine Dept
Michigan State University
mcintyre at pa.msu.edu