BOC: Theremin, now E-bow

[Craig Shipley]

John sez...
>
> >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.)
>
Y'now, after I posted that, I thought that I had just described a Gizmo
instead of an E-bow. Thanks for setting me straight... (I think that I might
have seen a prototype drawing of the handheld device that I described. Or
maybe I jut got it kornfoozed with a handheld rolling slicer 'n dicer...
:-S).

> 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.
>
Yeah I remember that as being a major hurdle (the wheels wearing out). Wonder
what could be done with some of the materials that have come along since then?
(Could a ceramic composite work?) And with advances in motor miniturization and
control, I can see where a variable-speed unit could be built and incorporated
into a guitar...

The Gizmo attached to the tailstock, right?

> 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.
>
I would also suspect that there are enough digital/electronic devices on the
market nowadays to make the Gizmo and Ebow superfluous. And a lot more sturdy/
playable/easier to use...

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

obCDPlayer: Djam Karet / Reflections From The Firepool

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