General Music Chat

Just posted a Bowie cover I'm working on. Dug the E-Bow out of moth balls for this one. The mix needs work, but I can never get that right until the vocals are added
P.S. the second E-Bow part was going thru a fuzzface, and sounds like an aggravated cicada on a hot, humid July day!

Nice work!

I could never get my E-Bow to work for me, but I'm not much of a lead player, & didn't really give it that big a chance. It was like learning to play all over again, somehow.

Liked it. I see that it does have its uses, now...maybe I'll dig mine back out...now where the hell did I put it?

Grrrr

Ive got a nice recurve does that count?
Whats an E-Bow?

Imagine a slightly bigger guitar pick that's, like, about 1 inch thick, sans. You hold the tip of it over the string you want the sound from, & it creates an electro-magnetic field, the string just starts to vibrate, & the sound builds almost like feedback, but it's on the note you're holding. Once it starts, you can change the pitch just like normal (well, the tone changes a little, too, more like a lil buzzier note), but when you change a string, it takes time to build up again. It's pretty neat, & a different effect than an attack delay. When you combine it with other effects, the sound can be amazing.

Frank Zappa said it was the coolest thing to come out for guitar in years, but it never caught on too much.

It takes a 9 volt battery.

I think you can still get 'em in musician's friend. Don't see them in music stores anymore.

E-bows are cool, I used one on a few tracks. Big Country and A Flock of Seagulls used them a lot too.

edit: nice cover of "Heroes" Dajax. Fripp played the part on the record but Adrian Belew played it when I saw Bowie do the "Heroes" tour. Soon after Belew joined King Crimson.

Ajax,

I love your tone on that song. That was one of my favorite songs at one time, I had a strat with a fernandes sustainer to hold those notes. The whole vibe of your recording sounds great.

George you dont see many e-bows cause people found they were a lot funner in your pocket, kind of like putting your cell phone on vibrate.

I havent seen nor head an E-Bow, OR a Fuzz-Face, for that mater, since deep into the last millenium!
I swear Dax, you're a walkin', rockin', vintage, musical, mechanical, museum personified!

Thanks for the feedback boys. I got the idea to do this after watching that early nineties clip of Bowie doing the tune with Rick Ronson At the Freddie Mercury tribute concert.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=2JOvgfOkxgQ

Rick Ronson?? You sure that's not Mick Ronson? I'd have to look it up but I think Mick Ronson was Bowie's guitar player back in the 60's when he was doing Ziggy Stardust and all the great stage costumes. First time I heard of Bowie was Space Oddity on the radio, then not long afterward saw a clip on Midnight Special I think it was, doing Jean Jenie onstage. One of my favorite Bowie songs, that one...

Rick Ronson?? You sure that's not Mick Ronson? I'd have to look it up but I think Mick Ronson was Bowie's guitar player back in the 60's when he was doing Ziggy Stardust and all the great stage costumes. First time I heard of Bowie was Space Oddity on the radio, then not long afterward saw a clip on Midnight Special I think it was, doing Jean Jenie onstage. One of my favorite Bowie songs, that one...

LOL actually I'm almost positive it's Mick Ronson...I must have been thinking of Rick Monson!

E-bows are cool, I used one on a few tracks. Big Country and A Flock of Seagulls used them a lot too.

edit: nice cover of "Heroes" Dajax. Fripp played the part on the record but Adrian Belew played it when I saw Bowie do the "Heroes" tour. Soon after Belew joined King Crimson.

Good call on the Fripp Jimmy, After I had recorded the whole instrumental track, it just sounded like it need something a little more offbeat to get that Fripp vibe, so the last thing I added was that fuzzier E-Bow to get some crazier sounder harmonies to the first E-Bow part

Ok Thats an E Bow. Thanks.

Dajax really good stuff, hey why does watch tower cut off like that? It was really grooving, then 1:21 click nothing. Anyway I really like the reverb you’re using, it’s got a lot of effect without clutter. Adds a lot of depth to the sound, some of those notes seem to go on forever.

Dajax really good stuff, hey why does watch tower cut off like that? It was really grooving, then 1:21 click nothing. Anyway I really like the reverb you’re using, it’s got a lot of effect without clutter. Adds a lot of depth to the sound, some of those notes seem to go on forever.

Hey LL, I never really recorded much more than what's there...maybe 5 seconds before, and after. Just always liked those 4 mini solos strung together so I thought I'd try to copy that section as best as I could.
Here's a tip...if you ever find one of these reverbs, BUY IT! In the late 80s I was searching for a reverb pedal I could use for both recording and live work if I was using one of my non reverb amps. I tried the Boss pedal, and it was too noisy. The reverb I settled on, and still use is a Peavey SRP-16. It's a stereo stomp box with volume in, and out controls, a blend control, and a 16 position knob for reverb types. It was one in a whole line of pedals that Peavey had out at the time, and sounds great.