Dissecting The Ebow Plus

Dissecting the Ebow Plus and a little about how it works via the original patent documents. I was going to mention it in the video, but forgot to, that I was one of eight monthly picks by the editor of Guitar Player magazine in Aug. 2007 for a tune I had up at my MySpace Music page at the time which featured the skillful use of an Ebow. Now I need to find it so I can share it somewhere...

[@muesli_mod]

it seems the plastic case is not necessary. i have plans to dismantle an ebow and make a wearable device spanning two fingers. this video was useful to me. thanks.

[@VegasCyclingFreak]

It won’t work unless both coils are exactly same distance from string and close enough too. Would be difficult to do the way you propose but give it a try. Also, the whole circuit board is encased in some sort of epoxy, so be careful. If you mess up the windings on the coils, which are very tiny wires, it'll be a paper weight.

[@abraxas1]

thanks for this. useful to have this info online. helps my mind jump to new ways to do things.

[@VegasCyclingFreak]

abraxas1 - Thanks, glad you got something out of it

[@RoadTripEddie]

Thanks, that was very very interesting and informative. I've always wondered about this product, it's circuit, and how it works, for about 40+ years. I've never had one, I've never used one, but I was always curious about its guts and concept. And logically now, after watching your video, it makes a lot of sense. *May I suggest... when it comes time to disassemble / dissect one in the future, if it ever arises, to use a solvent to melt the white material, rather than to pick it off. A solvent like m e k, (methyl ethyl ketone) (should be an easy to find purchase in perhaps a hobby store, under the brand name "weld on") It is used to melt acrylic's among many other plastics together. It's extremely much thinner than water, and evaporates into the air almost instantly. It turns the acrylic into a very soft Gel state, and then as the m e k evaporates, the acrylic rehardens very quickly, within a minute or two) M e k should dissolve the white material away, or soften it enough that one could use a paper towel to wipe the white material away, and shouldn't damage any of the copper traces or the circuit board. Just an fyi for your own future information. (I used MEK for many many years, when I was a professional model builder, working intensely with plastics in the engineering field) I hope you can benefit from that information, as I like to help others as much as I can, with the knowledge I have gained over the years of my life. Take care, blessings, happiness and positivity always to you and all those closest to you.

[@VegasCyclingFreak]

I got this from someone else already dissected but thanks for the tip

[@robguitarwizard]

Very informative. I can see they were not designed to be taken apart and tinkered with. I have had an ebow for about 10 -15 years. Always wondered what it looked like inside. Pretty simple circuit. Might try and build one.

[@VegasCyclingFreak]

Yep they didn’t want people messing with them, and probably more so, not reverse engineering them

[@stevelitt]

thanks for sharing!

[@neutralearth1061]

Fascinating video! We LOVE the Ebow and use it a LOT in our recordings. Hear it in action on our YT Channel.

[@VegasCyclingFreak]

Thanks for the comment. I have several more videos on the Ebow that I made over the last few weeks. I resurrected one that was pretty much completely destroyed by someone trying to reverse engineer it, and learned how it actually works.

[@alm000]

Really cool, i wonder if it could be modded to do different rates or harmonics. Thanks for the great explanation. :)

[@donbobskiy]

o my ... and this costs about $100 ...

[@gjwildes]

~25$ for DIY parts, lol

[@Sentientfx1]

but someone spent an enormous amount of time inventing and building it.

[@tangobasso]

Has anyone ever tried to build a guitar with “ebow” tech recessed in the guitar body? Would be super cool to be able to independently control an ebow for each string, with switches for each string built into the guitar.

[@VegasCyclingFreak]

I remember years ago someone was designing/building a hexaphonic sustainer pickup at the projectguitar.com forum. I don’t remember the outcome and that enormous thread is long gone now. Basically you get that with the Roland guitar synth pickup.

[@Microtonal_Cats]

Some engineer at some factory in China is watching this video and taking copious notes.

[@VegasCyclingFreak]

ha ha there's already a couple of workalikes on the market for a while now

[@TheGorillasNextdoor]

I need a pointing stick.

[@StonefieldMusic]

Do you think the coils would be more powerful with a second battery or would that destroy the circuit?

[@EliteSquter]

I know that It's a little bit of a late reply, but better later than never. I think that it SHOULD withstand two 9V in series, as documentation (www.ti.com/product/LM386 ) states that this amp can be supplied by 4-18V. But I am not trained electrician (not yet) so don't take my word on it. I might test this theory once I build one (It's like 100$ and components would cost less than 1/10 of that)

[@HazeAnderson]

@@EliteSquter while the LM386 can take up to 18V you are shortening its lifespan by running it that hot. Also, the electrolytic caps might not be rated to take 18V ... they need to be double whatever the highest voltage that runs them ... and the current limited resistors for the LEDs are surely rated for 9V as well (which means the LEDs will die out sooner at 18V than 9V). Finally, doubling the voltage to 18V will not necessarily give you more output power, just more internal headroom. Final thoughts --- don't do it man!! 😆

[@ThePiers99]

Hello, I would need an info. Blue, black and red cables unsoldered after falling accidentally to the floor. Can you please tell me in which order are they soldered to the three pin fork please? A detailed photo would be really appreciated.

[@VegasCyclingFreak]

I don’t know the answer to that as I was given this ebow after it was already dissected (taken apart)

[@ThePiers99]

@@VegasCyclingFreak ok thanks anyway

[@nanderv]

What happens when you connect both the harmonics and the regular modes at the same time? No output? Mine has a broken switch, so I'm tempted to mod it with two buttons, so I can turn both things on and off individually

[@VegasCyclingFreak]

Don’t know… never heard of anyone trying that.

[@beradtheone6140]

Thanks for the video! My ebow is the plus = has the high and low freq switch.. the battery connection is in tact and fine on that side. Question is, all the 3 wires came disconnected from the terminal. The wires that are disconnected are = blue, grey and red. Do you know which wires go to which terminal? **the black wire (4th wire) coming in from battery is fine by the way. Please help! lol.. Thanks!

[@VegasCyclingFreak]

Sorry I don’t know where those wires connect to the circuit board

[@beradtheone6140]

@@VegasCyclingFreak allgood, thx for replying though!

[@skern49]

That's cool! I'm wondering, how did you get the ebow open?

[@VegasCyclingFreak]

I got it from someone else who did all the work, so I can’t answer that question. They had to pick all of the goop off of the circuitboard too. Not an easy process.

[@freeelectron8261]

The coils are the tricky part for a diy version, but the rest would be fairly simple with a 3d printer.

[@VegasCyclingFreak]

That’s true. With 3D printers available to everyone now, getting the coils right is the main obstacle.

[@Spelter]

these are two speakers with 4 and 8 ohms I guess

[@VegasCyclingFreak]

@@Spelter I don't know any of the specifics on the coils. That's the only thing that people have not been able to definitively identify about this circuit.

[@valentinebezrukov1254]

Hello! How the magnets are located relatively to the coil? Thanks for this video, I was looking for the inside a long time

[@VegasCyclingFreak]

Watch starting at 6:00

[@valentinebezrukov1254]

It’s not clear for me. Is Magnet inside the coil? Also, upper cap is just plastic? Thanks

[@VegasCyclingFreak]

@@valentinebezrukov1254 Small magnet inside of the windings and the whole thing is encased in a ferrite cup, as I explain in the video. I am not the one who dissected this thing, it was sent to me by someone else and I'm just describing the general construction of the thing.

[@valentinebezrukov1254]

Vegas Cycling Freak thank you! I’ll try to build my own

[@VegasCyclingFreak]

Valentine Bezrukov - Good luck. A few people have successfully built one but you have to get everything right for it to work. The “magic” is in those coils... how many windings, etc.

[@bojanarezina2352]

how did you get rid of the epoxy

[@VegasCyclingFreak]

Someone else did that before I acquired it so I’m not sure

[@borisandfef]

Have you measured the inductance of the coils?

[@VegasCyclingFreak]

They were not intact after dismantling, unable to do so.

[@gjwildes]

This is key info! I built a working version using Fender Rhodes piano pickups as coils. The stock coils are ~180ohms. For the output coil, I unwind a coil down to ~60ohms. It won't work with a stock coil on the output, it has to be less. It's likely that whatever you use for coils, their ratio is important. I was hoping to find out what the original ebow used. I guess I will see if I can find out from the patent.

[@StephenKarsch]

How the heck do you take it apart? I cannot for the life of me get the bottom piece off.

[@VegasCyclingFreak]

The two haves are glued together. You have to cut it apart. The circuit board inside is covered in goop. if you're trying to fix one, forget it... just get a new one.

[@StephenKarsch]

@@VegasCyclingFreak Not the answer I wanted to hear but thanks for your reply! It's weird, the light works, but the effect does nothing. Oh well.

[@VegasCyclingFreak]

@@StephenKarsch Sorry. Sounds like the IC chip died or maybe one of the coils developed a short.

[@markshone4606]

could u not put the circuit board under the strings so its there all the time

[@VegasCyclingFreak]

That’s essentially the idea behind the sustainer pickups but with the ebow it’s only doing one string at a time, where you have the device directly over the string.

[@RoadTripEddie]

I would guess that the ebow needs to be on the opposite side of the strings, as the pickup, for it to work properly, based on magnetic fields. Ie: The strings being between the pickup and the ebow. Again that is just a guess, I could be wrong, but it seems very logical electrically

[@VegasCyclingFreak]

RoadTrip Eddie - It’s all about creating a feedback loop between the guitar and the ebow. If you look at the patent it explains how it works.

[@thesilliestclown]

Hey uploader, I have a question about the insides I don't see here. I bought a solid body electric ukulele, and I want to use my ebow on it. Unfortunately, the strings are further apart than a guitar, the uke strings rest on the peak of the area next to the grooves. I want to dremel new grooves into the bottom, but I'm worried theres electronics in the area I'd be attempting to dig into and I don't want to ruin my ebow. Can you please tell me if the peak of the hill next to the valley that is the string grooves has electronics that may be harmed if I cut into it? I wouldn't be going all the way through, hopefully, but just deep enough that my bow doesnt slide around on the hills

[@VegasCyclingFreak]

Poe Keepsie - At 5:18 is where the two coils are. They sit directly above the strings so you basically only have about 1/16” of plastic between them and the strings. Wouldn’t be hard to damage them with a cutting wheel.

[@thesilliestclown]

@@VegasCyclingFreak well, I dug in a tiny little bit with a 420 cutting wheel and it works flawlessly. Thanks, though!

[@thesilliestclown]

Just had to not cut all the way through the plastic

[@VegasCyclingFreak]

Poe Keepsie - Thanks, good to know this is possible

[@simpson6700]

It's a neat gimmick, but not worth 100 bucks