Subj : E-Bow
To   : Neall Mercado
From : MIKE ROSS
Date : Tue Apr 03 2001 04:15 pm

"Neall Mercado" wrote to "Mike Ross" (04 Apr 01  02:29:00)
 --- on the topic of "E-Bow"

 NM> By the way, I've watched the video of Smashing Pumpkins playing live
 NM> in Amsterdam.  I noticed that their guitarist is using a small, square
 NM> gizmo that he put over the guitar's pickup while fretting notes...it
 NM> keeps on ringing while that gizmo is still there.  Is it the same?

I'm not sure what it was you saw. However, another way to prolong
sustain is to increase the pickup's magnetism. A guitar pickup is
basically a permanent magnet with a coil. There is a limit to how much
magnetism the magnet has in a given size.

This is especially true of older pickups since magnet making of the day
didn't benefit from advances in new metals. For example the typical hard
drive today has tiny magnets that one would have a hard time pulling
apart since they are so strong.

Thusly if one were to place such a magnet over the pickup so that the
pole polarity aids the existing pickup's magnetic field then the pickup
actually becomes much more sensitive. It's tricky to deterine the best
location to add such a magnet however.

I've experimented with new magnets taken from a dead hard disk and added
them to an older pickup with very satisfying results. The hardest part
was determining which was the north or south poles of the magnet. The
trick is to get a hold of a magnetic compass.

The north pole of a magnet if suspended from a string will point north!
So if an unknown magnet's pole attracts the compass needle north pointer
then it is a south pole. It sounds confusing but consider that the
unknown's other pole would then point North! Once we have an identified
magnet the pickup's fields can then be identified in turn. Then the new
magnet can be strategically located to help the existing magnetism.


.... Mad at your neighbor?  Buy his kid a drum!
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