“I used the E Bow on quite a few [tracks]. I really found it incredibly useful. I don’t know how practical it is for live performing, because you can only utilize it on one string at a time, which really makes it a little difficult. Most of the time on [the album] when there was an E Bow there was really between three and six of them over-dubbed. They were on ‘Tonight You Belong To Me’; on the melodic line from the front of the heavy section, it’s not a keyboard, it’s the E Bows”
Paul Stanley / Kiss
“The E Bow gets the kind of sustain that the guitar normally wouldn’t produce. I like the texture of the EBow sound.”
Frank Zappa
A
The EBow is a hand-held electronic bow for guitar. This small battery-powered unit replaces the pick in the right hand letting the guitarist mimic strings, horns, and woodwinds with unbelievable sensitivity. The EBow produces a powerful infinite sustain, rich in harmonics for incredible guitar sounds. Unlike plug-in effects, the Energy Bow does its work on the string itself… Direct String Synthesis™. Infinite Sustain is just the beginning.
Also used by Chris Stein in Blondie, Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins) and many more!
A lot of people think that Robert Fripp’s guitar-playing on Bowie’s Heroes is an Ebow (in fact it’s reportedly feedback). But you can certainly emulate that Heroes-Fripp tone quite easily with the Ebow.
The Ebow has been used by all kinds of players of almost every genre – take a look here for a further list of Ebow guitar players.
PLEASE NOTE: The Ebow requires a standard PP3 9v battery in order for it to work.
