The EBow or ebow (brand name for “Electronic Bow” or Energy Bow) (often spelled E-bow in common usage)is a hand-held, battery-powered electronic device for playing the electric guitar, invented by Greg Heet in 1969. Instead of having the strings hit by the fingers or a pick, they are moved by the electromagnetic field created by the device, producing a sound reminiscent of using a bow on the strings.

The EBow is used to produce a variety of sounds not usually playable on an electric guitar. By varying the EBow’s linear position on the string, the user can produce different string overtones, and also fade in and out by lowering and raising the EBow. Furthermore, starting with the current generation of EBow (PlusEbow, the 4th edition Ebow), the user also gains an additional mode known as harmonic mode, which produces a higher harmonic sound instead of the fundamental note.

A wide variety of artists have used the EBow in a wide variety of musical styles. Radiohead most notably. An early pioneer of EBow playing was Max Sunyer, who used it in a 1978 live album “Iceberg en directe”, recorded and released in Spain Picap. It was used later on by Bill Nelson, who introduced it to Stuart Adamson of The Skids. Adamson went on to use it heavily with Big Country, and it formed an integral part of their well-known “bagpipe sound”. More recently, it has been used on Opeth’s 2001 album Blackwater Park, in order to create ambient background melodies.

Besides its appearance in Rock and Jazz music, the E-Bow also made its way in the domain of contemporary art music, being used by John Cage in his harp piece A Postcard from Heaven (1982), Karlheinz Essl in Sequitur VIII (2008) for electric guitar and live-electronics, Elliott Sharp on SFERICS (1996), Arnold Dreyblatt in E-Bow Blues (released 1998) and David First in A Bet on Transcendence Favors the House (2008).

While the EBow is not normally used with the electric bass guitar, which has heavier strings, Michael Manring (who uses light bass strings) has persevered, and it features heavily on his 1995 album Thönk. He has even been known to use two at once.

Although the EBow is most commonly played on the electric guitar because of the ease of use and the responsiveness obtainable from the pickup, it has also been used in applications with the steel-string acoustic guitar. For example, Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour used one on his Gibson J-200 acoustic in the 1994 song Take It Back to great effect. Generally an acoustic guitar gives a limited response for varying reasons, including the density and spacing of the guitar strings. But despite these limitations, using an EBow on an acoustic guitar gives a rich, flute and clarinet-like tone with a slow-swelling response.

Furthermore, an EBow can also be utilised on a grand piano (with depressed sustain pedal) in order to create sustained sinusoidal sounds as it was used by Olga Neuwirth in Hooloomooloo (1997).

• 7% Solution: Blindshore, Lost, The Sky Suspended, Tomorrow Never Knows
• Adrian Belew: The Final Rhino
• The Alarm: Howling Wind, Where Were You Hiding When The Storm Broke
• Alice In Chains: Heaven Beside You
• Alon: Art’s End
• Anthrax: Bare
• Archers Of Loaf : Smokers in Love, After the Last Laugh, White Trash Heroes
• Richard Barone: River To River, Miss Jean, Flew A Falcon
• Bauhaus: Lajartija Nick, Exquisite Corpse
• Belly: The Bees, Sweet Ride
• Berlin: Intimate (DVD) on Lost My Mind and Drug
• Beyond The Bars: Various
• Big Country: The Storm , In A Big Country, Lost Patrol, Porrohman, One In A Million, Charlotte, Eiledon
• The Black Crowes: Gone
• Blind Melon: Time, Wilt
• Blondie: Dreaming, Kidnapper, Cautious Lips, Youth Nabbed As Sniper, Fade Away And Radiate, Dog Star Girl
• Blue Oyster Cult: Don’t Fear The Reaper
• Boiled In Lead: Shamrock Shore
• The Bongos: Numbers With Wings, Brave New World, Sweet Blue Cage
• David Bowie: Heroes (Live at Freddy Mercury’s Tribute in 1992 - Mick Ronson on guitar)
• Broadside Electric: Mose Salio de Misrayim, Silkie
• Built To Spill: Untrustable
• Belinda Carlisle: Love Walks In (ebow by Chrissy Shefts)
• Caifanes: Miedo, La Llorona
• Camouflage: Seize Your Day

• The Cars: Shake It Up, Since You’re Gone
• Chameleons: Soul In Isolation, I’ll Remember
• The Church: Shadow Cabinet, Myrrh, Constant In Opal, Tantalize
• Collective Soul: Maybe, Forgiveness, Disciplined Breakdown, Link, In Between, Giving
• Phil Collins: It Doesn’t Matter To Me
• The Cranberries: Daffodil Lament
• Creeker (Dallas): Little Sweet Delirium
• The Cure: Disintegration Album
• The Dandy Warhols: Live

• Def Leppard: White Lightning, Stand Up, Fractured Love
• Delirious?: Cutting Edge, King Of Fools, Live & In The Can, Mezzamorphis
• Depeche Mode: Walking In My Shoes
• Dream Theater: Space-Dye Vest
• Pete Droge: Necktie Second
• Duran Duran: American Science
• John Ellis: Infanta, Improviso, Infinite Sustain, others. Hear these on John’s website.
• Buddy Emmons (on steel guitar): Once Upon A Time In The West
• Enchant: The Thirst
• Faith No More: Strip Search
• The Feelies: Only Life
• Fields of the Nephilim: Last Exit For The Lost
• Flock of Seagulls: Hot Tonight, Transfer Affection, If I Had A Photograph Of You, Nightmares
• The Robert Fripp String Quintet: The Bridge Between
• Fred Frith: What A Dilemma
• Peter Gabriel: Red Rain (live), Bread and Wine (Passion-1989)
• Van Halen: Spanked
• Peter Hammill: Enter K, Patience, Out of Water. EBow by John Ellis currently with The Stranglers
• PJ Harvey: To Bring You My Love
• Mats Hedberg: Nordiclights
• Heart: Crazy On You, Barracuda
• Scott Huckabay: If You Believe, Metaphors, Mist of Avalon, From the Moment of Life, Divine Union, Touching Solid Branches, The Journey, The Nature, A New Sunrise, Reflections, Psychedelic Dolphin, On Shimmering Ground, Between Tomorrow & Now
• Iona (Celtic rock band): Encircling, When I Survey
• James: She’s A Star

• Elton John: The One, others
• Henry Kaiser: Wind Crystals, Daredevils, Aloha, If Looks Could Kill, Info Mechanics, With Friends Like These
• Phil Keaggy: Amazing Grace, Pilgrim’s Flight, Town To Town, Rise Up O Men Of God, Let Everything Else Go, Reaching Out, I Love You Lord, When The Wild Winds Blow
• King’s X: Ear Candy, Cigarettes (live)
• Paul Kurzweil: Song 86, The Tango Express
• k.d.lang: The Air That I Breathe (Drag)
• Love and Rockets: The Light, All In My Mind, Laralay, Love Me, An American Dream, Saudade, Haunted While The Minutes Drag, Seventh Dream Of Teenage Heaven
• Marillion: Cinderella Search, Pseudo Silk Kimono (the intro of Misplaced Childhood), Nightwater by The Wishing Tree on the album Carnival of Souls, You’re Gone, Seasons End (live version).
• Metallica: Unforgiven, Blackened
• Man on Fire: Various
• Michael Manring: Adhan (2 EBows on bass - EBow only), On A Day OF Many Angels, Cruel And Unusual, Bad Hair Day, Big Fungus, plus other cuts on Thonk

• Missing Persons: Noticeable One, Waiting For A Million Years, Racing Against Time (solo)
• Krzysztof Misiak: Zdjecie z Misiem (Photo with The Bear)
• The Mission UK: Wasteland, Blood Brother, Dance on Glass
• Modern English: I Melt With You, Life In The Gladhouse
• Mofungo: Union Of Scabs, Hosting A War
• Robert Muller: Ten, Big Star, Secrets, Pale Yellow (mp3 samples on Robert’s website)
• Bill Nelson: The October Man, A Private View, Blue As A Jewel
• Oasis: What’s The Story (Morning Glory), Wonderwall
• Pearl Jam: Wishlist , Release, Not For You, No Way
• Pink Floyd: Take It Back, Keep Talking
• The Psychedelic Furs: Dumb Waiters, Like A Stranger, Highwire Days, Alices House, Only You And I
• Queen: : Good Company (Night At The Opera album played by Brian May)
• R.E.M.: E-Bow The Letter, Leave
• Radiohead: : My Iron Lung
• Red Hot Chili Peppers: Falling Into Grace, One Big Mob
• Gino Robair: Electromagnetism (EBow on snare drum)
• Scuba: The Old Man and the Boy, Ego Trip, Family Tree
• Elliott Sharp: Various
• Duncan Sheik: Barely Breathing
• The Sisters of Mercy: Marian (Version)
• Six By Seven: Spy Song
• Smashing Pumpkins: Sinfony , Where Boys, Soma, In the Arms of Sleep, Drown, Here is No Why, Daphne Descends, Believe, Hummer, Obscure, Rocket, To Forgive (live), Stand Inside Your Love (live)
• Soundgarden: Black Hole Sun, The Day I Tried To Live
• Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: Climb That Hill
• Tones On Tail: Burning Skies, When You’re Smiling, A Bigger Splash, Means Of Escape, Christian Says
• Trapezoid: Elegy: The Dry Leaves of Autumn (on hammered dulcimer)
• U2: Unforgettable Fire, With Or Without You (live)
• Steve Vai: All About Eve (Fire Garden)
• Violent Femmes: Breakin’ Up
• Carl Weingarten Cambodian Waltz, The Acoustic Shadow, Tango in Tangiers
• Wierd Al Yankovic: Syndicated Inc, Callin’ In Sick
• Yoke Shire: The Three Welcomes (all EBow), Maiden Voyage
• Frank Zappa: Filthy Habits
• Other Artists who use the EBow: Bela Fleck, Black Cat Bone, Black Oak, John Cage, Eugene Chadbourne, Cheap Trick, Ry Cooder, Pablo Cruise, Curious Voltage, Jonathan Elias, The Eric Gales Band, Steve Hackett, Djam Karet, Kiss, The Lucy Show, Steve Lynch, Les Paul, Donny Roberts, Zander Schloss, Talking Heads, Chris Proctor, Good Rats, REO Speedwagon, Tesla, Todd Rundgren, Twisted Sister, Ultra Violet, Webb Wilder