Ebow Electronic Bow

Bought eBow as an experiment. Early days yet but first impressions using with an American Standard Stratocaster into a Marshall Valvestate is it's quite tricky to get the positioning and technique right and I will need a lot more practice to be able to use it in a live performance. Maybe one of my other guitar/ amp combinations will prove more successful?

Anyone who owns a capo and a blues bottle should have one of these. I actually had one stolen at a gig a while back which prompted its replacement. Although you wouldn't want to use it all that often and the technique takes a while to master, it really is quite a striking effect - infinite sustain that can sound spooky, or vocal, or synthy, or like reverse delay. Looks pretty cool too, with a little blue LED that helps you get the position of the unit aligned properly with the strings and pickups - which you really need to do. Particularly interesting is the setting that emphasises harmonics. Two small gripes - the price, which is a bit tasty for something so easy to steal, and the quality of the switch, which is a bit naff.

Novel idea from picking and strumming .Great sounds and with practice always finding new tones.

I bought the eBow after seeing Eddie Vedder using it in Pearl Jam's song Wishlist when I saw them live. I had no idea how to use it or even how to turn it on. That weekend I used it to blag through the Seven Nation Army solo and even create some serious crazy noises. Once you've thrown the manual away and just had a go its pretty easy to pick up the basics.

As well as using it with the SG, I even have a go on the acoustic when I'm at home, turning it into a cello which, to be fair, annoys the Mrs after a while.

In summary, I could live without it but knowing its in my guitar bag makes me want to use it at every gig. A great product if you're looking to bring something different to your sound.

A great product purchased from a great site, speedy delivery and excellent customer service. Andertons delivers yet another flawless transaction. Thanks Guys, I'll be back

There aren't many things that can give you a fundamentally new way of playing the guitar. There's a slide, for the fretting hand, but what of the picking hand? Well, there's the Ebow.

The Ebow is a plastic device looking something like a bent capital L, or perhaps a tiny wood-plane. You switch it on (a 9v battery is required) and hold it over a guitar string to make the string vibrate constantly, to provide an even tone. There are in fact two switch settings, one of which gives more "harmonic richness" than the other. (To my ears it basically adds an octave above the note you're playing, something like the sound you get holding a note and letting it feedback.) The Ebow's aim was to produce something a bit like a violin bow's smoothness on a guitar string, and it seems to work. (Go to Ebow's website for some videos of people using it, and you'll get an idea. Or just listen to Bowie's "Heroes".)

I had a basic idea of what the Ebow was before I got it, but on removing it from the box and trying it out, I learned a few things. One is that the Ebow sits above one string at a time (I thought it might do multiple strings at once). It in fact has two plastic guides (grooves) that sit on the strings either side of the string you're playing, thus positioning the Ebow in the right place, but also muting the strings either side. (This also means it takes a little bit more practice to sit the Ebow over the top or bottom E strings, as there, they'll only be sitting on one support string.) These guides also make it more difficult to move from string to the other. In fact, at first I thought it would be impossible, till I saw some of the videos on Ebow's website, and realised you can make some quite wonderful arpeggio effects by moving the Ebow quickly over all the strings. It just takes a bit of practice.

So, the Ebow can add a whole new string to your bow (pardon the pun) as a guitarist. Like all things guitar, it benefits from a little bit of practice, but you'll still be able to do some lovely long-sustain single-string playing with the Ebow straight out of the box.