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Description
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.
Owner's manual
Heet Sound EBow User ManualVideos
PhilKeaggy
Phil Keaggy "Amazing Grace" E-Bow Demonstration
Reviews
Owner Insights
We analyzed real musician discussions from forums and Reddit to find what players love, question, and tweak about Heet Sound EBow.
Use cases and applications
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The E-Bow is often used to create long atmospheric soundscapes with delay effects, drawing inspiration from techniques like Frippertronics.
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Combining the Ebow with an octave pedal and heavy fuzz creates unique drone and ambient soundscapes, enhancing musical textures.
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Employing the Ebow with a slide and delay pedal can mimic whale-like sounds, adding to its experimental potential.
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Incorporating an Ebow with clean reverb, delay, and volume swells enriches the sound, ideal for atmospheric and ambient compositions.
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Mixing the Ebow with a fuzz effect and using the neck pickup with tone at 10 can produce a distinct tonal quality.
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Features and functionality
Comparisons
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The TC AEON offers a sturdier metal chassis and is more economical on battery life compared to the original E-Bow.
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Other
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For novelty effects, the E-Bow can mimic a buzzing insect by using a dying battery and slack-tuned low E-string, adding experimental sound possibilities.
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4.5 out of 5
Based on 19 Reviews and 158 Ratings
1871
An incredible tool
An incredible tool, but I found it very limited. Transitioning between strings was not easy. I recorded one song with it. However, playing it live was awkward and for that reason I started to play with more distortion + compressor to get my notes sustained longer, which did the job. After that, I sold the Ebow. I know people who love using it, maybe it was not right for me.
640
It's an ebow and does what ebows do
Yes - ebows are limited. You need one or you don't. I did so I got one and I love it. It does one thing pretty well. And that's about it really. Sustainiac is an option of course but it doesn't sound quite the same. If you want bagpipe sounds, an ebow is where it's at.
Bad build quality.
Had mine for ten years now, treated well and never dropped it in the ground or anything. All of the sudden it stopped working, and these things are not built to open up or fix. A fun gadget, but not worth its price at all.
41029
agreed
335
960
Kinda Dated
Yes this thing is cool for infinite 1 string bowing. But it's dated. Fernandez and Sustainiac have made improvements on the "Infinite Guitar" Sound. Neat, but you can get better features elswhere.
1312
completely agree... the Sustainiac I have installed on my Roland G202 far surpasses the ebow.
201
Sweet, sweet sustain
I use an EBow on Medicine Club's song 'Hear No, Speak No'. The ability to sustain notes, especially when combined with some delay, allows you to create incredible soundscapes which can really fill a venue/recording.
235
Something for your music toolkit
A versitile and relatively inexpensive piece of equipment to add to your music toolkit. Great for creating drones, loops, soundscapes and mimicking other instruments e.g. violin.
Artist usage
Add artist
Used for Cymatic Scan, as mentioned in the December 1994 The Wire interview "An Interview with Bill Laswell" by David Toop.
Not chord-changes music: Cymatic Scan (Fax)... "That was done really quickly. I don't think he [Tetsu Inoue] realised we were doing it. I set up a bunch of guitars and stuff, like with E-Bows. He works all analogue, so it's like Electro Harmonix pedals and a bunch of keyboards. You just set it all up and because of the effect of the pedals, they all start talking to each another. And that's incredible. It's always different. I'd set up the same with string instruments, which I never touched this way [mimics normal playing position] but I'd just do stuff with them when they were down flat. Because I had a volume pedal and primitive pedals, the pedals were doing all the talking. We did that for like an hour and then I said, 'We got it.' He's like, 'OK, I think I'm ready.' And I said, 'No, we shouldn't mess with that. That was really good.'"
Tom Bromley, guitarist for Los Campesinos!, uses a Heet Sound EBow, as evidenced by a 2010 photo of his pedal board featured on Getty Images.
Titanic uses an EBow throughout the video to create a sustain effect on the guitar tracks.
"I used it a fair bit on ‘Little Fictions’ (the track). The mayhem and craziness at the end of the song came from a wild sample that Craig found, along with me playing. I used this and a piece of hoover tubing, and the idea was to play randomly which is the most difficult thing you can do. I remember Les Dawson playing the piano badly, and later on you realise just how hard it is to actually do that! A friend said the end of the track sounds like galloping horses, and that’s something like what we were trying to get. A lot of sound creation went on in the album and the end of that track is the most obvious example of it. Everything is random on there."
Robert Randolph demonstrates the EBow at 10:35 in this Rig Rundown from Premier Guitar. “It’ll play forever this thing.”
Per the official Cloudkicker Gear List page, Ben used the Ebow on ]]][[[, Beacons, Fade, Portmanteau, The Discovery, and The Map is Not the Territory
According to Premier Guitar, Triplett uses an eBow when he needs an infinite sustain.
"Donna's pedalboard rig, referred to by her techs as "The Starship", consists of 21 pedals across 3 interconnected boards. It was built by Craig Pattison Rig Design and includes a TC Electronic Flashback Delay, Vortex Flanger and Hall Of Fame Reverb, and a BOSS Blues Driver BD-2, Flanger BF-3 and Loop Station RC-30, among others. Donna's love of feedback is evidenced in her use of an EBow, as heard on the song "ANOTHERLOVE" from Prince & 3RDEYEGIRL's debut album, PLECTRUMELECTRUM and “MR MAJESTIC” from her debut album, DIAMONDS & DYNAMITE. Most recently, Donna has been experimenting with the Empress Echosystem Dual Engine Delay that features up to 35 presets ranging from classic to obscure sounds. She uses the pedal in-stereo creating complex delays by assigning unique settings to multiple cabinets."
From Donna's website.
Album Usage
The Heet Sound EBow has been featured on the following albums:
Elemento Noches De Salón
Enjambre (2023)
Wrecked
Imagine Dragons (2021)
DIAMONDS & DYNAMITE
Donna Grantis (2019)
MR MAJESTIC
Donna Grantis (2019)
Too Shy
Kajagoogoo (2017)
Little Fictions (Fickle Flame Version)
Elbow (2017)
Weightless (Radio Edit)
Northlane (2016)
The Serenity of Suffering
Korn (2016)
Sonic Highways
Foo Fighters (2014)
The Suburbs
Arcade Fire (2010)
The Great Misdirect
Between the Buried and Me (2009)
Around The Sun
R.E.M. (2004)
There Is Nothing Left To Lose
Foo Fighters (1999)
Conspiracy #5
Third Day (1997)
The Colour And The Shape
Foo Fighters (1997)
The Division Bell
Pink Floyd (1994)
Through The Hill
Andy Partridge & Harold Budd (1994)
Superstar Car Wash
Goo Goo Dolls (1993)
Earth 2
Earth (1993)
ARE YOU NORMAL?
Ned's Atomic Dustbin (1992)
Nonsuch
XTC (1992)
Hybrid
Michael Brook (1985)
About Time
New York Gong (1980)
Paul Stanley
Paul Stanley (1978)
Go 2
XTC (1978)
Genre Usage
Based on how artists on Equipboard use this gear, it is most commonly found in the following genres.
Used With
Based on how musicians on Equipboard use Heet Sound EBow, it is most commonly used with the following gear.
Community setups
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