Bowed guitar

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Bowed guitar is a method of playing a guitar, acoustic or electric, in which the guitarist uses a bow to play the instrument, similar to playing a cello, or a viola da gamba, the latter also having six strings and frets, but tuned like a lute.

One of the first 20th century guitarists to use a bow was Eddie Phillips. His bowed guitar can be heard on The Creation's "Making Time". The bowed guitar is most famously used by Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin and The Yardbirds. Examples of Page playing a bowed guitar can be found on "Dazed and Confused" and "How Many More Times" (both of which are from the album Led Zeppelin). It is also used extensively by Jón Þór Birgisson, the vocalist and guitarist for the Icelandic Post-Rock band Sigur Rós. Jonny Greenwood, the guitarist of Radiohead plays bowed guitar on Pyramid Song to make the "whale" sounds (his brother Colin Greenwood used to make it). Jeff Martin of the Canadian rock band The Tea Party plays a bow guitar on some of his earlier songs such as "Save Me", from the album Splendor Solis.