A plucked guitar string loses most of its energy within a few seconds, which is the central problem for anyone who wants a guitar drone. Every technique in this article is a different answer to it: drive the string electromagnetically, let the amplifier feed the vibration back, tune the instrument so that open strings ring as a chord, or capture the sound and extend it electronically. Each answer also leaves a recognizable sound, and the records built on them, from Robert Fripp and Brian Eno to Earth and Sunn O))), map much of the history of guitar-based drone. The practical introduction in how to make drone music covers the broader toolkit, while this guide stays with the six strings.
The EBow: sustain without picking
The EBow is a handheld device that vibrates a string without touching it. Its inventor, Greg Heet, described it to MusicRadar as an oscillating magnetic field focused on a single string, which sets the string in motion and sustains the note without any picking. According to the same article, Heet built his first working energy bow in 1969 and the first handheld version in 1974, and the device debuted at the 1976 NAMM Show in Chicago.
Its limitation shapes its sound. It drives one string at a time, so a chord typically has to be built note by note, with overdubs or a looper. MusicRadar notes that the sustained tone can imitate instruments such as violin and cello. MusicRadar lists The Edge’s use on U2’s The Unforgettable Fire, from 1984, among its best-known pop applications. For drone, the more relevant case is Earth’s Earth 2. According to a Stranger feature on the album, which came out on Sub Pop in early 1993, the base layer was two EBow-played guitar and bass drones, with multitracked riffs added over them. There was no drummer, and the piece is split into three parts because the band was recording to two-inch tape at 15 inches per second, which allowed about 30 minutes per reel. The record is described in the Earth 2 entry, and the group’s trajectory in the Earth entry, with Dylan Carlson as its central figure.
Feedback as a playable instrument
Feedback is a loop. The amplifier’s sound reaches the strings, the strings vibrate, the pickup converts that vibration back into signal, and the amplifier plays it again. Mixdown magazine distinguishes between microphonic feedback, the unwanted high squeal caused by loose pickup windings, and harmonic feedback, which is driven by the string itself and is the useful kind. Its advice for control is practical: raise gain and volume, add a boost, compressor or EQ to make the loop easier to start, and set the system near the threshold so it does not howl constantly. Distance matters too, since a guitar held close to the amplifier receives enough sound energy to start the loop, and body movement and guitar position also change the result.
Sunn O))) turned this into a method. In a 2014 Premier Guitar profile, Greg Anderson insists that the low drones are not squeals but come from the interaction between guitar and amp, combined with manipulation. The band uses vintage early-1970s Sunn Model T heads alongside Ampeg SVT bass amps, and the Pro Co RAT distortion pedal feeds the amp as the main source of sustain. Anderson says the sound must be pushed, and the guitarists sometimes press the headstock against the cabinet. Stephen O’Malley adds reverb, such as a Roland Space Echo, in quieter passages. Anderson says there are no other tricks. Readers following that lineage can continue with drone metal explained and the glossary entries for Sunn O))) and Stephen O’Malley.
Open tunings and the string that never stops
A second solution is to change the instrument itself. A reference page on alternate tunings explains that when a tuning’s strings form a simple chord, it is called an open tuning. Open strings can then sustain as drones, with lower strings acting as the drone when the melody sits in the treble. The same source notes that harmonics at the 12th, 7th and 5th frets sound full across all six strings, which is useful for shimmering high partials above a low pedal note. Open D, for example, contains three D strings and two A strings, so the tuning has a built-in fifth and an octave-doubled root.
Rhys Chatham’s Guitar Trio, from 1977, is the classic composition in this area. According to a Table of the Elements writeup that draws on essays and a Pitchfork review, the piece is built around a single chord using a special tuning, begins with an open low E string, and relies on overtones that bounce against each other to form a dense shimmering texture. Guitarists enter one at a time, and the work moves from open strings to the top three strings, then all six. It shows that a guitar drone does not have to be slow or quiet, and it connects to the long-note tradition traced in compositional approaches in drone music.
Tape loops and the Frippertronics method
Looping was the first way of extending a guitar note without touching the string. Robert Fripp’s Frippertronics used two Revox reel-to-reel tape recorders, with the tape running from one machine to the other and the second machine’s output fed back into the first. According to Guitar Player, the distance between the decks set a delay of several seconds, and the feedback built a dense ambient drone of past and present sound. The idea came from Terry Riley’s Time Lag Accumulator through Brian Eno’s setup. Eno invited Fripp to his studio in 1972, and the results appeared on No Pussyfooting in 1973. Fripp described the system as a way for one person to make a great deal of noise. By 1986 he was using an Electro-Harmonix 16 Second Digital Delay, which the manufacturer advertised as a “Fripp in the Box.”
The principle has survived the machines. A looper records a phrase and replays it, while the performer layers new material over it. Modern loop pedals work on the same principle, and the approach connects with the self-running logic of Eno’s own Discreet Music. The Brian Eno entry has the wider context.
Freeze and sustain pedals
Digital pedals made the tape trick portable. Paul White’s Sound On Sound review of the Electro-Harmonix Freeze, published in December 2010, explains that triggering the pedal during a chord’s decay loops that short slice of sound into a smooth, indefinite, organ-like drone. The dry signal always passes through at normal level, so the player can continue over the frozen sound. A three-way switch chooses between fast and slow momentary modes and a latch mode, in which the drone continues after the footswitch is released. White recommends waiting about a second after playing the chord before pressing the switch to get the smoothest loop, and he notes that modulation or delay can be added afterward to add movement.
Freeze-style pedals differ from the EBow in an important way. They do not generate sustain from the string but resample it, so the drone is a static slice, not a living vibration. That can sound artificial or very pure, depending on the context. A practical combination is to play the chord on an open tuning, freeze it, and then improvise a slow second voice over the top.
Combining the tools
Most guitar drone work mixes these approaches. An EBow can supply the held bottom layer while a freeze pedal holds a chord and an amplifier produces feedback on top. Plenty of players also start with tuning alone, using an open tuning and a clean amplifier, because the guitar then drones even before any effect is added.
Listening is the best way to learn the differences, and the recommended albums in the essential drone music albums guide include several built on these techniques. For another approach to sustained electronic sources, modular synth drone shows how the same ideas look when the string is replaced by an oscillator.
