Primal Posted April 17, 2006 Report Share Posted April 17, 2006 I was just curious if anyone has any tips on getting good feedback. I know that feedback can be influenced by many different things (speaker placement, guitar, volume, etc), however I am having troubling getting harmonic feedback. About 95% of my feedback ends in a very sterile, high pitched squeeling note. I'm looking for the sort of feedback that Adam Jones from Tool has mastered. Hopefully at least some of it will be technique and something I can learn on my current setup. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erikbojerik Posted April 17, 2006 Report Share Posted April 17, 2006 If you're going through any type of ditigal modelling FX, it can be more difficult to get the "good" feedback. The amp gain itself should be pretty high. Use the amp's distortion if you can. Tube amps seem (to my ear at least) to produce a nicer feedback than SS amps. But to each his own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Primal Posted April 18, 2006 Author Report Share Posted April 18, 2006 Right now I'm using my bass rig (which actually sounds far better than I ever thought it would for bass). Its a Trace Elliot 100w head and a Behringer 2x10" cab with aluminum cones. For distortion, I use a Boss Bass overdrive (again, much better than I thought it would be) and a Big Muff as a boost (which is what I use when I want feedback). It may very well be that my gear isn't well suited to feedback, but if at all possible I'd like to get what I can out of it, haha. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pr3Va1L Posted April 18, 2006 Report Share Posted April 18, 2006 well, a trem seems to help a lot for me... Just a little bit to keep the squeel down... Then again I wouldn't really think your gear help you very much lol. Anyways, try to get pretty close to your amp, make sure your pickups are potted (lol, it kinda help!) and experiment... not much else I can offer really. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregP Posted April 18, 2006 Report Share Posted April 18, 2006 There's nothing special to know-- the "good" feedback is caused by the speaker vibrating the string, which causes a signal to be fed to the speaker, which in turn vibrates the string, which causes a signal to be sent to the speaker... well, you get the point. In other words, it will never have any better or worse potential than the setup being used. If you have an FX-laden setup for your normal playing, this'll probably translate into weird feedback, too. It really SHOULD just be a "sterile" note, but therein lies the fun. Bending, changing the angle at which you're holding the guitar... moving a bit to the left or right... forward or back... these are the things that cause another string to "sympathize" more easily. So it's about moving around and repositioning the guitar, really... and as one note begins to take over from another note, the beauty evolves. On top of that, I think that a healthy dose of a nice long delay line is handy. When the note is static, it becomes the "sterile" note you refer to, but bending strings and repositioning create a more interesting "layer" in the delay line as the new fed-back notes take over. Greg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Primal Posted April 18, 2006 Author Report Share Posted April 18, 2006 Yea, the delay might be a good technique. But I'm mostly looking for a way to get a good harmonic feedback. I also just realized something. It might be that my pickups are unpotted. I have stock Epi buckers in my Epi LP, and they may be going microphonic on me... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weezerboy Posted April 18, 2006 Report Share Posted April 18, 2006 i just stick my wah in a position, leave it there, and let the good times roll. failing that, i stand on my boss feedbacker-distortion Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregP Posted April 18, 2006 Report Share Posted April 18, 2006 Yea, the delay might be a good technique. But I'm mostly looking for a way to get a good harmonic feedback. I also just realized something. It might be that my pickups are unpotted. I have stock Epi buckers in my Epi LP, and they may be going microphonic on me... The "harmonic" feedback you're looking for IS the same kind I'm discussing-- sympathetic feedback. If you're standing in the right position and at the right angle, your string will vibrate in harmonic intervals rather than simply the full string at once. Unpotted pickups "squealing" is definitely undesirable and is microphonic rather than sympathetic feedback, which isn't good. Greg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radrobgray Posted April 18, 2006 Report Share Posted April 18, 2006 you could just get a sustainer wiht a harmonic mode.(sustaniac) or touch the head stock to the cab and it will help that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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