john Posted January 7, 2004 Report Share Posted January 7, 2004 how do i get that lovely sustaining feedback from my guitar. bear in mind ive only tried in on my h-s-s squier with a practice amp but each time i do, well lest just say the amp has to be VERY LOUD!! (which causes microphonic feedback). If you dont know what i mean listen to the start of animal by def leppard and you`ll get my drift. any hints/tips? p.s please bear in mind also that i am a crap guitar player. thanks. john. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeB Posted January 7, 2004 Report Share Posted January 7, 2004 are you trying to get this sound at a low sound level? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weezerboy Posted January 7, 2004 Report Share Posted January 7, 2004 aah the quest that i've found myself on too many times..... obviously, lots of fuzzy gain and getting near to the amp helps...and ebow would work wonders but at £80 its a bit pricey..try these pinch harmonics-theres info on these on the forum somewhere tap back of the neck-tap your fingers on the back of the neck to start the growling feedback going hit the body of the guitar beat the f*ck outta it and so on and so forth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeB Posted January 7, 2004 Report Share Posted January 7, 2004 pinch harmonics fade out too quickly i find, unless there is the sound pressure to cause feedback. i find natural harmonics work much better! try 12th 7th and 5th fret harmonics. i think 7th works well. gain to the max!! mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wylde1919 Posted January 7, 2004 Report Share Posted January 7, 2004 dont forget that where you are standing and the position of your guitar has an effect on the feedback as well! move around a little bit!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weezerboy Posted January 7, 2004 Report Share Posted January 7, 2004 sorry i meant natural harmonics but i was getting some bad news at the same time as writing that my plan was to write something similar to a thing that i found in the nirvana songbook.... here it is: SOME NOTES ON FEEDBACK AND NOISEMAKING When It came to making noise using nothing but his guitar, Kurt Cobain was a geinus. In fact, IMHO, the only person who I have seen make BETTER noise would have to be Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth. It would impossible to accuratly re-create alot of the sounds that Kurt achives with his guitar (ie. Endless Nameless, Radio Friendly Unit Shifter, Gallons...), since alot of it was improvised. This is why this book may actually be better than published tabs...they actually try to tab noise jams like the RFUS outro and the Scentless Apperentice solo, and it is very frustrating when you are doing exactly what the book tells you and it still sounds wrong. My solution to this problem: create your own feedback. As you may or may not know, feedback is that ringing noise that occurs when you play at a high volume, or play too close to the amp, or leave your guitar sitting next to the amp when it is still turned on. There is some scientific explination for this, like it makes the coils in the pickups vibrate, or something like that. Basically, it occurs in strange situations when you don't want it, but when you DO want it it is a pain in the ass to get! There are several techniques that I use that produce decent feedback/noise. One is bending. I find that if you do a double bend on your high E and B strings anywhere above the 10th fret (as you see in Endless Nameless), it will be loud and ring, and (if you're lucky) echo. Another is harmonics. Feedback will usually occur instantly when you strike a high pitched harmonic. This is quite effective when you have to come up with a certain pitched feedback, if you can remember which harmonics make which pitches. It doesn't work as well with 12th and 7th fret harmonics, though. If you want GOOD feedback, go for 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 9th fret harmonics. Sometimes, depeniding on the kind of guitar you have, you will be able to take harmonics above the pickups. If you are able to do this, go for it, cause you can't really get any more high pitched than that! One method I have seen Kurt do in concert (you can witness this before Breed on the MTV Live And Loud vid) that is quite effective is tapping the back of the neck. You should try hitting the upper neck with either your pick or fingers, behind the first or second fret. If the destortion is high enough, it will produce a cool sounding rumbling noise at first, then become screeching feedback. Another technique used in Oh The Guilt is picking the strings above the nut or below the bridge. It produces various high-pitched rings, which produce excellent feedback. However, the strings must be struck somewhat hard, or the sound may not be picked up. If you would like to use the natural approach, simply turn up the volume on your amp. It will eventually start ringing, and as you move your guitar around in different positions the pitch will change. If you're lucky, you may actually be able to pick up radio stations with this method! Two things you should be aware of when doing this are: 1) Feedback occurs much more readily when the pickups are facing away from the amp. An easy thing to do is take off your guitar and place it up against the cabinet with the strings facing outward. This would save lots of waiting. 2) Different pickups create different pitch feedback. You may want to try using your pickup switch, especially if you have a strat or a strat imitation. This can produce anything from a low growl to a high scream. Again, you should expariment on your own. There are various other noisemaking methods...so many that I will not be able to list them all. Two that must not be ignored, however, are the whammy bar and the pick scrape. The whammy bar is probably the most useful tool in producing noise. What it is is a bar attached to the bridge of the guitar which, when depressed, lowers the pitch of the strings by raising the bridge. You can hear this in action at the end of Stay Away, where Kurt drops the strings as far as they go, raises them, and drops them again and again. However, dropping the pitch of the strings is only one use for the whammy bar, as it can be used to make exaggerated vibratos and other such noises. Depending on what model guitar you have, the whammy bar will be built differently. On strat models, the bridge is pretty well attached to the guitar, and the bar will only be able to lower the pitch. However, on Ibanezes, the bridge is just sorta floating there, so the whammy bar can be used both ways...raising AND lowering the pitch. There is really not a hell of lot I can say about HOW to use this as it isn't a very complicated tool. (It has two positions...up and down. How much more simple can it be??) You hould just fool around with your own and get familiar with it and the noises it can make and soon you will be able to produce decent noise with it. Pick scrapes are very underrated, as they seem to produce one kind of noise. Actually, there are many things you can do with pick scrapes aside from just scraping the low E or A strings and making the same old usual sound. One is scraping actually above the pickups (which Kurt does at the end of Heart Shaped Box) which produces a more high pitched sound. Another is using the same top to bottom method on your higher strings (B and high E). Or you could just scrape all the strings over the pickups. This is another method that must be exparimented with so that you can come up sounds that you like. Of course there are various other methods that Kurt used that I'm not going to get into, basically because my knowledge of feedback and noisemaking is very limited compared to his. However, this should provide you with somewhat of a guide so that you too can make noise with your guitar! whoah thats quite long..try and ignore all the nirvana references etc..i found it quite useful though... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeB Posted January 7, 2004 Report Share Posted January 7, 2004 woah, weeze did you type all that out!!! props if you did!! that description seemed to make noisemaking seem slightly scientific, lmao!! just arse about on the guitar and see what you can do, this is what Kurt did i think. i think one of the living noise masters is Tom Morello and Matt Bellamy is pretty good! lets not forget Vai, but i was talking about humans! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krazyderek Posted January 7, 2004 Report Share Posted January 7, 2004 nice book there weeze you can get different types of feedback by gently plucking a string and standing in certain directions in relation to where your amp is EDIT: by different types i mean different notes in the overtones... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weezerboy Posted January 7, 2004 Report Share Posted January 7, 2004 @tom morello: lots of talent but mostly just effects and mods to his guitar @matt belamy: guitar with built in fuzz factory, compressor, mod'd fernandes sustainer, phaser, piezo pickup, and lots of talent but its mostly their gear..give them both an acoustic guitar and see what the can do! re: the artical...did i write that? maybe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted January 7, 2004 Report Share Posted January 7, 2004 volume,baby! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryeisnotcool2 Posted January 8, 2004 Report Share Posted January 8, 2004 volume and a good guitar! oh and a good amp! imo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Speedy McFeely Posted January 8, 2004 Report Share Posted January 8, 2004 volume, and 15 distortion pedals all cranked, then throw your axe right at the amp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fidgec94 Posted January 8, 2004 Report Share Posted January 8, 2004 1.Drop guitar on foot 2.Wait for the intense scream Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saber Posted January 8, 2004 Report Share Posted January 8, 2004 You can use a wah to home in on the frequency that you want to feed back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john Posted January 9, 2004 Author Report Share Posted January 9, 2004 volume,baby! hmm... it figures... just have to go louder! thanks guys. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curtis P Posted January 10, 2004 Report Share Posted January 10, 2004 in my distortion pedal, i crank the volume up in it, full distortion, and set the colour levels up (over to right all the way, makes it funky, kinda electric) and then just dont touch the strings and i get huge feed back, then, in the famous move of my friend, hand on back of neck, other on front of bottom wing and press neck up, wing down while ni feedback Curtis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DannoG Posted January 10, 2004 Report Share Posted January 10, 2004 Once we had some squirrels that had gotten into the walls of our house. After trying a number of things recommended by pest control guys, I put one amp against the wall where I had heard them moving and another facing a heating duct nearby. Then I tried playing the most loud, discordant, squealing feedback-racked frenzy my sad chops are capable off. Kinda fun by itself (weird reverb-type tones from the heating system) and the little bastards cleared out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FajiiNako Posted January 10, 2004 Report Share Posted January 10, 2004 Or you can do what i did on my RG250DX with the duncans, and do a bad wiring job It'll play beautifully, but sometimes i'll put my hand on the strings, and end up shattering glass with the amount of feed back i get >.O Its because i accidently burnt the white wire and now it touches the bare wire. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reaper Posted January 10, 2004 Report Share Posted January 10, 2004 Once we had some squirrels that had gotten into the walls of our house. After trying a number of things recommended by pest control guys, I put one amp against the wall where I had heard them moving and another facing a heating duct nearby. Then I tried playing the most loud, discordant, squealing feedback-racked frenzy my sad chops are capable off. Kinda fun by itself (weird reverb-type tones from the heating system) and the little bastards cleared out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob Posted January 10, 2004 Report Share Posted January 10, 2004 @tom morello: lots of talent but mostly just effects and mods to his guitar @matt belamy: guitar with built in fuzz factory, compressor, mod'd fernandes sustainer, phaser, piezo pickup, and lots of talent but its mostly their gear..give them both an acoustic guitar and see what the can do! Tom morello is doing some political acoustic thing, hmmm i forgotton what its call but hes spost to be pretty good and matt belamy doesent need an acoustic guitar to do some thing good, he cn play some kick ass piano too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weezerboy Posted January 11, 2004 Report Share Posted January 11, 2004 i was making the point that they're signature sounds rely more on effects that on technique Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StreamLine Posted January 15, 2004 Report Share Posted January 15, 2004 what i do is give the guitar body a light slap/knock while not holding strings, and this will cause them vibrate, and voila, feedback. i saw slash do this, so picked it up from him Roman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IWishICouldShred Posted January 15, 2004 Report Share Posted January 15, 2004 step one- turn amp up step two- stand next to it this will give you a more high pitched, atonal feedback, as compared to the residual string vibrations method whic gives you a harmonic feedback vaguely reminiscent of an ebow. (do what streamline said to get that one) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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