feedback

[john]

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.

[MikeB]

are you trying to get this sound at a low sound level?

[weezerboy]

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

[MikeB]

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

[wylde1919]

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!!

[weezerboy]

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...

[MikeB]

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!

[krazyderek]

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...

[weezerboy]

@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

[westhemann]

volume,baby!

[ryeisnotcool2]

volume and a good guitar! oh and a good amp! imo

[Speedy McFeely]

volume, and 15 distortion pedals all cranked, then throw your axe right at the amp.

[fidgec94]

1.Drop guitar on foot

2.Wait for the intense scream

[Saber]

You can use a wah to home in on the frequency that you want to feed back.

[john]

volume,baby!

hmm... it figures...

just have to go louder!

thanks guys.

[Curtis P]

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

[DannoG]

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.

[FajiiNako]

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.

[Reaper]

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.

[rob]

@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!

[weezerboy]

i was making the point that they're signature sounds rely more on effects that on technique

[StreamLine]

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

[IWishICouldShred]

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)