Romeo's tapping

[epwspower]

Ok, there's one thing that I have difficultly trying to accomplish on the guitar, and it's Romeo's insane tapping. Now, anyone can pull of Van Halen style tapping and that sort, but Romeo's (along with other great guitarists like vai) requires a higher skill level.

My main question is - how does he make it sound SO clean? When you tap using the method of skipping strings (Romeo's infamous dimished scale tapping), you tend to create extra unnecessary noise along with tapping, which makes it sound like shit (I assume you guitarists out there have already come across this issue before). Sometimes the additional noise is loud enough that I cannot see any kind of noise gate stopping it without hurting the sound you're trying to create (but I don't own a noise suppressor, so I wouldn't know).

So my question is, what's the secret to clean, amazing tapping, without the additional distorted crap in the background??? ALSO, what's this about Romeo's string damponers or something? What is it made of, and how can I make one?

 

[Meedleyx10]

first off, a noise gate/suppressor wont help this kind of thing. They are used to cut noise when you are not playing (so your amp isn't hissing between songs or during a guitar break....things like that).

Also, I don't think Romeo uses any kind of dampener....not in any photos, video, or when I saw them live at least. Maybe you are thinking of Michael Angelo Batio? He has a string dampening tool that he sells on his website, where you could probably find more info.

As far as getting the taps clean....it's all about muting. Position your right hand (assuming you are right handed....so your tapping hand) so that it is resting on and muting the strings below the one you are tapping on at any given time. Then, arch your left hand fingers so that their underside is muting the strings higher than the one you are playing on. Once you feel comfortable doing this on one string, practice it with adjacent strings. Then go on to the string skipping stuff. Make sure you are starting off very slow so that you can correct any issues that are causing unwanted noise. Once you have it down solid, speed it up a bit and do the same thing. Repeat this until you get to the desired tempo. The muting is what trips most people up when they are starting with this technique so pay lots of attention to that.

 

[SyXified]

I would have to agree about the muting 100% being the most important. When I first was approaching some of the MJR tapping stuff it really was like a completely different level than any previous tapping (even some Steve Vai stuff I had learned couldn't compare). The first riff I was able to actually get a handle on was the opening solo in Of Sins and Shadows, and I remember when I started, it basically sounded like noisy mush. The weird thing about muting is that it's often not about learning how to mute 'on the whole', it's about learning exactly how to mute the specific lick at hand. You need to assess the individual lick and figure out a way of rolling your wrist/working with your tapping hand that will be exactly the same every time you play the lick.

Also, being very mechanical in your movements helps - the more aware you are of how and where you are going to move, the less unregulated noise is going to occur.

One other thing worth mentioning. MJR does not tap with his middle finger, he taps with his index finger by sliding the pick into the groove between where the middle finger meets the hand and inside of the first knuckle to sort of pinch it into place to be kept while tapping. The index finger has WAY more control, but what really becomes advantageous about this technique is how much of an improved position your tapping hand is in to mute. You end up almost in a grabbing position that is easy to manipulate relative to the tapping. Ever since I noticed that and started doing it my MJR tapping improved ten fold. And, it doesn't even take that long to get that pick transition down (surprisingly).

 

[epwspower]

that's very helpful thank you.
I always wondered why romeo moved his pick to tap with his index finger. I always thought it was an unnecessary addition, but I guess not.