Why do some guitars squeal better than others?

I dunno...I can get pinch harmonics super easy on both my EC-1000 and my Strat with Tex-Mex singles. The Strat I've had forever, it was my first guitar. Had the Tex-Mexs in there for quite a long time as well. I think it really does come down to technique and finding the sweet spot(s) on the guitar (picking hand). I use very low to medium gain when playing my Strat because I play blues-rock with it...yet I can pull pinches out anytime I want, and they are very prominent. I think because I've had the guitar and played it so long I have found all the sweet spots for different things, so that helps. My EC-1000 I attribute to the same reasons.

~006
 
Djabthrash said:
+1

Guys when you were talking about the "sweet spot", you mean the fretting hand sweet spot or the picking hand sweet spot (like beyond dead mentioned) ?
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the picking hand bro. fret hand only controls vibrato.

another notable harmonic technique involves letting the unaffected note ring out with vibrato, then sound the harmonic with the knuckle of your thumb around the 21st fret. instant zakk wylde!

its also cool to bend the string and sound the harmonic while releasing the bend (kinda like the end of the lead at the beginning of tomorrow turned into yesterday)
 
...which would come with familiarity with that particular guitar and technique, since you would also need to know how to pull them off in addition to knowing the sweet spots. In other words, to me, that would come down to technique and not necessarily anything in particular about the guitar itself.

~006
 
Metaltastic said:
Actually a "3x 16th notes / 1x 16th note rest" lick, not a triplet lick ;)
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didn't mean it like that, I just like to group the three's like that. :p it IS triplets, not dududuu dududuu, but each triplet group alternates between a down and a up stroke :) if I meant that "gallop" thing I'd written d-u-d d-u-d (see the two spaces there, uhm no, sorry, need to use the code /code code here ehm) :p but still, hope you get my point, I really did mean triplets and not the "gallop" thing :)

Wolfeman said:
Vista is the most kickass operating system I've used(well a few linux distros are better). I have come to realize that everyones hate of it comes from misinformation and user error. I've never had an issue and it runs much more efficient that XP ever did for me. But to each their own
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Isn't "most" problems with different OSs due to user error and misinformation? :)
 
Noumenon said:
didn't mean it like that, I just like to group the three's like that. :p it IS triplets, not dududuu dududuu, but each triplet group alternates between a down and a up stroke :) if I meant that "gallop" thing I'd written d-u-d d-u-d (see the two spaces there, uhm no, sorry, need to use the code /code code here ehm) :p but still, hope you get my point, I really did mean triplets and not the "gallop" thing :)
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Don't worry dude, I was actually responding to Djabthrash when I said that cuz he gave the Reign in Blood "gallop-on-the-downbeat" riff - I figured you meant actual triplets :)
 
006 said:
...which would come with familiarity with that particular guitar and technique, since you would also need to know how to pull them off in addition to knowing the sweet spots. In other words, to me, that would come down to technique and necessarily anything in particular about the guitar itself.

~006
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+1 the secret behind screaming pinch harmonics is not choking the harmonic when you do vibrato. let that sucka ring out. that being said, i can barely pull off a squeal on the low b string, 3rd fret on a schecter omen 7, but i can do a bitchin squeal on any guitar with a floyd... this is because the nodes are in a familiar location, give me a a tune o matic and im fucked lol
 
like a lot of people mentioned, technique and knowing the exact spot to hit is key...but i'd say that if the same person is getting completely different results with different guitars, the pickups would probably be the greatest factor
 
I dunno man, like I said I can pull them off easily on my Strat with single coils and using medium gain. But I could definitely say I agree with you somewhat on that.

~006
 
There is also some mindfucking in this i guess... I mean people don't like their squeals on an amp which is set on clean ;) I don't like my squeals on my peavey 5150 when the preamp is on 2. Turning it up makes the squeals more exciting. But the actual pinch harmonic i'm doing is the same, so the sound from the guitar is the same, and from the pick-up is the same. So there goes the amp as well.

I think we all agree that it's everything that has to do with cooler pinch harmonics. And maybe there's a bit of personal flavour added as well. But i still stand point @ pups @ amp. Since even a sucky player can make a pinch harmonic on emg equiped guitars with an amp going wild. It would sound like a total mess though but hey ;)
 
I have a basswood Jackson and a mahogany Ovation, and with both guitars unplugged, using the exact same pick, it's easier to get squeals out of the Jackson. I don't think it's a sweet spot thing either; when I get used to the Ovation and then switch the pinch harmonics immediately get easier, even though the Jackson still feels kind of weird (i.e. I haven't settled into the "sweet spot" at all). So yeah, I'd say the wood definitely has something to do with it (along with pickups, amps, technique, volume, etc.).
 
Whoever said it was everything that contributed to it was right, but I still think that a lot is string tension and height. Whoever it was telling me that killswitch are in C and they still get awesome pinches missed the point, drop A was an example of low string tension tuning, so pinches are easy thus illustrating my point, I'm not saying play in drop A or your pinches willl suck the scrotum of a leapord, it was just an example.

I think more importantly, experimentation is needed to find the optimum pinching setup and you need to know where the sweet spot is on the guitar. Basicaly, what I guess everyone is saying is that there are so many factors that there isn't really an answer, just experiment to find those bitchin' pinches :)

Joe
 
Although I beleive that the secret to good pinch harmonics is technique, is there a specific frequency spot that can be boosted with eq to accenuate them?
 
You shouldn't have to accentuate them...if everything is done correctly they should just pop the fuck out :lol:

But, some amps do them a little better than others. I know somebody who recently went with 1 of 2 tones he got on his POD simply because one sounded better on squeals than the other.

~006
 
Yeah, I'll +1 that, I've definitely had an easier time making the pinches X-PLODE on some amps than others - a big part of it is how much gain you can get away with, cuz moar gain = moar compression, so the squeals are boosted
 
As far as pinch harmonics go with all of my guitars I have noticed a difference between them. It mostly has to do with scale length from what I can tell (the distance between the bridge and the nut). The scale distance affects where your right hand has to be when you pick a harmonic based on what note your left hand is fretting. Higher gain can make them pop out easier but if you can't get them to be audible with no gain (amp totally clean) or low gain, it makes it harder to do it in any situation. I have determined based on where my pickups are on each guitar, relative positions where I need to be picking the pinch harmonic. I basically use the pick ups as a guide to where my right hand needs to be in relation to note I'm playing.

With anything on guitar it takes repetitious practice and I would definitely say, you can easily annoy your self and others around you practicing this technique.

But in my playing, the right hand does the majority of the work in enabling this sound. The higher the note you are fretting, the closer your right hand should be towards the bridge and vice verse, the lower the note, it moves further away. Practice is what got me there. Annoying friends, relatives, and my self was the by-product but I can take any fret on the guitar, any string, any gain level and pop them out.

Edit* I was in a couple bands with Jim from Arsis and this is kinda what I learned off of him when I was younger. He has phenominal pinch harmonics and left hand power vibrato. You hear it reserved in most of his solos but he is a shred guitar monster. His tape collection (its fucking epic, haha) that was in his mom's house is like nothing but Dokken, Lynch Mob, Greg Howe and stuff of similar influence.
 
colonel kurtz said:
like a lot of people mentioned, technique and knowing the exact spot to hit is key...but i'd say that if the same person is getting completely different results with different guitars, the pickups would probably be the greatest factor
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That was what i was saying... But i would also agree that knowing the sweet spots is important. I don't think that there is a magic piece of gear
 
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