Why do some guitars squeal better than others?

[scorpio01169]

i have an idea...every post a clip of their best pinch harmonic and lets decide who does it best

 

[006]

 

[Suicide_As_Alibi]

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

Not necessarily - different scale lengths (even tiny ones) move where the nodes are, as their positions are relative to the total string length. They're also affected by where they are in relation to the pickups - if a node is directly over a pickup, that pickup won't register it very well as the node is effectively the end point of the vibration (with the fretted note being the other end), so there's no vibration for the p'up to 'hear'. That's why neck pickups are never as squealy as bridge ones.

In truth though, it's a combination of the nodes and the p'ups - pinched harmonics are whichever overtone of the fundamental (the fretted note) happens to have it's node is at the point where you play it. They're quieter than normal notes because there's no fundamental. If the overtones are in a frequency range that your pickups are lacking in, the harmonic won't sound as strong. EMGs squeal everywhere because they've got a pretty loud, flat high range, whereas my SD Jazz sucks for them because it's lacking in high-end. On a couple of notes though, it's blindingly good because it just happens to be an overtone the pickup likes. On lower tunings, the overtones are lower too, so they're more likely to be in the right range for pickups.

The Wiki page probably explains it better than me: Pinch Harmonics

Steve