@@tassiegamer4516 well, you can max gain a vox ac30 and a peavey 6505 and get completely different gain structures. so amps do matter, too if you don't have access to a distortion pedal
Not really, I do pinch harmonics on my acoustic and they sound pretty good. Just gotta hit the right spot. Edit: having gain will make it easier to find that spot for a beginner.
I'm not super good at them but I used to practice them on acoustic guitars because if you can do it on an acoustic then you can do it with any amount of gain
right hand position is the most important. Ill see people try to squeal over and over without moving the picking hand. Find those places where the pinch hits better, and muscle memorize them
Yep, this and angle of the pick. I play with Fishmann fluences and the the perfect place is like a ½ an inch back from the actual pickup itself. I just pick kinda "down and out" as in angle my hand down to hit with my thumb and away from the neck pickup to add more contact (which tends to give the squeal more attack). Jazz III picks also help A TON
💯...I can get it with no amp..I just grabbed my guitar to be sure and yeah. Squealies with no amp. It's your position on your right hand and a good vibrato/slight bend on fretting hand.
Your tone matters a lot with this technique. Many people have already got it down but don't realize it because they're using a low gain tone and the volume on their guitar is down at like a 3. High volume high gain is the key.
Roy Buchanan riffs... nice. The extra push from the humbuckers definitely sounded clearer and more like the pinch harmonics were full notes. Neat comparison.
@@geraldfriend256 Man, I envy you! I was born after he died so I never got the chance to see him. Hearing his version of Hey Joe on the "That's what I'm here for" LP pretty much started my musical awakening. Introducing me to blues and more "obscure" musicians.
@@andreboden1437 Roy had a bag of tricks, man. Those two octave pinch harmonics on the treble strings would hurt your feelings. He completely slackened his low E and bent it for two minutes like a maniac .Him and the late great Jeff Beck are my two favorite.
from my experience, it's a mixture of having a good metal amp that can actually dish out the high squeals, and having the right positioning on your strumming hand. there's sweet spots for different pitches of pinch harmonics and you need to be able to get them down if you wanna get good :]
For big squeals lots of gain and maybe not a single coil will definitely get you closer. Something that people also don’t tell you is that each guitar and each pickup has a sweet spot for pinch harmonics, so if you’re not getting strong harmonics you can adjust where your pick attacks the string. Different places on the string will also give you different versions of pinch harmonics so there’s a lot to fool around with when it comes to nuance and the ideal sound you’re looking for
As someone else has already said, position of picking hand is important. Think of artificial/tapped harmonics. They will only sound at nodal points. You don't have frets to show where the harmonic is so you need to practise judging where those points are for each note
Absolutely! Just by changing the position of your thumb of your picking hand along the string, new pinch sounds are possible. I think one mistake some guitarists make is always pinching at the same spot on every string. Every string has its sweet spot, or several sweet spots.
@@carpediemarts705 yeah but thats how I play normally (minus compression) I got the gain at 10 all the time. But when I actually practice my technique I play on the clean channel
Pinch harmonics sound at a low volume and high frequencies. So if you add more gain, meds or treble they'll ring out more. Also, humbucking pickups will help eliminate some unwanted sounds so that the notes stand out more. But none of that matters if you don't have the technique or don't play the right notes. A huge part of it is right hand placement in relation to the fretted note. Think of it like playing regular harmonics but moving the nut while doing so. Start off by playing an open string with your picking hand pinching on the 12th fret and this should give you an octave above the open note. Move your picking hand to the 5th or 24th and the note will be 2 octaves above the open string. The 7th and and 19th fret will a 5th (1 octave up) above. Now when you start fretting notes you need to move the picking hand up the same number of frets. E.g. if you fret a note on the 5th fret, you can pinch either the 10th, 12th, 17th, 24th or 29th. If you fret the 12th you can pinch the 17th, 19th, 24th, 31st or 36th. Obviously the frets don't go that high, you just have to figure out where they'd be. I hope this explanation helps anyone who took the time to read it.
@@m.taylor7025 No, pinch harmonics follow the same exact principles of natural harmonics. While pinch harmonics are usually played by the pickups there's absolutely no reason they can't be played over the fretboard. Playing octaves and fifths where these more room for error and there's visual markers is a great way to learn the technique. At the same time, understanding the relation of the notes will help unlock every position. Not moving the right hand at all will severely limit the amount of notes that will sound as well as the quality of the notes. Most comments on this video claim that it takes an insane amount of gain to play pinch harmonics yet I can play them without any gain and even on nylon strings. It's all about technique and theory and that's what I was hoping some people could learn from my comment.
I get screaming harmonics on my stock fender Strat. Mostly about having gain/distortion and generous mid/treble settings. A wah pedal will definitely help make those harmonics scream too
Hand positioning plays a big part, I use the neck pick up on my strat and I usually try to hit the middle pickup or around the area to get a good squeal. (I also have high gain settings as well)
Pinch harmonics can be quite tricky! I’m still trying to figure out how to be consistent with them and I play a lot of metal so it’s important. I know even some of the best metal guitarists in the world struggle with their consistency. This is what I’ve learned, make sure you find the sweet spot on the string, because where you try to hit them is as important as how you hit them. Also pick depth will change how hard they hit. I am cursed with being able to hit them backwards on an upstroke by using middle or pointer fingers but when I do they hit really hard and sound exactly as I want them to. The problem is I have to change the position of my picking hand and how I hold the pick so I have to manage to plan when I want to do them and change up my grip before doing it.
It’s about amp settings and technique; a good artificial harmonic doesn’t use a pinch, it’s grazing the string with the edge of your thumb. Also more mids and gain will help accentuate a harmonic.
It’s about finding all the sweetspots for me personally, I noticed what pickup i do them on is important, and playing closer to the bottom of my top pickup gives me great squeels
Pinch harmonics are one of my favourite techniques on guitar. I used to find them difficult (me wanting to do play dimebag squeals and THAT riff from slipknot’s duality) What clicked for me was using jazz 3 picks, using a high amount of distortion and boosting the treble
Settings is where it helps you a lot. The guitar isn’t doing much under distortion, and maybe low on bass, right in the middle on middle tone, and high on the treble. That’s what helps me on my strat.
You also gotta know where on the string to hit it. A lot of people seem to think you can get it anywhere, but it has to be on one of the harmonic nodes of the string, preferably the first one which gives you the octave. A good way to practice is forget the pick and get good at false harmonics first. Which are the same thing just with your finger instead of you picking thumb. The first node always splits the string in half, exactly between the fretted note and the bridge. Your right hand has to follow your left hand up and down for higher or lower notes.
To get the best pinches, I find It’s a mixture of. Hitting the right spot with you’re right hand (just pick a string and pinch everywhere from neck to bridge, until you find the ones you want), a good high gain amp, and a nice guitar with humbuckers (some just naturally have nicer harmonics). I use a Serling majesty 7 string, and a katana mkII 50W, and the pinches sound amazing.
G string, 4th fret. Easiest spot to practice on strats for some reason, practice there until you get the right hand solid. Add more bending and slow down between notes.
pinch harmonics just came natural to me, and i worked it out before i could even play enter sandman. but now i can do pinch harmonic cleanly on the neck pickup with tone rolled all of the way down on a clean amp.
It’s all in your technique. How you grip the pick, where you hit the string in relation to the bridge. Amp settings have a lot to do with it, too. Higher gain=more squeal. I play a Strat and Tele with singles and mine can sound pretty damn meaty.
It's in the technique. I started with a metal guitar and got kinda good at pinch harmonics (but only with the bridge pickup). Then I got a single-coiled strat and developed my pinch harmonics further. Nowadays I can play any guitar and get great pinch harmonics every time, regardless of pickup position or coils.
It’s been said by others much more concise than me, but my experience has always been the type of compressed distortion (high gain amp/pedal). I did a lot more pitch harmonics when I played a 5150. When I went digital and moved a more hot rodded Marshall sound (like a Friedman) because it was more difficult to do it, it affected my playing in that I did them less. Something like the compression in the distortion is the big thing I believe.
When you the strum angle your thumb holding the pick in a way that the string grazes the side of your thumb... The the amount of squeal high or low depends on both where your fretting AND how close to the neck or bridge your strumming hand is... Yes more gain makes it easier and louder but once the technique is down you can get a nice little squeal on low gain, hell I've even gotten it on acoustic (The volume drops out way low though because of the lack of energy to move the air.)
Distortion helps with amplifying the frequencies that pinches do but you gotta get your node points…..on point. Anyone who knows the maths behind natural harmonics should know that pinches are using the side of your thumb to hit a specific point to divide the frequency just like a natural harmonic.
scale #1 is where the steel frets are. scale #2 is relative to the fret pressed, and is a fraction of the string, the wide part of a node down near the pickup. move your picking position to find the pinch points.
It’s much more technique, plus your amp settings in some ways, but it also depends where you’re picking to get the harmonics, play around in different places above the pickups and between them, you might see a difference
Hi gain, lots of sustain, and yes humbuckers help but I wouldn't say the guitar necessarily has much to do with it. Technique is also highly important. I will say it took me a long time to figure it out, but I never felt more complete as a person than when I finally mastered it.
Its technique, i can make squeals on a strat, also a high gain amp might help, but i can make pinch harmonics on everything, because i practice them daily, i practice my bends, my accuracy, my feel, my scales and pinch harmonics, just practice them as something of their own
It’s the way you strum if you palm mute alittle with some gain it’ll make it easier to do it when your playing clean I’ve practiced pinch harmonics more than probably any other technique I know and it just takes time and learning where you can hit them/ where it sounds best to hit them your honestly doing good id just say get more comfortable with palm muting and you’ll get better it’s not just for metal it helps with being a more dynamic player
You have to play with your right hand tring to get it between the end of the neck and the end of the bridge humbucker, you can’t pinch in the same area for every pinch armonic. Getting it mastered you can get them sound cool even without gain at all, but you have to use gain if your traing to play more like a rock or metal way
Make sure to have the tone up to, bc it will muffle out the harmonic, also have guitar volume knob up all the way, me and my buddy didn't realize that issue for a while
Its technique and many years of practice..I can get it with no amp at all..I just grabbed my guitar to be sure, and yeah, Squealies with no amp. It's the position on your right hand and a good vibrato/slight bend on fretting hand/ middle of the neck are the easiest... with an amp having your guitar in the bridge pickup position helps too.
As we like to say, the tone (or pinch harmonic) is all on the hands! It’s technique. Signal chain (amount of gain/distortion mainly) can manipulate the sound and embellish it, but hitting that pinch harmonic in the first place is 100% technique. They do seem one of those techniques that for some people they just click while others over think them to oblivion. They’re a bit like golf, the harder you try, the more you think, the harder they’ll be.
I think guitar, technique and the tone really brings pinch harmonics up very well. Gain always helps. I myself use very heavy metal distortion, that way pinch harmonics are always pritty easy to get.
I have Jim Root's Custom Jazz master with his EMG JR Daemonum pickups. I also have a 7 string Jackson. But i only play slipknot, slaughter to prevail type songs. So Better to see what style your going to play and buy something that will fit both :)
It's about finding the sweet spot on whichever guitar you're playing. "Metal" guitars just tend to have bigger sweet spots making it easier. Also I've found using jazz picks makes it easier as well
Actually the issue is that the distance from the note fingered and the pick playing the note(with proper technique) changes depending on what note your playing. If you don't change pick hand position in accordance with the note your trying to squeal then it won't be effective, and you'll need a high gain amp and guitar to compensate.
I did one or two pinches on a boomer guitar yesterday. That's a LP Junior type with single P90 and it did the thing even if I don't know how to *properly* do it. Anyways Neural DSP Gojira is a good amp sim.
Its really both. Each guitar and string combo has a different place where pinch harmonics work. Some may be easier to hit than others but you still need to master the technique to get a good sound out of any guitar.
Only way I can get pinch harms is with a treble booster and a heavy overdrive under that. A comp helps too. I'm playing a 60s style strat into a princeton reverb so it's not really the setup for pinch harmonics anyways.
It's more in the technique, literally, it sounds like I'm stereotyping but I'm serious. It's how you handle projecting a pinch into a song/riff/solo. And how good you are with creating em. And you need more gain/distortion than this, add more gain like a DS1 or a second TS808 if you have one. Shit, even clipping your signal from the amp into the PC would help too I think.
It’s about gain/volume you need either one to achieve it. Metal guitarists like Zakk Wylde and dimebag use it on high gain but Rory Gallagher and Billy gibbons can use it on lower gain amps but they are loud AF
My dad, who was never properly trained and hasn't played since at the latest the early 90s picked up my crappy guitar and was able to pick it up and immediately pull off some sick pinch harmonics
Pickups are important. Humbuckers have higher outputs so making pinch harmonics is easier, especially with active pickups because they are the strongest when it comes to output power. Technique is also very important and a distortion sound is obviously necessary.
Different scale lengths, different strings, and different tunings all effect where the right hand position should be to get a good pinch. Also, it seems like the longer the scale length, the smaller range of error you have which makes it a lot tougher. So arguably, it is a lot harder to hit a pinch harmonic on a longer scale length 8-string metal machine than a 6-string.
