pinch harmonics

[Squireman131]

any advice i can get them like 1/3 of the time i try, im running out of a older model peavey rage 158 and a danelectro FAB metal pedal. im also using a squire affinity strat. i know the technique to do it and i can do it its just i cant get it all the time.

 

[Danzego]

Ah, I remember when I first learned artificial harmonics and they only came out a fraction of the time. *sighs nostalgically*

If you're getting them, but just not all the time, the best advice I feel anyone can give is to just keep working on it. You'll get used to the different way you have to dig in at different places on the neck and on different strings over time.

Speaking of which, you'll have an easier time getting them on lower strings and on lower frets. Also, cranking up your gain also helps them ring out. As you get better, you'll figure out how to get them all over the neck (again, you have to dig slightly differently on different strings and spots, but that will be second nature after awhile).

 

[ted s]

You talking ala ZZ Top squeal ? Like Danz says, keep practicing, keep choked up on the pick, pretty soon you'll be doing them by accident.

 

[Kazz]

You talking ala ZZ Top squeal ? Like Danz says, keep practicing, keep choked up on the pick, pretty soon you'll be doing them by accident.

I do not recall ZZ Top using this technique....Zakk Wylde is the one I hear using it most of the time.

Not saying that ZZ did not or do not use it....and if they do I would appreciate someone letting me know a song they use them in so I can check it out.

 

[Kazz]

Oh and to stay live with the topic....I suck at them.

 

[pes_laul]

I also got a question under this subject. I can do a pinch harmonic basically anywhere but I can never do sort of a zakk wylde one on my lower strings. does anybody know how he does them. (maybe lower tunings?)

 

[wingsdad]

I do not recall ZZ Top using this technique....Zakk Wylde is the one I hear using it most of the time.

Not saying that ZZ did not or do not use it....and if they do I would appreciate someone letting me know a song they use them in so I can check it out.

:thwap:
La Grange
Legs
Just the 1st 2 that come to mind of Billy Gibbons doing what ted s describes - "choking the pick". Attacking with just a bit of the tip of the pick and the edge of the thumb striking just about simultaneously.

 

[Katastrophe]

:thwap:
La Grange
Legs
Just the 1st 2 that come to mind of Billy Gibbons doing what ted s describes - "choking the pick". Attacking with just a bit of the tip of the pick and the edge of the thumb striking just about simultaneously.

...and play with a Mexican peso coin.

 

[Danzego]

I also got a question under this subject. I can do a pinch harmonic basically anywhere but I can never do sort of a zakk wylde one on my lower strings. does anybody know how he does them. (maybe lower tunings?)

Zakk Wylde does tend to use lower tunings, especially in his more recent Black Label Society stuff, but that's not really how he gets sound. He's recorded everywhere from drop A tunings up to standard tuning on various albums and he still has that signature thing going on not matter what the tuning is.

Zakk's harmonics have more to do with what he actually does with the note. He has a really wide, quick vibrato when he hits artificial harmonics. Basically, pick the note and quickly yank the heck out of the string. You'll get it after a while.

 

[pes_laul]

cool already it's starting to work better

 

[Kazz]

one down....just finished listening to La Grange and I will be darn if I can hear the pinch in there....maybe my ears just do not recognize it, if it is not in the Zakk style.

I do hear it kinda in Legs tho....still not as pronounced as Zakk.

 

[Danzego]

one down....just finished listening to La Grange and I will be darn if I can hear the pinch in there....maybe my ears just do not recognize it, if it is not in the Zakk style.

I do hear it kinda in Legs tho....still not as pronounced as Zakk.

"The" pinch? Kazz, almost the entire last minute of the song is nothing BUT pinch harmonics. I listened to La Grange just now and from the point where Billy Gibbons starts laying them on, I tried counting how many are there. I lost count somewhere around 35. oke:

Here, listen from exactly 2:30-3:20 on this and you should be hearing them all over the place.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQVmA5EW7vM

Just remember, Zakk is kind of his own thing and his are really pronounced. A lot of that has to do with what I was talking about earlier: what he does with them once he picks them; a high gain harmonic followed by that wide vibrato (and a lot of Wah in there too, many times). Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top, on the other hand, is just doing full step bends everytime he hits one. It's an entirely different sound.

 

[wingsdad]

...and play with a Mexican peso coin.

...and Kat's not just jokin' here, either. Gibbons actually has said he uses a peso as a pick. Point is: heavier and stubbier/rounder tipped picks are part of the technique to get those squealing pinches as in that latter portion of La Grange.

 

[snarph]

heres a example of gibbons giving a blues lesson at about 5ive minutes in here actually plainly says harmonics and gives a demo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34wNfmpYrb8

 

[Big_Rob]

Pinch harmonics can be a pain in the butt.

While learning how to play the Metalocalypes theme I had a hell of a time getting it down because of them

 

[pes_laul]

A tip of advice: Back when I was just learning guitar my dad told me to hold the pick with my thumb slightly hanging off on the left side of a pick so I could hit the string with my thumb to make a pinch harmonic when I needed too. Experiment and see what fits your style.

 

[Bomber]

Or check this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5I5O8P-r5Rk

Saw this online.

 

[Kazz]

"The" pinch? Kazz, almost the entire last minute of the song is nothing BUT pinch harmonics. I listened to La Grange just now and from the point where Billy Gibbons starts laying them on, I tried counting how many are there. I lost count somewhere around 35. oke:

Here, listen from exactly 2:30-3:20 on this and you should be hearing them all over the place.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQVmA5EW7vM

Just remember, Zakk is kind of his own thing and his are really pronounced. A lot of that has to do with what I was talking about earlier: what he does with them once he picks them; a high gain harmonic followed by that wide vibrato (and a lot of Wah in there too, many times). Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top, on the other hand, is just doing full step bends everytime he hits one. It's an entirely different sound.

Ahhh....so I guess all along I have been doing the pinch harmonic correctly....mine sound pretty much like these in La Grange....I just assumed that since mine did not sound like Zakk's that I was doing it wrong.