Screaming over-tones

[Hampus]

I'm sure there's a real name for those things, but I hope you know what I mean. Anyway, it was real easy for me to get those tones on the old guitar, the Fender Heartfield that was stolen from me. I just lightly touched the string with the side of my thumb just as the pick left it and I had a nice screeching tone. It's not nearly as easy on the Hagstrom Viking. I can get a thin one if I pick the string right over the beginning of the neck. Why's this? I'm thinking that I've either lost the touch, or that it's because of the difference between the guitars. Main differences are; solid body vs semi hollow, resinator fretboard vs rose wood (this is my bet) and Floyd Rose Pro bridge vs Hagstrom trapeze. What's most likely?

Hampus

 

[bcdon]

Do you mean pinch harmonics? If so, there is a sweet spot near the pickups that will give you the best squeal. Also, you need a fair amount of gain to get them to pop out. Adding a little vibrato once you get the squeal and then you're really rock'in! :dude

Here's a good lesson.

 

[deeaa]

Yeah, when I play leads, which is pretty rare, I do that almost constantly, I like the sound so much. First heard it used a lot by ZZ Top and been using 'em since. All the time.
Actually I use it quite a lot for chords as well; you can get a lot of chord variation by playing full chords for instance from down to up instead of right way, or for instance using pinch harmonics towards the end of the sweep etc.

Some sounds and/or guitars aren't as easily squealing...you can do it even on acoustic or clean sounds, but to really get them to squeal there has to be enough gain, yeah.

 

[RobQ]

Some guitars and pickups seem to pick them up better than others, but in my experience you can do it on any guitar.

Main thing is to experiment with picking location to find the sweet spot.

Also different pickup settings pick them up better than others. For example, they are every tough to get when playing thru the neck pickup of a tele, just because of where that pickup is placed.