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Posted by: fatstrat Apr 11 2007, 11:36 PM

I guess I was just wondering more or less how to get that amazing squeal when doing a pinch harmonic? Is it the thumb technique, the amount of distortion, or something totally different?

Posted by: beebo Apr 11 2007, 11:38 PM

good question! I can't seem to het them either!

Posted by: Ryan Apr 11 2007, 11:56 PM

when i do my pinch harmonics...well i hope they are....atleast..i dont get a squeal..like pavel does..or kris....i always..get more of a high pitch squeak.......hmm.i think its my amp though..its so gay.....well i hope its my amp .....cus if not..i dont know what the f*** im talkin about..

Posted by: Andrew Cockburn Apr 12 2007, 02:45 AM

Its a combination of hot pickups, lots of gain, lots of treble and using the bridge pickup (I think that last is correct although not essential and may vary between guitars a little - I can get a decent squeal on any pickup as long as the treble and gain are right).

Posted by: brainlesswonder Apr 12 2007, 03:32 AM

I found http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5I5O8P-r5Rk to be exceptionally helpfully in learning pinched harmonics.

Posted by: Ryan Apr 12 2007, 05:05 AM

That was a great video on that...wiht the close up and everything i understand now..i was odin it a bit different..bu ti still got a squeak..and what sux..i have no gain on my amp... ...i just have my volume knob, my clean, and unclean, button....treble, and bass knob...and of course..my input..and headphones.......but yea..i want a new amp soo bad..lol..my g/f says no..but im gonna bug her everyday lol...."pleaseeee" srry inside thing....but yea..i think thats mostly my problem..i smy amp just isnt well.....it sux...ill just say that... .

Posted by: blindwillie Apr 12 2007, 08:02 AM

Excellent video, thanks. Now I understand it. I'll practice tonight.

Posted by: Ibanez_player Apr 12 2007, 08:16 AM

The biggest thing is to find the spot on the string that produces the best sounding squeal. The "sweet spot" so to speak. It will be a little bit different for each note. You just gotta try out picking in different spots until you find some that sound good.

Posted by: brainlesswonder Apr 12 2007, 01:09 PM

Buy an adapter for your cable, dowload the trial copy of amplitude and use your computer if you need a quik distortion fix for practicing.

Posted by: Doug Apr 12 2007, 10:53 PM

I actually kind of figured this out last night. I'm assuming by your screen name you have a strat? I do as well. Although I was only able to hit the pinch harmonic in a few spots, I am pretty sure I was nailing it...or close to it. I found on the high E, on the 12th fret, picking very close to the neck did it for me. From what I've read, pinches aren't available on every position on every string, though I could be wrong.
I also turned up my treble and also set my mixer to a distorted setting.

Doug

Posted by: fatstrat Apr 13 2007, 02:28 AM

Hey I just wanted to say that the video really helped out a lot. I know what I'm doing wrong and I'll be squealin' in no time!!!

Posted by: fkalich Apr 13 2007, 02:09 PM

Video did not help me. He is able to do them of course, but he does not understand what he is doing. He can just sort of get you in the right direction, but not exactly there. Years ago I read a book on acoustic science. So I just used that and deductive reasoning to figure this out. I am getting them with an unplugged guitar. Guitars that pick up high frequencies better will accentuate them of course. However you can do this with any guitar. This is what you have to keep in mind for pinch harmonics....

1) You strike the string at some harmonic node. Either where the string divides in 2 parts, or 3 parts, or 4 parts, 5 parts, etc. Try them all at different times for variation. If you don't understand what this means, read the article by the theory guy on this site.
2) You do expose just the tip of the pick as he describes, no other way to do it. Use a stiff pick.
3) You strike the string at the harmonic node, the more exact you are at this, the better it will be. This is different from most other methods of getting harmonics, where the important thing is just to damp the string at the node. Here you not only do that, but you also strike it at the node. There is a reason for this, but I won't go into it, it gets technical, and this is technical enough already. But this is how you get the "squeal".
4) But you really sort of snap at the string with the pick, and it snaps back and lightly pops off your thumb (at the side of your thumb).
5) Your thumb should also touch the string precisely at the harmonic node, just as your pick did. You will find yourself angling your thumb a bit, because you want the amount of width of thumb that strikes the string to be as narrow as possible.

It really should feel like you are snapping the string and letting it pop off the side of your thumb. Good way to describe it. But it has to be precise, you hit is precisely at the node, and you get that snapping/popping action real clean.

What this does, is accentuate higher harmonics. Lets take an example. Say you strike the string where it divides in 4 parts, at that node, in the manner described above. Well that cancels out all the base frequency and all harmonics except the 4th harmonic, and sub harmonics of the 4th harmonic. You see harmonics have their own harmonics. The pinch technique accentuates the high frequency sub harmonics of the 4th harmonic (in this example). These are very high pitched, and so you get that "squeal".

That being said, there are other ways of getting pretty darn good harmonics. The trouble is that for a lot of styles of play you really are better off with more pick exposed. So while this is a neat thing, it is not practicable all the time to get your harmonics this way. And also, you probably don't want them to squeal all the time, you might want a more mellow harmonic sometimes. I do this using my middle finger. You can get very nice harmonics with your middle finger, and you can always hit a harmonic quickly that way, no matter what else is going on. If you are playing the into to "Over the Hills and Far Away" by Zeppelin, well you won't be doing that with 2mm of pick exposed, so to quickly hit a harmonic, it would not be a pinch harmonic.

Posted by: Doug Apr 13 2007, 03:04 PM

Off topic...but how about those Gators!!!

Posted by: beebo Apr 14 2007, 01:40 AM

So do you actually touch the string w/ your thumb nail or just the skin?

Posted by: fkalich Apr 14 2007, 03:10 AM

not the nail. I find myself digging with the pick and thumb both angled down about 30 degrees. I hit the string with the edge of the pick rather than the flat side, pop it, and it snaps against the lower side of the thumb, between the nail and the first joint of the thumb. I don't touch the nail itself.

you will know it when you hear it, almost sounds like it went though some digital processing, a dissonant squeal. But don't think that I hit it all the time. This will take some time before I can hit it all the time right. I have been playing today with this rubber band wrapped around by three other fingers, forcing me to hold the pick how I should (need to get out of the habit of using that middle finger for support). And I play these some when I feel like it. But it will take some time to hit them consistently. This is a clearly a technique that requires precision.

Posted by: brainlesswonder Apr 14 2007, 03:18 AM

I thought it explained it almost perfectly. My 7 year old is a pinch harmonic machine now.

Posted by: JCJXXL Apr 14 2007, 03:26 AM

Thanks for the video link. It made total sense. I discovered that the missing link for me was the digging motion.

Posted by: brainlesswonder Apr 14 2007, 03:43 AM

I didn't realize there was so many spots on the various strings, and the digging certainly did help me out.

Posted by: fkalich Apr 14 2007, 03:44 AM

It is a matter of whether or not you happened to do correctly, the things he did not precisely define. You have to do one thing or another. Some will do the correct things that he did not precisely define, others will not. A seven year old will certainly have an advantage. The more narrow the band of thumb that touches the string, the better. Little kids have little thumbs.

It is not a bad video, better than most (not on the level of Kris though). Hearing about the digging was helpful to me, maybe I sounded too critical. It would be interesting to do a spectral analysis of the frequencies produced when someone really hit a great pinched harmonic. What I said appears to be correct based on my observations, and sound theoretically correct. However, those really have a dissonant character to them, like accentuated dissonant harmonics. You know, maybe such as the string divided in 7 parts, that harmonic. It would be interesting to see. Let me google "spectral analysis of pinched harmonics". Lets see. "Spectral Analysis of Tracer Emission and Absorption Lines in Z-Pinch Dynamic Hohlraum Experiments". Nope, does not sound like guitar stuff. Would be interesting to see though.

Posted by: XxLeviathanxX Apr 14 2007, 03:48 AM

Dude... thx for the video... it helped a lot

Posted by: fkalich Apr 14 2007, 04:10 AM

For any musical instrument (except percussion) the note will have a base frequency, but will also present the frequency twice that of the base, 3 times the base, 4 times the base, etc. etc. A guitar does this, an Oboe does this. The relative magnitudes of these harmonics (along with any noise element present) are what gives the instrument its characteristic sound.

You have to hit one of these nodes on the fretted string to get a harmonic, pinched or otherwise. That is, where the string divides in two place, in three places, in four places, etc. You can hit anyone one of these, and get a harmonic. Depending on which you hit, it will sound different. For example if you hit the node where the string divides into three parts, you are really hitting the note that is one and a half octaves above your base note. The higher the harmonic node that you choose, the more squeal that is possible. However, it becomes increasingly difficult to hit them correctly, the more granular you get. I would think that the 7th harmonic would be the one where the most squeal would be possible, in theory. As I said above, a 7 year old with tiny fingers will have an advantage with the real high level harmonics.

EDIT: Ok, figured this out. Don't need a spectral analysis.

1) When you pluck a string, the string vibrates as a whole, in haves, in thirds, 4ths, etc. etc.
2) In effect you are really hitting a chord when you puck a string. For example when you pluck a C, these are the harmonics that sound

Base Note: C
1st Harmonic: C above last C
2nd Harmonic: G above last C
3rd Harmonic: C above last G
4th Harmonic: F above last C
5th Harmonic: G above last F
6th Harmonic: * see below
7th Harmonic C above last F
8th Harmonic D above last C
etc. etc.

*The 6th harmonic does not correspond to any note on the chromatic scale. It is not far from the minor seventh, but not exactly that.


The point is, the higher the harmonics, the more dissonant the sound. Pinch harmonics accentuate the higher level harmonics of the note. What you are really getting when you do a pinch harmonic properly is a dissonant chord of sorts, VERY HIGH PITCHED! And this comes off as SQUEAL.

There you have it, heard it first here on GMC, and I don't even work here.

Another Edit: I have since concluded that the squeal is more than just high pitch. That is essential to it, but you are doing something else, maybe getting a bit of the actual base note into it I am able to do that, bu not sure what I am doing. However it sound to me like I am getting a bit of the base note into it, along with the high pitch harmonics, by some fashion.


And Another Edit: I just listened to his video again, and tried it on my Telecaster. Dramatically easier than my Gibson's with humbuckers. If you listen to his video, he did not emphasize the fact that his special guitar pickups and whatever device(s) he was using really make it a LOT easier to get those, especially the high pitched ones. Not just a little easier. MUCH easier. I can get harmonics on my Tele, that I cannot even hardly hear on some of my other guitars. And whatever setup he has there goes a long way past my Tele I am sure.

Posted by: fkalich Apr 16 2007, 06:13 AM

Well, they seemed to get it together when it mattered most, 2 years in a row. Also Donovan is great.
He will reload quickly. Not next year, but you will be back the year after that. He has turned that into one of the top programs in the country. Although, I still think you guys will always love football more. Sort of like Texas.

Posted by: Ryan Apr 17 2007, 01:52 AM

ok sorry, this just popped into my head...i always see ppl do pinch harmonics for 1 string....is there anyway possible..to do 2 strings at the same time, or maybe like a chord or somehting??? just wondering

Posted by: fkalich Apr 17 2007, 02:32 AM

Don't know of anyone who does. But good idea. I just did that myself, sounds very usable, the kind of thing a lot of people here would like. Hard to describe.

You don't necessarily have to bar the two strings to do this, I just did one on the top two strings, with my 2nd string one fret higher than my 1st string (4 semitones difference in the two fretted notes). As usable harmonic nodes on the two strings in such a case will not likely exactly line up, you will probably have to sweep the two strings at an angle when you are not fretting both at the same fret.

Anyway, had not heard of this, great idea, thanks!

Posted by: Ryan Apr 17 2007, 02:39 AM

so it would be possible..just hard..to do...like a full chord...like say Em.....or something