pinch harmonics?

[boredben86]

does anyone here know the proper technique to do pinch harmonics? try as i might, i still can't do them. so far i've found little material on how to do them, and they sound pretty cool (IMO).
thanks in advance,
Ben

[Gidge]

Its very hard to teach....I stubled on it by accident....choke up on the pick real good and right after you pick the note, kinda turn your wrist and your thumb has to brush the string.....

i see you visited Guitar Mania...he describes it quite a few times and whats really great is you can see him doing it......if i can find the one its on, ill let you know which one it is....

[boredben86]

hmm.... after much trial and error i think i'm starting to get the hang of it. i can't really do them whenever i want, and i have to hit the string a few times, but i can do them. i'll look into Guitar Mania to see if i can find stuff on pinch harmonics. that site has been quite helpful for me, since you can actually see what he's doing and how he plays it.

[bizarre]

... also - be aware of the length of the string, what harmonic you get depends on where on the string you hit with the pick.
bizz

[Gidge]

bizarre, exactly...you can fret a note and do the artificial (pinch) harmonics picking at various places and you will get different harmonics......

it seeems to be easier to pull one off picking directly over the pickup....and bending a string makes it easier (for me)...and also it helps to have tons of gain/distortion......

[Treeline]

I'm not familiar with the term "pinch harmonics" but there is a technique that allows you to generate a fundamental and a harmonic, or sometimes a series of harmonics, as you pick the string. As Gidge said, choke up on the pick. What I do is hit the harmonic of the fretted string length with a fingertip (usually a right ring finger or pinky) at the same time you pick the note. Where you pick will determine whether you strike a harmonic because the distance between the pick and your ring finger (or pinky) is very nearly a constant. I keep my right fingers together pretty tightly to do it. It looks like you are hunting the harmonic with the pick, but you're really doing it with the other fingertip.

[BBB]

Originally posted by Gidge
also it helps to have tons of gain/distortion......

Yeah. I loud high gain tube amp really helps perform fellatio on those suckers. I.e., it sucks it out of your guitar through your amp. The better even order harmonic distortion you have, the better the pinch harmonics will come through.

I've had amps where I could use lousy technique, and the harmonics will come through and sustain forever. I've had others where I have to be ultra precise and they still barely came through.


Matt

[bizarre]

a comment on treeline's post - I've never learned to do that, instead I tap the harmonics 12 freths above the freth my lefthand is in ( what a lousy explanation - i'm a foringer... and probably can't spell foringer either ) you can tab whole chords that way
bizz

[Tom Hicks]

Here my explaination.
By choking up on the pick,the fleshy pad of the thumb brushes across the string a fraction after the tip of the pick and mutes the fundamental but allows the harmonic to ring.Because the left hand position varies you cant use the dots or whatever to locate the right place to strike the string.You learn to eyeball the spot.First harmonic is half the distance from the fretted note to the bridge,then half that distance etc.
Billy Gibbons is the king of pinch harmonics.

Tom

[demensia]

Pinch Harmonics... I know of the harmonics you use to tune your guitar.... the metal "screaming" harmonics ... but wtf are pinch harmonics?

[BBB]

Originally posted by demensia
Pinch Harmonics... I know of the harmonics you use to tune your guitar.... the metal "screaming" harmonics ... but wtf are pinch harmonics?

Pinch harmonics are also known as artificial harmonics. Instead of using your fretting hand to get the harmonic, you use your picking hand. Thus, you can still bend or vibrato the string.

As Tom Hicks described above, by choking up on the pick and brushing the string with your thumb while picking the string, you get a harmonic.

This was (is) a huge shred guitar technique. Check out George Lynch or Zakk Wylde for great examples.




B

[Gag]

Billy Gibbons, Leslie West thats all she wrote(or all I'm writing) Cheers gag

[bizarre]

Originally posted by BBB

Check out George Lynch or Zakk Wylde for great examples.
B

.... check out Steve Vai
bizz

[Gidge]

demensia,

what u call "metal screaming harmonics" is probably what we call pinch harmonics....

[demensia]

You know the 80's rock guitar solo harmonics... yeah Vai does it alot.. the best example of "Metal Screaming Harmonics" I can think of is in Pantera's "Cemetary Gates".

That what your talking about?

[detuned6]

"cemetery gates"- those are natural harms w/ a whammy bar.

[Antikal]

One person is having difficulties playing pinch harmonics, and other's annoy the crap out of everyone playing *nothing but* pinch harmonics

Hellooooow Mr. Bettencourt!

[charger]

A great pedal for getting these to come out and play is the Danelectro Fab-Tone. I bought one a few years ago when I needed to play really heavy music with my strat. It's pretty much a one trick pony--with this pedal you basically get either "a crapload" or "a shitload" of distortion. However, last night I pulled it out of the cupboard for kicks, and whoa! the harmonics were exploding out of the guitar. Of course, I immediately thought of this thread, since it's a lot cheaper than a nice high-gain tube amp.

If you try one in a music shop, remember to turn the treble down to about 10 o'clock or lower, it has waaay too much treble, and turn the bass up to around 1 or 2 o'clock. Turn the drive knob (I think it's called Fab) up to around 12 o'clock. This is about as much distortion as you can get from a distortion pedal. But anyway, it is more usable than I remember, and cheap too! Another oldie making its way back into my pedal rotation. Now let's see if I can find a use for that Envelope Filter...

[Khompewtur]

I'm sorry but I nominate Zak Wylde as king of "pinch"

The guy embeds them on an open string in the middle of playing fretted chords and then vibratos them above the top bridge, NUTZ

[twist]

Eric Clapton - Bell Bottom Blues?

[Gidge]

http://www.digevent.com/events/consu...a/archives.asp

go here to the Iron Maiden/In Flames lesson....in the very last section he shows how to do "artificial harmonics" or what we call "pinch harmonics".....this way youll get to see it....

[Gidge]

and heres a clip of a Zakk Wyle type pinch harmonic .....

(dont sue me Marc)..........

[pchorman]

cool. the title is especially true in that "hand in the bush" song.

[Brad]

AH! Pinch harmonics! I have never heard them called that before...

I use a technique I have not seen mentioned here: Instead of using my thumb, I use the fingernail of my pick index finger to lightly catch the vibration of the string as it is being picked. It works great - very rarely do I get the "Pinch Harmonic False Alarm" (You know, when you go to hit that killer harmonic, and instead get silence? That is the PHFA.)

And you don't have to have long fingernails. I bite mine down to the cuticle. I use the flat part of the nail, near the cuticle to do this.

I think I picked (pun intended) this technique up from Rik Emmett's Star Licks video, circa 198?.

[a_goodlett]

i use a combination of using the fingernail of the index finger and the pad of the tumb w/ the pick in the middle of course. i use artificial harmonics a lot but i definatly dont use them in the metal way. i like to use artificial harmonics when i'm playing triple octaves when i'm playing jazz, i use them a lot in other rock stuff too, but the key to make them useful and to make them really spice up a solo is to use them sparingly. also i like using on a clean tone.