Squealies and bridges

[captdg]

As you all know by now , I am the proud owner of a BM/PRS. I want to make squealies comparable to Pat Travers and Richie Sambora.. I know Practice , practice. But i was told to upgrade the "Stoptail" bridge to one that is fully adjustable intonation wise.

All opinions will be valued..

I am just a lowly [mod edit] repairman..

 

[justmund]

Whether your bridge has fully adjustable intonation or not doesn't make one lick of difference to whether you can produce squealies or not. It's all in your fingers man!

PRS have been using, and still use this design bridge on their USA models for years and years, they wouldn't use them if they didn't work.

You have a great axe so my advice is to stop listening to people and just play your guitar (like I should be doing!)

 

[captdg]

Thank you....I can get the "Ping" part of the squealie, but not the one that resonates with the chord, if that makes any sense. A while back , I was at Narita airport in Tokyo, at a duty free shop, where they had a display for Andy Aledort( he is a guitar god there) and he was doing squealies that I wanted to emulate. So I bought the Guitar World Mag with his CD and listened to it for 14 hrs on the way to Atlanta, but he never went into that..I will keep practicing!...thank you justmund.

 

[Poffypoffa]

Are you talking about pinched harmonics? Part of it depends on where your pick is hitting the string. There are multiple harmonics between the bridge and the neck, and some resonate much more easily than others. Practice it by adjusting where you are pinching up and down the same string until you find the easiest place to squeal.

If a squealie is something else, you're going to have to tell ME how to do it...

 

[captdg]

I am in no position to teach! I am just learning..Poffy I did see on a you tube vid that I got from this board where he could get different harmonics between pickups. I will keep practicing..


.

 

[PRSHB2]

What the hell is a squealy? YouTube sample? Very curious.

 

[AP515]

What the hell is a squealy? YouTube sample? Very curious.

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

 

[PRSHB2]

Thanks, now I get it. I had never heard them called that before.

 

[prsguitarman101]

Yes the more common name is pinch harmonics, and yep it is all in the fingers, and how you hold the pick. Just keep practicing!

 

[slev]

Higher gain settings and more volume on your amp will make them more pronounced and well harmonic. It's easier to practice them this way until you get it down. Nothing to do with the bridge though. It's all in the fingers and your pick hand. I find there is a magic pick position for me and getting that nice "squeal" always seems to involve just the right amount of thumb on the down stroke.

 

[alantig]

Two key things, in my mind - one is how you hold the pick and making sure you catch the string with your thumb. The other is the position of your hand along the string. Try this - fret a single note, and start picking near the bridge, moving your picking hand slowly closer to the neck with each note you pick. Very small increments. You should find several places where you get different harmonics from that same fretted note. It's just a combination of practice and trial and error. After years of doing it, I still have trouble nailing them at times, especially if I don't pay attention to hand position.

 

[captdg]

I can get it to ping for about .05 seconds with very little sustain...I have been looking at some EMG pickups.Gotta quit thinking that the solution is to throw money at it. But would EMG's "The het Set" or an 81 /60 set up work on a BM? Alan..that works great..best results near the edge of neck pickup.

As always..thanks a million.

 

[Mikegarveyblues]

I can get it to ping for about .05 seconds with very little sustain...I have been looking at some EMG pickups.Gotta quit thinking that the solution is to throw money at it. But would EMG's "The het Set" or an 81 /60 set up work on a BM? Alan..that works great..best results near the edge of neck pickup.

As always..thanks a million.

I wouldn't swap out the pups unless you where specifically looking for a certain tone.

YOu can get pinched harmonics perfectly well with the stock pups. As Slev said, it's a case of higher gain and volume. As well as practice and sometimes luck. You'll get there!!!

 

[]-[@n$0Ma☩!©]

I wouldn't swap out the pups unless you where specifically looking for a certain tone.

YOu can get pinched harmonics perfectly well with the stock pups. As Slev said, it's a case of higher gain and volume. As well as practice and sometimes luck. You'll get there!!!

+1

 

[slev]

I wouldn't swap out the pups unless you where specifically looking for a certain tone.

YOu can get pinched harmonics perfectly well with the stock pups.

Absolutely correct here. I can get them out of a stock MIM Strat off the wall in my local GC plugged into a random overdriven amp just same as my own rig. All in the technique. It's like anything else wail away at it until you've got it down. Your pick attack will have a sweet spot for getting the pinch to squeal and sustain. The responses here have hit on all the biggies to work on. I'll add this as well for some encouragement. I'm far from what I would consider a talented guitarist. There are lots of things I can't do. For me this was one of those things I just wanted to master because it sounds so amazing when you hit it in a solo. Sheer will and time will get it done for this bit of picking magic I believe.

 

[Brewer]

The responses are absolutely correct. Pinch harmonics are a playing technique and are not related to or dependent upon your guitar or amp. You will need an instrument with strings is the only requirement. That, and some practice. Does not matter how much money is in your bank account, you can't buy them!

 

[Boogie]

...Pinch harmonics are a playing technique and are not related to or dependent upon your guitar or amp...

Yep. If it required high gain pups Billy Gibbons wouldn't have been able to make millions of dollars squeezing them out at will. You can do it just as easily with a stock Strat as you can a Torero.

 

[leeasam]

while one can can somewhat of a squeel at lower gain settings usually the higher the gain the easier. Reason being the when an amp is in distortion mode it is caused via a feedback loop with in the amp but at much higher speeds/frequencies. So then you create a harmonic with a pich compounded by a harmonic created via overdriven amp. I have an issue where I do them to easy some times and have to be carefull not to do it. I have VERY little tip of the pick exposed.

 

[docbennett]

The concept that nailed it for me was having the thumb protrude just slightly beyond the very tip of the pick...you "dig the pick & thumb into the string" using the same motion as if you were gardening and using a spade to flick out the dirt. The thumb should be just above the pick, and you should hit the string with both thumb and tip of pick simultaneoulsy in that "digging upward" motion. Find the sweet spots on your particular guitar between the bridge pickup and the neck pickup....it's a bit easier to get the tone you are looking for with lower gauge strings...Billy Gibbons uses "7's" and he can get a pinch harmonic just about anywhere on the guitar he wants. The treble strings are easier than the bass strings as well.
After some practice, what starts out as a thinking process becomes so second nature that you will find yourself overdoing the squealies and having to stop yourself from making it "too much of an effect".

 

[rugerpc]

So...

EVH is using his thumb and pick to get the pinch harmonic in "Ain't Talkin' About Love".

This guy does a passable version:

And at least he's having a bit of fun

A relatively easy song gets easier with the right technique...