How you make guitar make a screaming sound?

[Jowin]

I was just messing around with my rose using frets around 22-24 and taping the wammy bar, i then pulled it up, apparently at justthe right time, and my guitar made an awsome screaming sound. If i could get it to do that at will then i would be a very chuffed individual I tried doing it again but i couldn't get it to do it. So does anybody out there know how to do it?

Thanks Jowin

[Josh Redstone]

Try playing some pinch harmonics on the open strings, and pulling the bar up. It'll scream, it sounds like what you did, only by accident.

[chris mood]

you probably hit a harmonic on the 24th fret and then pulled the bar up.

[Jowin]

What are pinch harmonics?

[noticingthemistake]

Yeah I never figured out the difference between pinch harmonics and artifical harmonics. It doesn't really matter to me though, but you can get a wicked scream sound by playing harmonics as chords, like this:

e:---A.H------
b:---8-----
g:---7-----
d:---5-----
a:---------
e:---------

You just play this chord as you would regularly but as artifical (pinch) harmonics. Try different chords to get different screams. Works really good if your into metal type stuff. Even try adding alittle vibrato or bend to get that squeel effect.

It's kind of a hard technique to master, but it's a bigger screamer than just single note artificial harmonics. Plus you can play them anywhere on the fretboard. The effect you got was probably like chris said.

[Dejan Sajinovic]

Listen to some Ozzy Osbourne (Zakk Wylde era) stuff. The one and only stop when it comes to this technique.

You got to master ´em man ´cause they are very important. Especially for the rythm sections but works fine on solos as well. I love it but I´ve heard that you can get different tone depending on how you hit ´em but I ain´t got a clue how to do it. For me they all sound same and cool. Just find the right place and scream.

[noticingthemistake]

Originally posted by Dejan Sajinovic
...I´ve heard that you can get different tone depending on how you hit ´em but I ain´t got a clue how to do it.

It's where you pick the string. Say you hit the Artifical harmonic in between your two pickups, you'll get one type of artificial harmonic sound. Then if you hit the artificial harmonic above one of the pickups, you'll get a different tone.

I'll try a diagram. --- string, [---] pick up, X is where you hit the harmonic.

Here's a diagram, hopefully you can make sense of it.

Say you play a harmonic like this.
e:---[-----]------------[-----]-----|
b:---[-----]------------[-----]-----|
g:---[-----]------------[-----]-----|
d:---[-----]-----X------[-----]-----|
a:---[-----]------------[-----]-----|
e:---[-----]------------[-----]-----|

That would be one tone of a pitch.

Say you play the harmonic like this.
e:---[-----]------------[-----]-----|
b:---[-----]------------[-----]-----|
g:---[-----]------------[-----]-----|
d:---[--X--]------------[-----]-----|
a:---[-----]------------[-----]-----|
e:---[-----]------------[-----]-----|

That would be a different sound. Hopefully that makes sense, but what I'm saying is you can get a different tone of pitch from where you pick the A.H on the string. You just have to find the right spot to get the sound you want. Have fun. Others may have different techniques to achieve this but this way works very well.

P.S. The best sounds are in between the two pickups, just move it around and you'll find different pitches with those harmonics.

[Edited by noticingthemistake on 03-31-2003 at 05:14 PM]

[Azrael]

you see - when the string vibrates, it is not only one up and down movement of the whole string, but it is full of overtones.

If you have a string that is fixed between two points (on a guitar for example) and you strum it it might look like this:

http://www.creastro.de/Philosophie/lambdoma/vortra04.gif

The wavelenght is of course limited by the two points where the sting is fixed, thus (along with the tension and the diameter of the string) determinig the tone.
Noe letz damp the strin with the finger on the exact middle (12th fret on a guitar). You will see (hear) that the string does not stop to ring:

http://www.creastro.de/Philosophie/lambdoma/vortra05.gif

When the string is tuned to C for example, the sound that you hear now is c (one octave higher). Ratio between Root and harmonic is 1:2 because we divided the string in two halves.
The string can only vibrate with a straight multiple of the groundfrequency because the endings of the string are immovably fixed on both sides.
The next logical tone is therefore at a 1:3 ratio:
http://www.creastro.de/Philosophie/lambdoma/vortra06.gif

In the case of a C-sting this tone is a G
You can do this over and over again untill infinity..

but only the first few overtones are realy important for music. Actually, starting on a c-string, you get the whole major-scale ut of it:

1/1 C - 1/2 c - 1/3 g - 1/4 c' - 1/5 e' - 1/6 g' - 1/7 b' - 1/8 c'' . . . . .

all those overtones are ringing at the same time when striking a string, thus determining the "color" of the tone.

http://www.creastro.de/Philosophie/lambdoma/vortra07.gif

As you can see it is always a mirrorimage - therefore you can create the same overtones below the 12th fret as you can above the 12th fret!

The method you use to create them, is either Natural Harmonic or Artificial (Pinch) Harmonic. Putting the finger on the string above the respective knotpoint is refered to as "natural harmonics"

Doing it with the pickinghand by slightly touching the string with the thumb when picking is called Artificial Harmonic.

Of course those harmonics are pretty high pitched, for its a pretty high vibration-ratio. thats what makes the screaming sound.





[Edited by Azrael on 04-01-2003 at 02:58 AM]

[Dejan Sajinovic]

Now, that was deep.

[noticingthemistake]

Yes, it was. I'll add alittle something too. Although each string has a different range of harmonics, just with one string up to the 12th fret there are several. Take the D string with natural harmonics.

Fret.....Note....Range above open D
3.2...-..A.......(2 octaves and a 5th)
3.8...-..Gb......(2 octaves and a major 4th)
5.....-..D.......(2 octaves)
7.....-..A.......(1 octave and a 5th)
9.8...-..Gb......(2 octaves and a major 4th)
12....-..D.......(1 octave)
this pattern continues to the 24th fret.

As you can see where the harmonic is sounded on the strings, produces a different pitch. And each string being different, so will the harmonic pitches. So you can get any range of pitch just from using harmonics. I know this is a guitar site, but if you've ever heard Victor Wooten. He plays Amazing grace using only harmonics. Samething thing can be done with guitar.

Some may have only known the 5th, 7th, and 12th spots. But sometimes and I know Kirk Hammett from Metallica uses others. This is seen when you see a tab say [3.8], well thats what they mean. Same with A.H. which always has a pitch letter above it. I'll show you why if you didn't know.

Now these pitch letters are determined by where your thumb touches the string when you play a A.H.. I'll show a detailed pictures and the different pitches achieved from picking at a certain point on the string. I'll fret the 5th fret on the D string.

D:--5--~~>---[-V---]--X-----O-----U---[-----]----|

Key:
X = G (2 octaves and a 4th above open D)
O = B (2 octaves and a Major 6th above open D)
U = D (3 octaves above open D)
V = D (2 octaves above open D)

To most it actually might seem senseless, but if your soloing on those higher strings; it can be rather useful. Most hit artifical harmonics where O is located. Which is only the second highest. Try hitting it where the "U" mark is located to get that extra height. Same applies for the "V" marked A.H. which you can use to produce a harmonic that is alittle lower in high pitch strenght. Believe this or not, it will open up your playing by knowing these little things. Try it.

Latr.

[u10ajf]

Hey, maybe I'm wrong but I always thought "artificial" was referring to a harmonic played on a fretted string and natural's are played on open strings. I understood that pinch harmonics can be either natural or artificial. I guess there isn't really a standard authority for all these terms though. Life's confusing.
By the way, respect! How'd you get diagrams into postings Azrael? Respect Also for that list of intervals, fancy knowing that!

[Azrael]

those diagrams are just pictures - you need to have them somewhere online and then you just use the image tag (vb-code)

[u10ajf]

Another harmonics/scream post! I've seen so many of these I now have a standard reply, everything (practically) that I know about harmonics:

http://www.guitartricks.com/2000/trick.php?trick_id=5647