How do I get those 'stratospherically' high tones?

I've been playing guitar for about 5 years now and I know my stuff. But recently I've been having an urge to get those absolutely wickedly awesome screeching pitches that you hear from bands such as Judas Priest, for example ('Painkiller' anyone?). Those pitches just sound so amazing to me and I was wondering which pedal etc. can deliver that kind of ordinance. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

You're asking about 'pinch' harmonics. A keyword search (use the button in the toolbar just above thiis thread) will bring out a lot of info on these.

Basically, hold the pick so that the tip of your thumb is close to the tip of the pick. Then allow the thumb to lightly touch the string just after you pick a note. If the point where your thumb touches the string is at the right distance from the bridge, it will cause the string to vibrate at a harmonic of the fretted note.

Experiment with thumb/pick position, and placement along the string length. It will soon become second nature to you.

Thanks a mill. I re-checked my Painkiller tab and you're right. Pinch harmonics... I never took the time to read the legend on the side... :o

That's exactly the thing, if you want to practice Pinch Harmonics you can allways play to ANY Zack Wilde song, he is the king of PH, but he originally pick it from Billy Gibbons (not as heavy as Wilde but he's the fundation). Personally I'll try NO MORE TEARS with Ozzy, it's a very heavy groovy oriented song and has PH all over.

On the other hand if you play with a floating tremolo guitar you can get the most insane harmonics using you whammy (go to youtube.com and search for "high pitch squeal", you'll find a "lesson" from Dimebag Darrell bout this topic, pretty cool stuff, once you get it right you won't be Whammy-shy ever.