How to play a fasle harmonic.

Baggio...

Is that the correct term?

I'm looking to be able to play that kinda distorted harmonic effect that a lot of metals bands use - any idea how they are done please?

As you've prolly guessed I'm not the most experienced of guitarists.

Thanks,

R.

Voodu Child

If its a pinched harmonic you're talking about (Zakk Wylde etc :rolleyes:), its just about catching the string lightly with the side of your (picking hand) thumb as you pick. There's a knack to it, its pretty hard to describe.

There's only certain spots on the string that it'll work, and different spots will produce different harmonics, so just experiment moving your picking hand forward and back in the picking area to get a feel for it.

It helps if you're using the bridge humbucker, and an distorted tone.

Baggio...

Thanks for that mate - ill be using a distorted tone alright.

R.

KingLoser

Yep, hard to describe. The trick is to do it with one motion, hit the string with your pick, but immedietly follow on to (very literally) tap the string with your thumb a split second after to mute the note, but allow the harmonic to screech through.

Just practice it... it'll sound like a crappy xylophone at first, but you'll eventually start to hear something that sounds like a harmonic, and finally you'll be throwing them into solos by accident.

spoonbadger

Ok,i'm going to copy an answer i posted in a guitar forum. It's pretty indept (and farty, and nerdy too ) but it helps to understand this stuff....

If you want to get pinch harmonics right then you have to understand the underlying theory.

Natural harmonics occur at certain intervals along a string.We'll use the 12th fret harmonic as the example here. The 12th fret natural harmonic sounds the way it does because its splitting the string in half, so it's twice the pitch of the open note.

Now say you were to fret the 5th fret, this halfway point would move up the 17th fret (5+12=17). So now,to get that harmonic you have to hold the string down on the 5th fret, hold a finger over the 17th fret and pick the string...

But obviously we dont have that many fingers to spare .

So instead, we have to pick the string and glance with the thumb (or middle finger if you do it like me on the upstroke) to get that sound. Now if you think about how you get natural harmonics, you'll see that your're trying to make as little impact as possible on the string with the finger thats being held on the string. So you have to take the same approach with A. harmonics.

After you pick it, you'll want to glance your thumb, just barely, off the string.If you do it too hard you will just be picking it twice. Also, do it as precisely at the "halfway point" as you can (as discussed in paragraph three.Oh lol,i have paragraphs in this thing ).

Obviously, you dont have to do it at the halfway point. Just like with natural harmonics, you can change the pitch by getting it at different points. The reason each natural harmonic has the pitch it has, comes down to the fraction it splits the string into. A 1/4-way harmonic would sound twice as high as a 1/2-way harmonic for example. So the further you do a pinch harmonic from the 1/2-way point, the higher the pitch you'll get but the harder it'll be to hit cleanly.

Oh wow. I'm gonna save this answer for the next time someone asks about pinch harmonics . I hope this helps rod, maybe you already know this stuff but i know that when i started with them, it would have helped greatly if someone properly explained the theory behind it

Blackhorse Slim

I use pinch harmonics a fair bit, so here's something I found useful - keep the soft part of your thumb very close to the edge of the pick, with just a tiny amount of the edge of the pick sticking out between finger and thumb. It may seem obvious, but if you're not holding the pick like that you will find it more difficult to create that pinch harmonic sound.

Baggio...

Thanks for the advise guys!

Rob.

-=al=-

I sue them to pretty good effect in this song - http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=yT_uDyWF-uw


u just gota catch the string with ur thumb, theres other ways of getting it but thats the most normal kinda way, pretty much whats been described ^^^

niallk

This technique can sound cheesy if overused so beware. Robbie Robertson from The Band is the only guitar player I know who can do it without making me cringe.

Thomas_S_Hunterson

Have a listen to Comfortably Numb, there's a couple of absolute peaches in the second solo.

niallk

Good shout. Add Dave Gilmore to Robbie Robertson in my list.