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I need tips for pinch harmonics.


Jables66

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Practice man... I did so many pinch harmonics in the 80s that now I can get them out of acoustics. Sometimes when I'm playing stuff I used to play back then, I'll inadvertently pinch them out of muscle memory even when I don't want to.

 

:lol:

 

There's no trick though I guess I'd suggest using a thicker than average pick and maybe trying a couple of the little Dunlop Jazz picks if you haven't already. Less 'extra' pick forces you to hold the pick lower.

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Practice man... I did so many pinch harmonics in the 80s that now I can get them out of acoustics. Sometimes when I'm playing stuff I used to play back then, I'll inadvertently pinch them out of muscle memory even when I don't want to.


:lol:

 

Practice it is then. My Washburn seems to pinch alot better than my Strat, could this be because of the thicker strings? And about this screaming acoustic, that's something I'd be very interested to hear. Always been a fan of treating acoustics like electrics :thu:

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try turning the pick sideways in your hand so that you actually hit the string with the side/shoulder of the pick. it makes it a lot easier to do the glancing thumb thing (that's the way Billy G does it)

 

While this makes achieving pinch harmonics easier, I feel that this adds unnecessary complexity to the technique which distracts from and makes more difficult the process. I stopped using it many years ago. The 'glancing thumb' works with fewer complexities but just requires more practice to 'perfect'. As I wrote in another thread, glancing the thumb is more a matter of slight changes in picking attack than concentrating on getting the thumb to glance the string (as the slight changes naturally do that for you). In most ways I hate to say it: you'll know it when you 'see' it - then you'll be able to use it almost unrestricted.

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Ive found picking towards the neck pup helps a great deal. Some guitars do it better than others, Im not sure why :idk:

I know that God kills a kitten everytime I mention this guitar, but here it goes- I recently bought a Hello Kitty strat and found that I have complete control over pinch harmonics, which is weird cause ive always struggled with them. I thought to myself- i guess all that practice has paid off and ive finally got it! So i pick up my explorer and.... you fail, 30% :facepalm:... I tried it on 2 explorers actually, one with 11s and one with 10s and couldnt do them as good or as often, although it handled natural harmonics brilliantly :confused: The HK strat has a very bright pup (sounds like a fender single coil really) so maybe this has something to do with it? Try some different EQ settings...

Or maybe its because it doesnt have a neck pup, or the scale length or something? F'd if i know :idk:

 

So in short: practice, adjust EQ, or get a Hello Kitty Strat :wave:

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you just gotta practice A LOT. when i first tried when someone showed me how to do it, it took me like a week just to get a weak sound out of it every once in a while. now i can do it on basically any guitar on any note with 12 gauge strings and all that. just keep working at it. it'll come to you sometime

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Some guitars do it better than others...

 

This is definitely true and I've encountered it often. Some guitars are easy to coax out harmonics while others are not. Some are more responsive to certain harmonics while others are not. To me, it seems that it might be related to the overall qualities of the guitar itself. Since we're talking about artificially produced harmonics, the results would depend upon the acoustic (vibratory and feedback) qualities of the guitar (and in this I include electrical pickup acoustics).

 

What I'm saying is that the harmonics are there but the quality is dependent upon how loud and sustaining they are. I'm definitely capable of doing pinch harmonics on an acoustic guitar (even a classical) but the quality differs. Electric guitars are typically easier to coax them out. For instance, the neck pickup of a Fender Stratocaster isn't as amenable to natural harmonics as the bridge pickup. Why is that? It can't simply be bad 'pickup reception'. I can do better on other guitars using the neck pickup. It must be some combination of variables.

 

Maybe the Hello Kitty Strat is the key after all! :)

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Practice? What's that? I've been able to 'make it squeal' for over thirty years with no problem. All you have to do is hold the pick as close to the pointed end as possible and let the skin of your thumb and finger come into contact with the strings. And if you pick in between the pickups (on a two pickup guitar) or around the middle pickup (on a three pickup guitar) you'll find all the squeals you want.

 

I never call it 'pinch harmonics'. I have my own terminology for the technique. I call it puttin' some skin into it or makin' it squeal, because that's exactly what I'm doing.

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try turning the pick sideways in your hand so that you actually hit the string with the side/shoulder of the pick. it makes it a lot easier to do the glancing thumb thing

 

That's how I do it also. When I first started playing, I didn't know which way to hold the pick(!) and holding it sideways w/ my index and thumb close to the edge was most comfortable to me. But I kept getting frustrated b/c I'd be shredding along and there'd be all these dang squeals. I didn't realize until years later that this was something to be desired :thu:

 

Example #1

 

Example #2

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Practice? What's that? I've been able to 'make it squeal' for over thirty years with no problem. All you have to do is hold the pick as close to the pointed end as possible and let the skin of your thumb and finger come into contact with the strings. And if you pick in between the pickups (on a two pickup guitar) or around the middle pickup (on a three pickup guitar) you'll find all the squeals you want.


I never call it 'pinch harmonics'. I have my own terminology for the technique. I call it
puttin' some skin into it
or
makin' it squeal
, because that's exactly what I'm doing.

 

Your description of your technique is amusing, therefore the best.

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While this makes achieving pinch harmonics easier, I feel that this adds unnecessary complexity to the technique which distracts from and makes more difficult the process. I stopped using it many years ago. The 'glancing thumb' works with fewer complexities but just requires more practice to 'perfect'. As I wrote in another thread, glancing the thumb is more a matter of slight changes in picking attack than concentrating on getting the thumb to glance the string (as the slight changes naturally do that for you). In most ways I hate to say it: you'll know it when you 'see' it - then you'll be able to use it almost unrestricted.

 

this is true, it's defnitely more work to flip the pick sideways in your hand, but once it is sideways, you will hit the pinch harmonics infinitely more easily than if the pick is held the normal way.

 

at the very least, it's helpful to practice "sideways" until you get the hang of how it's supposed to work, then you can focus on learning to do it with the pick the normal way

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this is true, it's defnitely more work to flip the pick sideways in your hand, but once it is sideways, you will hit the pinch harmonics
infinitely
more easily than if the pick is held the normal way.


at the very least, it's helpful to practice "sideways" until you get the hang of how it's supposed to work, then you can focus on learning to do it with the pick the normal way

 

I cannot contest that. :thu:

 

And, to another poster, you can definitely push the technique into the fretboard. :)

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Just like when you do a regular harmonic with your left hand, the pinch harmonic has to be done in the right place. If your technique is perfect, but your right hand is in the wrong place, you still get nothing. Like a previous poster said experiment at all points between the bridge and fretboard.

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