Re: screaming guitar

[tbajus <nyfac2@nyfac.com>]

eriklj@stud.ntnu.no wrote:
> 

> Robert Hampson of Main has been known for doing this live as well. It can
> indeed produce some otherworldly sounds, but it doesn't seem to work very
> well with my J. Barden single coil pick ups (and I've tried shouting 
>REALLY
> loud into them). So, eh, what I need is a bad guitar mic. that picks up a
> lot of hum and buss and other "unwanted" noise...any recomandations? 
>Later,
> 
> Erik Ljones (Norway)

Are you sure your Bardens are single coils?  I thought they were all
humbuckers.

What allows you to talk into your pickups is that the wire wrappings on
your pickups are loose, aloowing your voice to move a tiny bit.  That is
why you need all the distortion to hear your voice.  Pickups like that
are called, oddly enough, microphonic.

Microphonic pickups can be a collosal pain in the ass.  I use a lot of
string feedback live, when I can play loud enough to get the guitar to
be responsive enough.  I have an Ebow to fake it at lower volumes, but
IMHO, it just is not as cool as a really loud amp making your string
wiggle about buck wild.

Anyway, microphonic feedback is when the coils on you pickup vibrate and
cause that high pitched squeeling noise that keeps happening when you
hold your hand over your strings.  Not that microphonic feedback is
without its own charms.  Many a Neil Young solo has been well punctuated
with an ear piercing whistle or two.