Tricks

[IoNick]

Share your tips and tricks for making the guitar NOT sound like a guitar.

It would be fun to know some tricks... :)

[steve]

well I'm not tom morello (guitarist to rage against the machine) but if you bend up the low E string off the fretboard you can produce a weird sound, I think you can mess up the sides of the fretboard though and screw up the sound so I don't recommend it

[ESP_Viper]

My amp has an external speaker out on it. If I plug another speaker into it, the combo speakers are working along with whatever I plug into the Ext. output. Anyway, I have a small 4" midrange speaker that is a POS. I plug it into the ext. and put it right up to my pickups with the distortion at max. It produces this really cool squealing sound. Then I play with the pickup selector, wah pedal, volume knob, and tone knob to get variations in the squealing. It's fun to play around with, but if you do it for a longtime, it pisses people off that live near ya! :)

[cyberfret]

Here is a site to check

Noise.html
http://members.tripod.com/~MarkHendu/Noise.html

--Shawn

[Crazy Fingers]

You can get a "horror movie" sound effect by unwinding a metal coathanger and sliding it across the strings like you were playing a violin. Use a bunch of gain.

[Schmange]

if you tap really quick you can get a harp type sound. its tough to do cause you have to play real quick but once ya get it down it's easy
http://www.guitartricks.com/2000/trick.php?trick_id=2821

[Angus]

"Tapping really quick" is called tap harmonics: tapping on a fret close to the fretbar 'really quick.' Eddie Van Halens Mean Street solo contains some really great tap harmonics.

[Schmange]

hmm... i've always called it harponics... couldn't think of anything else to name it.
more accurately, it's doing fast tapping arpeggios with a clean sound and a bunch of reverb to simulate the sound of chords. there aren't any harmonics involved.
'tap harmonics' sounds more like the thing ya do with distortion/overdrive when you bend a note and touch the harmonic with your right hand to get the higher octave feeding back.

[Andrew]

I think you are both wrong, a tap harmonic is when you hit the string hard with your right hand finger directly over the fret of a harmonic.There are some clear examples of this at the start of van halen's spanish fly.

[Schmange]

Actually yer right. I didn't read the reply carefully enough... (durned web tv)
So what's it called when you bend a note up and touch the harmonic and cause it to feed back? I've been calling them tap harmonics too.

[MetalRevolution]

Check this out. If you take an infrared remote control (tv remote) and hold it about an inch or two from your pick ups and push a button while your guitar is going through an amp it makes a crazy noise, play around with that!
Another wierd noise is this. Next time your holding your electric guitar and it isn't plugged in and you are talking on the phone, touch part of the phone against your guitar's body. When you play it comes through the speaker of the phone loud and clear because your guitar is resonating through the telephone's microphone. Try it!


Heavy metal till the end.

[13noon]

One thing that's pretty cool is pressing your hand lightly on the tremolo bar and playing something. It sounds like a really old phonograph or something.
There was this other thing i can't remember, I used to know how to do, but it was something like putting a paper clip in the bridge and making it sound like a sitar. Does anyone know what I'm talking about?

~13noon

[fizz]

if you get an old guitar that works,
play something like...
i dunno, play something, then smash it.
you will notice a remarkable difference in the sound
;)
* in no way am i encouraging you to destroy a guitar - guitars are beautiful*

[Fatso Lizard]

I know a good little trick, which is basically just tapping with the pick. Angus Young does it before TNT on the new AC/DC Live DVD. Just choose a nice high note, any one will do, then tap as fast as you can 2 frets up from it, whilst slowly bending the note up and down. You probably all knew it anyway, but it's pretty cool. :)

[vanhalenOU812]

LOL this is so cool, hey, have you heard that one song by van halen - poundcake. yeah did u like the drill sound in the beging of the song, well if you have an eletric toothbrush and u turn it on near your guitar it makes a drill like sound that sounds like the poundcake song and it sounds sort of like a chain saw!

[The Fury]

If you slaken off the low E string a lot (so it's practically coming off the fretboard) then strike the string in time with the engine when it's 'ticking over'. As the "motorbike" changes gear turn the tuning peg and tighten it whilst plucking the open string. To "rev" the bike up, quickley tighten the string and then quickley slacken it off again.

[Classical Exile]

Turn the gain up all the way and put the tip of the pick resting inbetween the low E and A strings, (imagine a front view of one and see the strings either side at the bottom), and run it up and down like a train on rails with your foot on the wah pedal, ears will bleed in seconds. :D

[satch]

heres some satriani tricks.
do a quick pulloff from d or g string like this

--------------------3--2---0-------------3---2----0---------3----2----0

repeat very fast and clean then after you master this
then lightly touch with your picking hand the same string
move your picking hand up and down over the bridge.

cool huh!!!!!

[paul]

i noticed a lot of the tricks on noise.html involve using household items on the guitar. so i played around with some stuff and came up with one kinda neat thing. cut/rip some tinfoil into strips about 2x4 in. wrap them around the strings fairly tightly and slide them along so they rest against the bridge. now when you play you should get a sort of bell sound which will be particularly prominent on the thin strings (g, b, e).

[Black Star]

how about a multieffects pedal, and a wammy bar? need i say more :D

[pwallin]

Worked especially with Boss heavy metal pedal, but should work with others too. Power your pedal with adjustable power supply and reduce it's voltage...INSTANT GUITAR SYNTH! Really playable sound.

[Grif]

Take a stratocaster guitar. Scratch your pick on the strings on the back of the guitar(you can use Distortion and Reverb if you want). Van Halen used this on the song Intruder .

[kaschmo]

I think a "bottleneck" is a quite cool small thing to create cool noises

[circulus84]

hey i tried that remote control thing, thats hot! really cool! try using different remotes, like from you vcr, dvd player and tv they make different sounds.

i got one for you: take anything that magnetic, and make it vibrate. like take tweezers and hold them by the end (not the pinching side) and knock them against a table like you would with a tuning fork and while its vibrating, put it near your pickup and move it around its cool. try effect pedals while doing it

[kaschmo]

take the new ZOOM 707 II and make 99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 different sounds !!!