i have difficulty getting my pinch harmonics to sound right..
does anyone have any useful videos that i can watch to learn how to do a pinch harmonic correctly?

I think you'll just have to continue practicing, until you find a sweet spot on the strings to reproduce the PH consistently. The point on the string will change depending on where you fret the note, so PHs do not occur at the same place all the time. You might want to try on the thicker strings as they are easier to reproduce compared to the thinner ones.

Don't fret. It took me a year to properly play them, and another year to perfect it.... I'm still learning different tricks....

There are a few schools of PHs..... there's the school of Zakk Wylde, which I'm more accustomed to, where you really have to attack the string where the pressure is mostly in the pick rather then the thumb's edge..... or something like Satch where it's more about controlling it with the thumb.

Think of it literally as "pinching" the string between your pick and the fleshy bit of your thumb. Like, as soon as you pick a string, a micro fraction second later, gently brush your thumb (By this I mean the fleshy part) against the string. That's how I explain it.

Come to the next gathering and I'll show you how I do it.

i tried the one that u doing...touching the string with the thumb straight after the pick attack the strings...the bottom 3 strings are ok...but the bass strings are the problems for me...are there any other tips to pinch the bass strings? the pinch done by zakk are damned cool..

btw, as u move to the higher frets, does the sweet spot of the pinch harmonic move upwards towards the bridge pickups?

and the one u said from the school of zakk wylde...to apply pressure on the pick on the attack...isn't that a dynamic attack rather than a pinch harmonics? just curious wanna know...

Well.... like I said, I usually attack the string harder when doing the Zakk Wylde ping to get his tone......

And as for the bass string....... practice practice practice....... it took me a while to perfect the bass strings too.

i have been trying this technique over and over and over again but it just won't come out..
i live with my family and they are getting annoyed with the noise i am making
haha

hmm.....few lesson is available in youtube....check them out....i can only make one times over 3 times thus is not accurate..

It's all about the position you are "pinching" on the string. Experiment with different positions on your guitar for different effect. Both the positions on my LP-100 and Zakk Wylde LP have different "sweet spots"..... so try to find yours. It will take a while..... don't worry.

btrix... after u showed me at the last gathering, I overcome my problem with the wound strings pretty quickly. I later came to realise that my pinch harmonics on the wound strings are much louder than those that I do on the unwound strings. On the unwound strings, the normal notes sound louder than the pinch harmonics. How does Satch get his screaming pinch harmonics on the unwound strings? My satch screams sound puny compared to his.
And yea, I understand how different harmonic notes will ring out when u do it in different points, but it'll require much practice to know them precisely by heart. But still, I still can't make them ring louder than the normal notes.

This post has been edited by MetalZone: Nov 13 2006, 11:10 PM

i dunno where you all read the myths of sweetspots from
but you can do pinch harmonics on most parts of the strings, its all based on your right hand technique.
but the tighter part of the strings make it easier, ie. closer to the bridge.

also when guys like zakk do pinch harmonics, usually they will add a little vibrato with the left hand.

Errr... were they actually myths? I have some satch instructionals... and he even said that when u do a pinch harmonic at different points on the string, you will get a different harmonic note. And I personally found them true.

diff harmonic note is one thing.
but what i understand from the sweetspot here, is that there is only one good spot to get pinch harmonics from.

Oh.... from what I understand, there is no "ONE SPECIFIC" sweet spot. Different spots will give you different notes. So that means, you're right
I'll try to post a pic from a satch instructional

This post has been edited by MetalZone: Nov 13 2006, 11:19 PM

Every pick can do pinched harmonic well? all my picks are 0.80mm above...

Here goes, from Satch's guitar secrets.

Hope it helps.

thats is too 'steve vai' like for me
the only pinch harmonics i need are from guys like zakk, skid row and carcass.

That's why I said, there are different schools of pinch harmonics...
You are right..... Zakk usually adds a little vibrato on the left hand to get that "pig squeal" effect..... Zakk actually copied it from ZZ Top....

But Satch and Vai uses it too add better dynamics to their sound.... Zakk just DEPENDS on it.

Touching the string on different spots of the string with the same note fretted will dampen certain harmonic fundamentals while bringing out others. That is how different pitches are produced when you stop the string at different places with your thumb when you execute a PH.

It works almost like the natural harmonic, in which you dampen the string at certain frets (12th, 7th, 5th, 3rd) to achieve a higher sounding note. Think of the PH as a more advanced version of the natural harmonic, where your thumb and picking hand will determine where you will dampen the string.

Satriani explains it further here


This post has been edited by supercolossal: Nov 13 2006, 11:48 PM

after more trial and error, i finally managed to get SOME of them to sound right.. hehe
are there any good examples of songs that use pinch harmonics?

I'm not sure what problems are you having but I think you have to try harder . Try not to dampen the string too much with your thumb when you execute the PH.

I think quite a number of rock songs have PHs in them to some extent, but here are some that Wikipedia quotes (that I have actually listened to)

Van Halen - Pretty Woman
ZZ Top - La Grange
Bon Jovi - Wanted Dead Or Alive (Solo)
Joe Satriani - Satch Boogie
Steve Vai - Juice

Hope that helps.

Some tips from Wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinch_harmonics

This post has been edited by supercolossal: Nov 15 2006, 09:35 AM