Controlled Feedback

[brandondrury]

I watched the epic film Days of Thunder today. There's nothing like movies that were written with a jumbo crayons that feature square cars in them.

Anyway, I've always thought the score for Days of Thunder was about as good as it gets. The ending race scene is flat out perfection from a movie-meets-music standpoint.

The guitar work is absolutely perfect. (I think it was Jeff Beck.)

One thing that I caught my ear was the absolutely PERFECT infinite sustain he'd get from controlled feedback. In all my days of playing I can't say I've ever gotten it right. Turning up loud just causes that big low 200Hz hum type of feedback that isn't worth a shit.

Does anyone have any tips for mega badass controlled feedback on lead guitar?

Brandon

[fortyseven]

Personally Ive only got it right maybe once by accident and have never been able to purposefully achieve it. I have tried though.

[TD5_23]

I'm sure Jeff Beck uses some good, smooth overdrives, and probably one or two nice compressors to help him out with that sustain, but I would say the majority of Jeff Beck's "infinite sustain" sound has to do more with his technique than with his gear.

For starters, you'll notice that the man uses his fretting-hand thumb a lot, if not for fretting, for muting. I would say when he's going for that sustain, he's probably managing to mute every string except the one he's ringing out. Kind of a rake-picking technique minus the actual "rake".

Also, Jeff Beck is quite the master at pinch harmonics and utilizes a technique that I've personally only ever seen commonly used by the touring-guitarist for the eagles, in which he holds his pick with his thumb and middle finger (or uses a thumb-pick), freeing his pointer finger to touch the pinch harmonics with his right hand. The result is a very smooth-sounding harmonic that, given the right amount of volume and overdrive, will sustain for days.

Edit: Here is a picture that provides a good example of both: http://www.uberproaudio.com/images/s..._live_2009.jpg

[Metaltyme]

I would say when he's going for that sustain, he's probably managing to mute every string except the one he's ringing out. Kind of a rake-picking technique minus the actual "rake".

When I'm throwing down some lead whenever jammin' at some music buddies' house, I use this exact same technique when I'm trying to trigger a note to ring out into controlled feedback. Before the feedback occurs though, I tend to approach my amp with my guitar's headstock pointed right at it. Once I reach a certain sweet-spot where I begin to notice the feedback slowly seeping into the sustaining note, I then violently turn my guitar so that it is perpendicular to the amp (about a foot or two away), as if to say "peecka-boo." At this point, the feedback has a musical context that changes on the fly depending on how I'm twisting the note in relation to the position of my guitar's pickups. This works every time for me, and sometimes, I'm even able to replicate the same exact feedback response through a little consistency in my movements. I've not been able to do this with my studio monitors at home though. If I want feedback at home, I sometimes use the "feedbacker" effect on my Boss Gt-10...sometimes, it sounds quite believeable.

[Freddy G]

I use an old boss GE-6 pedal. It sounds incredible, I'll never get rid of it. I tried the boss GE-7 but it didn't have the same mojo at all.
The trick with the GE-6 is to set the EQ exactly opposite of where most people will naturally set it.
Don't scoop the mids, boost them!
I set it so 100hz is cut by a few db, 200 flat or slightly cut, 400 boosted by a few db, 800 boosted the most, 1600 boosted a couple of db and 3200 either flat or slightly cut. Totally the opposite of a smiley face EQ .......like that!
This only works when it's slamming the front end of a tube amp that is set for moderate gain drive (it has to overdrive the preamp input...doesn't work in an effects loop for instance) Just this pedal between the guitar and amp, no other overdrives or boost pedals.
I use it for super-sustain lead tone. Just fingering the note without even picking is usually enough to make it take off in a gloriously controlled feedback.

This has always been my secret weapon

OK, now the one big caveat is that it's noisy. You can't leave it on if you stop playing (like rests in between notes) it puts out a kind of rushing white noise. So you have to be very attentive and play the pedal on and off if there's a rest for more than 1/2 second or so. But while you're playing you don't really hear it.

[cakewalkgg]

this is a good question, the only tone Ive had that reliable had that sweet -note morph into beautiful feedback of the same note- magic is oddly one on my podxt. It was very reliable and pretty much any note that I held would do it and it was beautiful because I could trigger the morph by adding some vibrato. At some point, probably a night when i was drinking and recording... I managed to overwrite that preset and now its just a beautiful memory
So i would say that at least in some part, it must be reliant on the distortion or ovedrive itself and not the magnets so much..

if I can offer anything to your question Brandon, when the tone is right it seems to me that I can trigger the desired feedback by using a really aggressive vibrato.. not fast, but hard. By kind of exaggerating the scraping of the string on the fret... it kind of creates a note from the friction and that tends to grab the harmonics and does the magic morph