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Controlled feedback?


enigmus

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Hey folks! First post in this forum, so I apologize in advance if my etiquette isn't quite on point!

I was wondering if anyone has advice on how to achieve what I suspect (meaning, I could be wrong) is controlled feedback?

Specifically, I really love what your can hear of the intros of Dark Angel's Darkness Descends and Akhron Infaustus' Amphessatamine Nexion:

 


Any advice welcome. Thanks!
Bernard

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The most reliable way to do it is with a sustainer pickup. You can get great infinite feedback sounds with the octave-up switch. Another way to approach it is to have a dedicated distortion or overdrive pedal in front of the amp, that you only switch on when you want feedback. That takes a bit more fine-tuning, being intentional with your settings and knowing how your amp will respond at whatever volume level you're playing at. If you're using a noise gate like the Boss NS-2, you can also set it to be either "gate>pass signal" or "gate>mute" - if you set it to pass signal when it's off, you can do that for feedback and then click it back on for more control.

There's also the "crank it up and stand in front of the speakers" technique.

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I've always wondered how Gary Moore got that amazing sustain on Parisianne Walkways and not have it roll over to uncontrollable feedback. Part of it is obviously the neck-through design of the Les Paul, and part is distorsion, but there's got to be something more than that.

One of my favourite uses of feedback is the intro to Abhinandas "The Rumble". I'm guessing it involves a delay or flanger pedal? Also, rocking song!

 

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On 5/6/2021 at 4:12 AM, Sheol said:

I've always wondered how Gary Moore got that amazing sustain on Parisianne Walkways and not have it roll over to uncontrollable feedback. Part of it is obviously the neck-through design of the Les Paul, and part is distorsion, but there's got to be something more than that.

One of my favourite uses of feedback is the intro to Abhinandas "The Rumble". I'm guessing it involves a delay or flanger pedal? Also, rocking song!

 

I want to say I watched a video years ago that explained that during soundcheck they would locate the perfect spot on stage that created that magic feedback and they would mark it with an X so Gary would know where to stand.

I personally use the FREQOUT pedal. A fun toy that gives me natural sounding feedback. I use this for a couple of my solos and have been pretty happy with it.

 

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  • 5 weeks later...

Gary Moore is standing at a 45 degree angle to his tube amp with it cranked like Alabaster talked about. A studio trick is that you can use anything from a wedge monitor to studio monitors or house stereo speakers to get feedback with some gain going. Most of the examples in the albums you linked are tube amps howling. Gary Moores guitar is using a 60 year old les paul burst named Greeny after the original owner, Peter Green. So he is using the guitar Greeny, which is an old les paul that had its pickups botched in the factory with a reversed magnet and rewired incorrectly (or perfectly, depending on your perspective. To the lobsters in the Titanic that iceberg was a miracle) to make it the only les paul on the planet that sounds like it does when out of phase.

The guitar is now owned by Kirk Hammet, and is a 59 burst. It was originally purchased by Peter Green when he replaced Clapton in the Bluebreakers. And was Moores go to instrument. I mention it because getting Gary Moores sound wont happen exactly without that guitar. Also as a 60 year old piece of legendary gear worth 6 figures, it plays metal every night now on stage with Metallica. There are a ton of videos and info about the guitar, Here is a mini doc from youtube about it: 

 

So anyway, you can still get close with a real tube amp. The old school way to do this is face your amp so the pickups will send a signal to feedback to the amp, then move to the sweet spot which is usually like 3 to 4 feet away from the cabinet usually somewhere around a 45 degree angle. But honestly 100 watt tube amps at full volume will melt you face, kill your dog, and piss off your neighbors, The tech options suggested will work, as will smaller tube amps. For a metal sound I like Mesa Boogie triple rectifier, but again those are 100 watt tube amps made to push air through an auditorium, Mesa makes smaller really amazing tube amps, here is a link to what they sound like (He has a noise gate in his signal chain to stop feedback) But these amps do naturally feedback very nicely with every kind of guitar.

 

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18 hours ago, AngryWolf said:

Gary Moore is standing at a 45 degree angle to his tube amp with it cranked like Alabaster talked about. A studio trick is that you can use anything from a wedge monitor to studio monitors or house stereo speakers to get feedback with some gain going. Most of the examples in the albums you linked are tube amps howling. Gary Moores guitar is using a 60 year old les paul burst named Greeny after the original owner, Peter Green. So he is using the guitar Greeny, which is an old les paul that had its pickups botched in the factory with a reversed magnet and rewired incorrectly (or perfectly, depending on your perspective. To the lobsters in the Titanic that iceberg was a miracle) to make it the only les paul on the planet that sounds like it does when out of phase.

The guitar is now owned by Kirk Hammet, and is a 59 burst. It was originally purchased by Peter Green when he replaced Clapton in the Bluebreakers. And was Moores go to instrument. I mention it because getting Gary Moores sound wont happen exactly without that guitar. Also as a 60 year old piece of legendary gear worth 6 figures, it plays metal every night now on stage with Metallica. There are a ton of videos and info about the guitar, Here is a mini doc from youtube about it: 

Wow, that's really cool. I had no idea that there was something unique with the guitar, much less that Kirk Hammet owns and plays it now! Man, I'd be so nervous carting a $2 million guitar around the world to play on stage, even though Metallica probably has Fort Knox level security.

I also didn't know that Gary Moore played in Thin Lizzy.....😳

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Yeah, Gary Moore seems like a blues guy, but he is pure metal if you have ever tried to play his licks. Kirk gets big points for taking it with him on tour. A guitar that can't go to war for the metalhead playing it and survive is useless, what good is a guitar that cant do a show with you, blegh, The guy that was the caretaker before Kirk kept it under glass in a hermetically sealed vampire coffin, guarded by orcs and navy seals 27 hours a day, (I might be exaggerating a touch) so it is cool someone that can afford it is still playing it. I bet they dont play it in the rain, "oops we ruined a 740,000 (idk im guessing) dollar ir-replacable guitar." I wouldnt want to be that guitar tech. I bet he stresses bad everynight. 

I have held an Alembic pure brazilian rosewood guitar that was a Jerry Garcia tribute, got to play it 5 minutes before we sold it. I mention it because brazilian rosewood trees are mostly gone. But I wouldnt be comfy playing on stage each night, guitars get beaten up, abused, bled and sweat on, bumped, beaten, and bruised, and the guitars i own and love the most are the beat up worked in ones that are 30 years old with the finish all melted and chipped and worn from use, wood wears down and the necks sort of thin out as they are played making a guitar be like an old comfy pair of shoes.

Something i learned a long time ago though, sometimes a 200 dollar student model cheapy guitar from indonesia sounds and feels better than the 3 grand Les Paul custom, the big difference is the hardware fails on the cheap guitar, but that can be replaced. Like the Greeny guitar, sometimes the wood all comes together just right and vibrates in a certain way, or the elctronics sound a certain way combined with different players, and it makes a guitar an extension of the musicians hands and mind.

Greeny was bought to replace Eric Clapton originally. How would you like to be the guy replacing the man people used to cover walls in graffiti for, saying, Clapton is God...Pressure salad for two please!

Sorry to babble on, love this stuff. The reason for my post I forgot to mention to the OP, to stop feedback and really control it turn you back to the amp slowly and it will fade like a note. The pickups facing a speaker is what actually makes feedback sounds. I figured if he turned up a 100 watt amp all the way and tried this, he already is aware how to stop feedback or is in jail for noise complaints.

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5 hours ago, AngryWolf said:

Yeah, Gary Moore seems like a blues guy, but he is pure metal if you have ever tried to play his licks. Kirk gets big points for taking it with him on tour.

Yeah I agree on paper, but in the real world I'd be nervous as hell playing something that is irreplacable. Then again, I've never earned 30 million dollars a year so who know how I'd feel then 😄

I got a slow-dance and a kiss from my crush in 5th grade dancing to "Still got the blues", so I owe that memory to Gary Moore's blues-phase 😀

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