here is the blister on my ring finger from doing your suggested ring finger harmonics 
I think your playing is great, from what I gather itās about two things, the right position on the string and the flesh brushing technique.
My original suggestion was based around having the pick sticking out quite far but I see youāre getting harmonics with little movement.
I can try add a bit of commentary but idk how much itāll help or if you already know this 
OK thanks @WhammyStarScream,
I was using a Jazz III size pick there and itās easier for me to get PHs with it, with a standard size pick itās harder I find, the pick sticks out more.
Anyway your technique in your video to loosen the grip and let the pick roll, I havenāt tried that, itās maybe not clear in the video but I am rolling my thumb at the moment to do this, so itās similar but different.
Iāll try it thanks very much, hope you find that pick
1 Like
I got the technique down, but I do flub a lot tbh, Iāve never put the effort into learning the correct spots to do them. That is bound to be most our issues, if we listen to what Joe Satriani said, he would literally mark out exactly where to do these harmonics.
1 Like
Absolutely, but I fear that the physics constraints on the harmonics are very strict so it is likely that perfect aim will really help them to pop.
One of my goals is to memorize something with excessive pinch harmonics (like a cake covered with inches of frosting) and determine if I can reliably make them loud without cheating with compression.
1 Like
I must admit Iāve got my compression knob turned right up when Iāve been trying to do PHs just do try and find the right spots.
@WhammyStarScream and @kgk,
Iāve spent all afternoon today on my PH technique and I think Iāve got it down now.
What worked in the end was changing my grip into a pinch shape and a light touch in my picking motion rather than what I was doing before which was rolling my thumb and ādigging inā or rotating my thumb to change the angle and sort of twanging the string hard with my thumb and pick.
Also your rule helped @kgk and I was able to memorise the right positions on the string for a few notes and reproduce PHs consistently over and over.
If I can still do it tomorrow Iāll do a video and post it, but Iām getting a bit of deja vu with this, feeling like Iāve been here before a few times. Weāll see.
Thanks for your help everyone, much appreciated.
Happy to hear the time you put in paid off.
Iāve got pinches down. Iāve actually done a couple lessons with Brandon Ellis and we discussed how to get them less pronounced. He explained swiping extra muted strings helps. I got to a point in my playing back in high school where I couldnāt NOT do pinches a lot of the time. Maybe it was the Zakk Wylde epiphone I had but I found pinches came quite natural. Some notes were harder to figure out but as mentioned above. There are many videos out there explaining the exact harmonic locations.
Mattias Eklund is the man and studying his music and watching his videos were great for any difficult harmonics I didnāt come by naturally.
Great playing by the way. Very rhythmic and nice on the ears 
Only other thing I can recommend. I know for me, when the harmonics die, itās time for a new set of strings. They just wonāt ring the same with dead strings.
1 Like
You know I never thought of that !
Today I was using my Strat which I put new strings on last week, maybe thatās why I had so much more success with it.
Iāll put a new set on my LP tomorrow and give it a go on that. Thanks for the advice.
Do you have the video of this?
Hi @WhammyStarScream, do you mean a video of Satch or of myself ?
I can try and video myself doing it if youāre interested but Iām not that good at it tbh, I think I saw Satch doing it on a really old live performance back in the 90s, at least thatās what what we me and my mate thought at the time, I seem to remember someone saying he used that technique in a guitar magazine once as well, but you never know it might be BS.
Iāll give it a go but like I said itās not very accurate, certainly no where near as accurate as your ring finger thing or conventional PHs.
I mean Joe doing it as Iād like to see it. Did you see it on youtube?
And if you can make a vid about it IāD ( MY KEYBOARD REFUSES TO STOP CAPS SORRYā¦)
IāD LIKE TO SEE 
Hey @WhammyStarScream,
here is a video of me doing some palm harmonics on my LP, and then failing to do PHs again, I knew I would lose the technique after getting it, Iāve been here before.
1 Like
man that is really cool, I will try it when I can Amp my guitar up. It looks really fluid to me. Thank you 
The point where you pick doesnāt matter much; everything is driven by the point where you mute. Your technique had very clear harmonics where you palm was muting at L/3, L/2, etc., and thatās just what weād expect!
Anyway, keep it up, youāll be Zakk Wylde before long.
1 Like
Thanks @kgk
I am using the point that I pick as a relative reference point to where my palm is muting, just so itās easy for me to locate L/3 and L/2 every time.
On my Strat I can fret at the 12th fret, pick at the neck pickup, with my palm muted around the middle pickup to get some cool harmonics (I guess that is the higher L/3 or L/4 harmonic).
Hi all,
Well I think Iāve sort of cracked it, seem to be getting pretty good pinch harmonics on the top 4 strings 75% of the time today.
I do find it really hard to get them on the bottom two A and E strings though, so Iāve been using my palm for those strings.
For example the Vai crossroads āintimidationā lick has a L/3 PH at the end on the 3rd fret of the A string. I canāt get a normal PH to work but using my palm I can get it screaming.
I was wondering if anyone could please post a video showing a closeup of a Pinch harmonic in action just so I know Iām doing right. It would help a lot.
Iām having success doing a āpinchā motion (I guess they donāt call them pinch harmonics for nothing), but if I study my picking hand I notice that sometimes I seem to be unknowingly or instinctually using my 2nd finger to reposition the pick back after the pinch if my grip on the pick has slipped. This canāt be good and for sure is not efficient. If I need to start picking quickly after the PH and my grip has slipped then it will derail everything.
Thanks for the advice everyone.
1 Like
This is how I do them, For the 3rd fret A string good landmark is just over the middle pickup.
I know my camera quality is not the best, thats all I have atm, till I can buy one of Troyās magnets
My guitar is not tuned but the harmonics are basically in same place for 3rd fret A string , Just behind the middle pickup, over the middle pick up, and just ahead of the middle pickup. You can get three relatively reliable harmonics there.
Can you link the harmonic youāre talking about?
Great video. Now I can actually see how youāre doing it I can try and mimic it or adapt my technique thanks.
I think the 3rd fret A string PH at the end of the Vai crossroads lick is the one you were playing. Itās a G harmonic (known as the 2nd harmonic I think, length/3) on the C note so is the same as what you get on the 10th or 22nd fret, the 3rd location is indeed just over the middle pickup on my strat and thatās the one he hits as a PH.
By the way I am finding the palm technique troublesome on A and B strings. I guess itās because they are lower than the D and G strings so itās harder to make contact, it requires some precise angling of the palm which can be tricky in the heat of the moment. On the low E and high E itās not so bad as you can angle the palm sharply to get the contact. Works best on the middle 2 strings for sure as they are raised above the others.
In fact I started playing that Vai lick differently, to end on the low E fret 8 instead of A fret 3 as it was easier to get the palm harmonic to execute.
1 Like
This is pretty much exactly what it looks like when I do it.
Only observation Iāll add is that the kinking of the thumb (which I also do sometimes) helps orient that last thumb phalange more perpendicular to the strings. That helps to minimize the section of string youāre touching with the thumb on liftoff, which in theory should help you damp as little of the string as you can at whatever node youāre making the harmonic at, which should help get them as loud as you can.
1 Like