Ancient thread, but one thing I don’t think was mentioned is, at least in the case of MAB, switching to the neck pickup when going into “the shred zone”. I’ve seen him live twice and in numerous videos dating back as far as 25 years ago, and I’ve never seen him go into crazy mode on the bridge pickup. Using the neck pickup can definitely help cut down on extraneous noise.
3 Likes
That’s interesting, I’ve never noticed that before!
1 Like
I’m certain he uses it specifically to reduce noise (sympathetic vibration, etc) when using the “MAB form”. For rhythm parts and more moderate speed ideas, he uses a totally different hand position and mechanic which has some muting capability, and that’s when you’ll see the bridge pickup getting used.
When I was a kid I thought he did it just because it sounded different, and took a bit of edge off higher range notes, but it’s more functional/less about tone than that.
1 Like
That video of Troy’s mentioned in the first post fascinated me, as well - I know it’s an old thread but it really leapt out at me recently because my Holy grail of picking has always been to manage those Johnson- and Wylde-esque descending pentatonic sixes, cleanly picked and with plenty of oomph and momentum. Thanks to CTC, I’ve finally figured out how to do it, and it requires lifting the right hand so that the lower strings aren’t muted and with the fingers as a contact point on the guitar body. Unplugged, it sounds GREAT - lovely cascades with plenty of definition. Once I plug in, however, regardless of gain level, it’s unlistenable noise. The strings I am not touching with either hand make a hell of a racket with overlapping, endless, out-of-key sympathetic noise and I find myself continually clamping the heel of the hand down to shut them up, with the result that I can’t get a decent swing at the strings with the puck anymore. So Troy’s video offered some hope, but no matter what I do or what guitar I use that bloody cacophony won’t stop!
I’ve just received my Magnet here in the UK, haven’t had a chance to experiment with it yet as I’m away for Christmas. I definitely plan to post a technique critique as soon as I’m back, because this is absolutely driving me nuts! My left hand muting is pretty good, so there isn’t much handling noise coming from the played strings - I’ve discovered that if I use a Fretwrap the pentatonic stuff sounds amazing, but I don’t want to be reliant on that. I’ve read somewhere that Zakk doesn’t use a noise gate either - how does it work? It’s like witchcraft to me, with Mr Grady as the sorcerer supreme…
What amp are you using? Im convinced the sympathetic string noise only gets clamped down if using a valve amp. I could be wrong of course, it’s not like a have a few different rigs to test it out haha.
Other string noise can be created by not having developed the fretting hand with muting in mind. I noticed recently I create an awful lot of noise due to poor fretting, accidentally touching off other strings etc etc.
I haven’t played through a proper loud tube amp in years. Haven’t gigged in a long time, and living in an apartment means most of my plugged-in playing is done through either a little Positive Grid Spark, or via headphones from the Axe Fx II. As I said, I think my left hand muting is pretty good (though it could always be better) but as soon as I’m playing pentatonic sixes on the top three strings, the bass strings start up their howling and almost overpower the main notes. Gah!
Troy is right, it’s not about the GUITAR, it’s about the AMP. The recipe is that if you’re not playing you should mute or kill the volume, but if you are playing, then the note that you just struck will drown out any weakly moving strings.
Most electronic amps (like my Axe FX 3) try to behave like a real amp, so they’ll act “as if” they have compression, and make the sounds come out roughly at the same volume. The idea is that if you only have noise it gets amplified to this loud volume and sounds terrible (hence mute, etc,), but then if you whack a string with the pick, that will come out at the usual volume but the weakly moving strings now are so quiet that you won’t really hear them, although of course they’re still there.
1 Like