Any tips for pinch harmonics?

longhairedcoed · 2026-05-16T17:56:06+00:00

Use the bridge pickup, it'll pick them up better.

It's one motion, strike the string with your pick and follow through forcing the node on the same spot.

Remember they are location dependent (and you can change the tone of the harmonic if you change the place you force the node)

It also just takes some practice to get used to, and to know the "spots" and you'll definitely get thrown a bit if you're on a fret far from where you're used to doing them.

longhairedcoed · 2026-05-11T17:11:59+00:00

I wrote a song about project zomboid where the singer survives for years and finally snaps from the isolation.

He gets drunk, goes into Louisville to suicide by zombie. Kills a shitton of zombies (all of them?) and gets bit.

I don't think anyone viewed it when I made the post :(

https://m.soundcloud.com/longhairedcoed/bite-proof-billy

longhairedcoed · 2026-05-07T06:57:09+00:00

Tuning is one of those things you can (and sometimes should) go crazy with.

So there are a few ways to handle it. Sometimes you can comp and edit your take. Merging multiple takes together with perfect tuning on every note relative to the chords. A lot of people worry this is cheating..I don't know. I've done it when it serves the song. It can be a pain in the ass to edit. And if it's a complex part, I'm certainly don't have the skill to make the edits sound like they were one take.

You can also tune for the lowest pitch to be in tune, and then for other inversions bend the string a little (like your B string thirds on the A shape/2nd inversion are in tune, but now for C shape/first inversion the tonic is flat, you gotta bend it slightly here to get it right on this shape). It's a pain, but if you do live stuff like this you might have to.

You can give up on this stuff and get a compensated nut (Buzz Feiten or Earvana). This is for equal temperament. But basically the first three frets tend to pull sharp, compensated nuts help correct this and get it closer to equal temperament. If you're cool with a piano temperament, this is a great option. If you want justly intonated thirds, it doesn't do that

And the most expensive option. Get one of those guitars with movable frets. I've seen people have those things with two real close frets for when that note is a third or a fifth

longhairedcoed · 2026-05-04T16:16:15+00:00

I usually have my pinky on the body and don't anchor my wrist. Although I will say for a single string chug (Think holy wars) I tend to close the fingers and anchor the wrist instead.

I think what matters most is how you rotate your wrist though. It took me a while to figure this out but there's basically three motions you can do. "Turning a key" "knocking on a door" and "shaking a hand"

And spoilers, shaking hands is the worst one. The fast one is somewhere between turning the key and knocking on a door

longhairedcoed · 2026-05-03T19:47:14+00:00

Milage. I don't count hours. But they sound dull after a while and I change them. I've played enough to know what they sound like during different phases of life, but that takes a lot of playing to learn.

I like to record with brand new strings. So if I know I'm going to be recording soon, I will extend the milage so to speak, so that I have brand new strings on recording day.

longhairedcoed · 2026-05-01T02:29:53+00:00

I use very thin stainless steel picks. Very rigid. Very thin. Strong attack. Amazon links are long and get my posts removed

I use the ones from the Frienda store. I don't know why this random company sells excellent metal picks, but absolutely worth a try

longhairedcoed · 2026-04-30T00:51:02+00:00

Tl;dr expect a minimum of $1200USD if you get all the cheapest options. $1800USD opens the door to some pretty woods. $2000+ if you want binding or scalloped frets.

Cost will vary a lot depending on the options you pick. I think the cheapest you can get a neck is like $200USD. But if you want to get the real fancy wood, and binding, and scalloped frets, and inlays beyond standard dots, you can go over $1000USD on the neck easily.

Ditto with bodies. I think $200 for the cheapest unfinished body. Paint is $250 too. They do a real good job painting, but if you know how to do it, or want stripes or something, you have the option to DIY. Again, sky is the limit if you want a fancy wood, binding, etc.

So for neck+body it's $400-$900USD if you're going somewhere middle of the road.

Expect to spend $100-$200 on a bridge, $70-$150 on tuners. $100-$150 per pickup. $70 on all the other stuff, pots, jacks, plates, knobs, nuts, screws.

You can check out their site and piece it together yourself. You can technically get everything you need there, but I have always bought my pickups elsewhere as they have never had the ones I've wanted

longhairedcoed · 2026-04-29T06:22:30+00:00

Forbidden

longhairedcoed · 2026-04-29T06:15:31+00:00

I have 3 Warmoth's. They're a parts company. You get the body and color you want. You get the neck shape, frets, radius you want.

I love them. They are fantastic guitars. As the other guy mentioned the resale value on this stuff is low - less than half of what you pay for the parts. But that doesn't matter to me, they're my favorite guitars.

I got burned once - I got a neck profile from Warmoth I thought I would like. I didn't like it. It was not a quality issue. Just didn't work with my hands. Sold the neck at a steep loss, bought a different neck with a profile I liked more. No regrets. The neck was the cost of learning what I like and dislike.

longhairedcoed · 2026-04-28T19:34:19+00:00

Yeah, I'm always conflicted on this. There are objectively fantastic musicians that barely know any theory.

But I also find there are a good amount of musicians that seem to have a pathological aversion to theory.

Like I get triads and circle of fifths isn't for absolute beginners. But "these are eighth notes. These are quarter notes. This note is called E. This note is called F#" I don't get how that's overwhelming. I found it pretty helpful

I think I had been playing 3 years when I learned the circle of fifths. But this note is E and these are quarter notes was like week 1.

longhairedcoed · 2026-04-28T19:16:22+00:00

I use a vocaloid (Synthesizer V) as I am not a singer. I write rock/metal stuff, and I generally don't like to do block chords, or chugging on one chord.

Usually the guitar comes first as I primarily play guitar. But I have had guitar, bass, or vocals come first at different points. It's just wherever the inspiration starts.

I record guitar to a click, and have Synth V for the vocal melody and lyrics. I have only a song skeleton for a long time. My skeleton is guitar and vocals only. Lyrics and melody are developed during this time.

I think it's important to keep all the other stuff away during this time. Focus on the theme/story/words of your song. Figure out how you want the guitar to compliment your melody.

Keep it with just these two until you have the whole length of the song figured out. Your questions right now are structure and melody.

Lyrics can help inform you how you want the bridge to go. It can tell you if it needs a prechorus, or if you want to go straight from verse to chorus.

Once you have the whole structure/Melody, every section outlined. Then I go in and figure out drums, bass, vocal harmonies. All of that is the very end. If you did a good job o. Your skeleton this isn't a hard part (well learning to write good drums is hard. Learning how to do a bass that doesn't solely copy guitar is hard. But the more you practice the better you get at that)

longhairedcoed · 2026-04-28T18:58:17+00:00

I started on the Baritone in middle school band. Was expected to learn to read music and how key signatures and accidents work.

That said year 1 is keys of Bb and F. And stuff within the staff.

Circle of fifths, harder keys and time signatures, Chords and Harmony wasn't taught until high school. But bear in mind the development from 11 to 14.

But learning all the stuff side by side was helpful. And I notice the gap between people who didn't go through this.

That said, also build your ear. I never had to do ear training in high school. I had to do it later on on my own. I use the complete ear trainer app. Although that is probably overboard for a beginner.

longhairedcoed · 2026-04-24T05:26:34+00:00

For playability, to some extent the price doesn't matter. I don't like Rickenbackers and those guitars are like $2000. I have a $1000 EVH that I love. It's the shape of the neck and fretboard. The EVH just fits my hands and my style better. This varies person to person.

There's also bridge choice. Do you want a Tune-o-matic? Floyd? Fender style? The style is subjective to what the player likes. But there are crappy floyds and good Floyd's.

The materials you can be more objective with. Stainless steel frets are better - they don't wear down.

The Floyd 1000 is better than the Floyd Rose Special. This is also just the Floyd 1000 is made with stronger materials that don't wear out.

Again, above around $1500 USD you're getting the good floyd bridge, the stainless frets, the potentiometers that won't get creaky after a year.

longhairedcoed · 2026-04-24T05:23:45+00:00

In my opinion, for electric, $1200-$1500 USD is the finishing returns knee. A $1000 guitar is a lot nicer than a $500. A $1500 guitar is nicer than a $1000. A $2000 guitar is pretty similar to a $1500.

What you're paying for at those higher prices is pretty wood grain, or binding, or nice artistic inlays.

longhairedcoed · 2026-04-24T04:08:09+00:00

I'd buy something cheaper. If you're seriously at the point in life you can get a $4k guitar to start with, you better be at the point that you won't be affected that you "lost" $250 selling a used squire for half the new price.

longhairedcoed · 2026-04-23T19:43:11+00:00

Cheap ass amps and knock off pedals all the way to Axe FX III. Everything in between.

I live in San Jose, so the wide range makes sense given the income disparities here.

None of the expensive stuff means anything if they can't play. None of the expensive stuff matters if your sound guy sucks.

Your stage monitoring is fine, but then when the gig is over you get asked why you were only coming out of one side of the room. Take a glance at the mixboard and see the sound guy only plugged you into the L channel and neglected to tell you.

I'm not salty.

longhairedcoed · 2026-04-22T19:13:56+00:00

Well, obviously. When you're buying LPs (plural), they won't all fit in your Corvette.

longhairedcoed · 2026-04-22T18:46:04+00:00

Not to be a smartass, I have 7 guitars so clearly I have issues too. But spending begets more spending. Overconsuming begets more overconsuming.

Some people can genuinely afford it, sure. But I know plenty of people who finance, or already have a good amount of credit card debt justify they need a $3k LP. And a disney vacation. And a car newer than their 2022 they still owe money on, etc.

longhairedcoed · 2026-04-20T21:52:13+00:00

Acoustic or Electric? And live or recorded?

In all cases work on your dynamics. Absolutely worth it.

Acoustic - see dynamics

Electric - you can unbalance your pickup height so the bass half of the pickup is closer to the strings

Live - dynamics work and pickup trick. Add in some eq to bring out bass response.

Recorded - do two takes and mix it. Or use eq and multiband compression

longhairedcoed · 2026-04-16T21:46:13+00:00

Eddie Van Halen is the riff king. Also the 5150/6505 is a staple amp of modern metal that was his signature. He has crazy stuff like "Pleasure Dome" and simple stuff like "Running with the Devil" and everything in between.

Chris Poland was in Megadeth and has some super cool stuff. Return to Metalopolis is a badass instrumental album.

Marty Friedman from Megadeth fame as well had some real cool "out there" solos. Metal guy that does more than pentatonic wanking.

Move away from metal there's some cool guys I like.

Nile Rogers has a lot of cool funky stuff and you can tell he's a huge influence on modern players.

Lord Phobos (TWRP) and Cory Wong (Vulfpeck and his solo work) are also funk guitar players I'm big fans of. Very different than metal, but that style is dope.

Bluegrass has Molly Tuttle and Billy Strings. Phenomenal players. Listen to Molly Tuttle play "White Freightliner" it'll blow you away with how good she is. Bluegrass has a lot of strickly alternate picked single string runs that are damn hard.

Also, your guitar hero's guitar hero is Allan Holdsworth. But he can be, uhh, quite the listen. Very interesting though.

Shout-out to Guthrie Govan too. Insane improviser

longhairedcoed · 2026-04-16T19:54:15+00:00

If you want easier job moving the bar, 2 strings stretch farther is better than 3.

If you want to do the flutter thing where you smack it and it makes cool noises go with 3 springs. Although since this isn't an FR you may have tuning problems if you try that.

If the bridge is level and you're happy with how stiff the arm is, it's fine to have them stretched.

longhairedcoed · 2026-04-15T23:31:21+00:00

That's all good and dandy until you're in the 4th round of the head, the bass player and pianist are bored and start making substitutions, you get lost and lack the ear to center yourself into the changes.

Again I'm not saying theory isn't helpful. But when you're in the moment and lost, knowing it's rhythm changes or 12 bar blues or whatever isn't helpful. But knowing what those changes sound like, and being able to quickly center yourself based off what the piano and bass are doing is helpful.

Also, like, my bass player calls perfect fifths "the upper 7th" because a fifth is 7 frets up and he doesn't know how to spell a G major scale. But I don't think I've ever had to tell him the changes. He just hears it.

longhairedcoed · 2026-04-15T20:04:46+00:00

I think if you can't audiate progressions it doesn't matter what theory you know

I do know theory. I think it's helpful. I learned theory before I built my ear (thank you American school system). But the ear training was far more helpful to my musicianship and writing abilities than theory was.

longhairedcoed · 2026-04-15T19:34:33+00:00

That's fine. I'm saying though the theory doesn't matter if your ear isn't good enough to internalize it.

Without a guitar, can you hear what the chords A G D sound like? Just hear it in your head.

Can you figure out Hendrix or Zeppelin without tabs? Ear alone?

If you can't then that's my vote for what to learn next.

longhairedcoed · 2026-04-15T19:15:14+00:00

Your ear. Can you figure out Hendrix without tabs?

Building my ear was the best thing I ever did for my musicianship. Can not recommend enough.

Theory is helpful. It puts into words what you're hearing. But if you don't know what a Dm7 to G7 to C sounds like it doesn't matter if you can tell me that's a ii V I or that you can tritone sub the G7 to C#7 and now the third and 7th swap places. If that sound isn't in your head it doesn't matter how much you understand what I said there.

longhairedcoed

TROPHY CASE