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A pinch harmonic is a sound you make by picking the guitar string and lightly touching it with the underside of your thumb while hitting a note. It makes the note you picked "scream" in a higher pitch sound.
After the harmonic was picked you bend the note on the fretboard with your finger foward and back in a fast motion.


SETTING UP YOUR INSTRUMENT

Firstly you need a kick a** guitar such as a Jackson, ESP, Schecter, Gibson, Fender, or anyother brands that arent from Wal-mart.




If you bought a cheap guitar such as ESP LTD h-50 you are going to want to upgrade the pick-ups to either a Seymour Duncan or an EMG. Active pick-ups are best and remeber that the bridge pickup is the more important one. (I only upgraded my bridge)




After you have you guitar set up you want to put some gain on your amp and turn on the distortion. (this helps the pinch harmonic sound more present)




HOW TO HOLD THE PICK

Hold it so that you thumb is about 1.5mm above the bottom tip of the pic at a relaxed postion. Press down firmly on your thumb. Your thumb should flatten a bit and go towards the bottom of the pic. When hitting normal notes keep it relaxed and when the harmonic comes up press down so that your thumb widends to about .30mm under the bottom of the pic. The harmonic should be present.


MAKE IT SHREIK

To make the harmonic scream, hence pinch harmonic, you will heve to bend the note on the fretboard. Bend it from a half bend to a full, rocking back and forth in both directions at the speed of your choice.





Follow these directions and you should be able to do a pinch harmonic. Don’t get impatent though, it might take some practice to get it down but once you got it it’ll be pretty easy.

If you don’t know what a pinch harmonic sounds like just search it up on Youtube.

=)=)

********' Zakk Wylde Dx

whoops i screwed that last post up....the thing on top was quoted not the bottom...

if u dont know what a pinch harmonic is listen to Zakk Wylde you will find out!!

I have one of those wal -mart guitars and I can do it on that as well as my warlock so the guitar doesnt have to be great you just need a decent amp and bit of practice doing it, but it took forever for me to get it right. i have also noticed that it is easier if your guitar strings are tuned down a lil bit becase they are slightly looser

um...no. just no. a well placed pinch harmonic can give a solo a huge edge. although i agree that pinching every few seconds does sorta kill the purpose.

One can have his own opinion on what is in excess, and what isn't.