Squeal Like A Pig - What's Gone Wrong With Pinch Harmonics.

In the last 10 years the advancements in guitar technology have been so vast that it is really easy to access certain sounds from any guitar set up. In particular the development of sound modelling and high gain amps has been so expansive that it is frankly very easy to access a very usable tone both for recording and playing live but, to be frank, it has become all too easy and mistakes are being made!

These days it is so simple to rip out a pinch harmonic or squeal from your axe that the craft of a squeak, wah or peak, as I call them, is being lost. To me most pinch harmonics sound like this. Woooh for the low Zakk-like ones weeeh for the high Lynch-like ones. In a word: Bad!

Let me elaborate. Back when I was a nipper you really had to work on your squeals as you did'nt get as much response from the average set up. Players like George Lynch, Warren De Martini and Doug Aldrich turned pinch harmonics into an art form and I like to think that they shaped and crafted their notes into something more or certainly something other than the Deliverence stlye abominations that we currently hear! It's difficult to properly illustrate what I am trying to mediate here but a pinch harmonic should be a moment of beauty in an oasis of brilliance and not some chump with a dual rectifier peeling off endless Zakk atttacks and fumbling with his beard at the same time as deciding what his next tatoo is going to be. You can tell I'm old can't you.

All the above players had the ability to not only attack the note in the right way but to also slide into it whilst over laying the pinch, thus creating a dual layered note that was one part normal and one part squeal. Glorious. To elaborate I have complied a top ten of the best pinch harmonics ever and you will note that not one of the players has ever had or will ever have a beard.

For the purposes of ease the list will go like this: Guitarist/Track/Band/Album:

1. George Lynch/It's Not Love/Dokken/Under Lock and Key.

Lynch delivers a face melter of the highest order on this one. Check out the 3rd bar of the middle solo and weep. Yes that is the 22nd fret on the B string. Awesome.

2. John Sykes/Cold Sweat/Thin Lizzy/Thunder and Lightning:

The opening of this track is legendary in the Box family household. Old psycho delivbers a classic peak at the end of the 6th bar of the intro and then does Zakk like growl at the same place after the first chorus. This guy realy is one of the greatest players this country has ever produced.

3. Doug Aldrich/Hard and Heavy/Lion/Dangerous Attraction:

At the end of the 4th bar of the middle solo, Douglas does a flurry of notes and cascades into a classic sliding pinch harmonic. The hardest of art forms to nail, he even defeats the acknowledged master Mr Lynch. It's funny that Doug has a great and deserved reputation now because he has always been top draw. Good things come to those who wait.

4. Warren De Martini/7th Avenue/Ratt/Dancing Undercover:

A long way off of being premium Ratt, Warren saves the bands blushes and unleashes another sliding squeal at the beginning of the 11th bar of the middle solo. Check out how mature his phrasing and note selection are and then consider the fact that he was only 23 at the time. Guitar can be a very depressing mistress.

5. George Lynch/Heaven Sent/Dokken/Back For The Attack:

Its hard to say if this truly is a pinch harmonic but after unleashing an onslaught of them at the start of the solo, the master does something truly remarkable at the beginning of the 13th bar. Have a listen for yourself but I do know that he was slightly drunk at the time of doing the take. Kind of makes you sick.

6. Tony Macalpine/Sacred Wonder/Tony Macalpine/Maximum Security:

The Mac is generally known for being a shred genius but he is also one of the best pinchers out there and in this instance he combines it with a lovely trem dive at bar 7 in the middle solo. Next time you go and see Steve Vai just remember that the guy on the keyboards and second guitar can probably woop his ass!

7. Glenn Tipton/Hell Bent For Leather/Judas Priest/Killing Machine:

It's always interesting when a guitar player ,who we don't immediatley think of as being amazing, pulls something special out of the hat. In the immediate post Van Halen era, Tipton was one of the first to really do his homework and in the middle of the 13th bar of the solo he rips out a fiery zinger from an amp that must have been very low gain. Now that really is an art.

8. Mathias Jabs/Rock You Like a Hurricane/Scorpions/Love at First Sting:

The higher the better they say and at at the 6th bar in the middle solo, Jabs scales the North Face with an Everest-like squeak that only dogs can hear. Mathias could squeal for all Germany.

9. Tony Iommi/Neon Knights/Black Sabbath/Heaven and Hell:

Outro solo's are a lost art but sometimes at the end of songs we can hear a really gem. Immediatley after Dio sings the final words of the song, Iommi launches into what I think is his best solo and drops in a beautiful little nugget.

10. George Lynch/Stop Fighting Love/Dokken/Back For The Attack:

The master should always have the last word and George delivers a no frills affair here that is truly atomic. The end of the 5th bar of the middle solo is where to find it. It sounds so good that producer Neil Kernon showers it in delay. Wonderful.

So there you go. Now remember that a 'wooh' is what you do to try and seduce a lady... and a 'weeh' is something you do in the toilet. So no more 'woohs' and no more 'weehs' from now on. Could we please have more peaks and wahs like the good old days of low gain?