How to produce this one effect...

[Atma]

Hey, this is my first post on this forum. So Hello. :)
I've heard this effect on quite some songs. It's basically playing a note normally, and then having it turn into a harmonic. How do I do that? Is it a with a Volume Pedal or some other pedal? Well thanks in advance.

-Pinny.

[speedymartinho]

did get this right...but are you talking of natural harmonics or pinched harmonics???i think you are talking of pinched harmonics no? plz be more specific?

[Atma]

No not pinch harmonics. If you do pinch harmonics you get the harmonic sound right away. What I mean is first getting a clean sound, and then making it sound like a harmonic without picking the note again.

[AcousticShred]

Its a type of artificial harmonic. You play the note than place your finger lightly on the string, 12 frets higher. That will produce an octave harmonic. 3, 5, and 7 frets higher will also produce a harmonic

[Asperjames]

oh man ive been wondering how to do that

[Hybridpicker]

Nope, thats not what he's talking about.

He's talking about combination of feedback, and the natural harmonic
produced when a string sustains, and is then pushed by air from a loud amplifier.
Usually its a fifth or an octave of whatever note you've hit.

Crank your amp up, stand in front of it, and hit an open A, while muting all other
strings. If you get the gain and volume right, the A note will eventually morph
into a feedback/harmonic.

[Pekkaman]

I think there is some kind of thing you can "build into" your guitar that allows you to get that effect whenever you want to. Steve Vai has it in one of his guitars.

[JonR]

It could be either as AcousticShred or HybridPicker say.
HP's way will turn slowly into the harmonic - but you need a lot of distortion and/or volume, and controlling it can be tricky. It's not reliable, IOW - unless you spend a lot of time practising it.
AS's way gets the harmonic immediately, and you can of course control when it occurs, and which harmonic you get. You still need a lot of distortion/compression, but not as much as with the other method.

I don't see how this effect could be achieved with any built-in device in the guitar - or why it should be necessary. Much easier to control with the touch method.

[PhantomLord]

steve vai uses a sustainiac pickup, which has the option to turn all of your notes into harmonics...

do you have an example of what you mean in a song or something?

[LAC]

just a followup on this. I've actually heard in a couple of songs where the HARMONIC turns in a CLEAN note. :eek: I may have heard wrong, but if not, how can this be done?

[crusty]

just a followup on this. I've actually heard in a couple of songs where the HARMONIC turns in a CLEAN note. :eek: I may have heard wrong, but if not, how can this be done?

Could be a digital effect, or the guitar track was played backwards.

[HeavyFeather]

AcousticShred and Hybridpicker have the manual methods..

Though there are other ways it could have been done too. I think Hybrid's way will get the fade-in effect better than Acoustic's..

It could have been done via a sustainiac or a feedbacker unit too..