I'm a big fan of non-guitar sounds produced by guitars, and I was wondering if anyone had any cool ones they'd be willing to share.

One of my personal favorites is making your guitar sound like a steel drum by weaving heavy picks between the strings and playing between the picks.

I was also wondering how the hell the guitar sound on "Passing Complexion" was achieved.

hi,

try getting a setting with your amp that generates a controlled feedback. Then push down the E and A string till they hit the pickguard (or body).
Keep the pressure on them and move your fingers (the ones pushing down) closer and further towards the bridge pick-up until the strings nearly hit the pick-up's magnets. This generates an high pitched feedback-note that you can (kinda) control.

also

Try using some aligator-clips on the strings.
When in the right place between the neck and bridge pick-up, this can generate some nice gamelan sounds.

darktowel wrote:hi,

try getting a setting with your amp that generates a controlled feedback. Then push down the E and A string till they hit the pickguard (or body).
Keep the pressure on them and move your fingers (the ones pushing down) closer and further towards the bridge pick-up until the strings nearly hit the pick-up's magnets. This generates an high pitched feedback-note that you can (kinda) control.

also

Try using some aligator-clips on the strings.
When in the right place between the neck and bridge pick-up, this can generate some nice gamelan sounds.

It's actually kinda funny that you mention the alligator clips; someone on this forum has a Don Caballero fan site with a message board and Mike Banfield posted that he used alligator clips to create the song "Cold Knees in April."

Also, I managed to get a really really cool feedback effect with the equipment I have at home. It's kind of embarassing because I have such crappy equipment ATM, but it's interesting enough to warrant posting it. I use a Strat with three single-coil pickups and a 5-way toggle, an Ibanez very small practice bass amp, a homemade single transistor distortion box, a Boss DS-1 distortion pedal, and a Boss Auto-Wah that I only really use to do this. Now, if i turn on all three pedals and hold my guitar really close to my amp, I can feedback. If I toggle the switch, the pitch of the feedback changes. If increase the "depth" setting on the modulation effect on the auto-wah, the feedback modulates, and I can play with the knobs to get this realy cool laser-y feedback thing.

Cheesy, I know, but I think it's pretty neat.

Speaking of effects, if you plug in a wah pedal backwards (into the out jack and out of the in jack) you can get some really insane sounds as well, though you can't really control them and they're not very melodic.

Listen to Fred Frith - Guitar Solos.

I've been using ring modulators a lot. You can get anything from really rich bell-like tones if you've tuned the control frequency to some low-number ratio relationship to the key you're in, to weird clanky dissonance if you don't tune it carefully (or deliberately tune it to high-number ratios).

I've used the EH Frequency Analyzer (their ring mod) live; it's a nice stomp box, and pretty cheap. It's also fun to spin the knobs with the side of your shoe while you're playing.

Lately I'm using Max/MSP-based software, which isn't controllable by foot, but which lets me set up several different ring mods in parallel.

This one is hard to describe but I'll try:

Take your g string and pull it up and over so it is on the other side of the d string. Hold them down around the 3rd to 6th fret. Then if you play them both together, it sounds like a big church bell.

Also, take a quarter and catch the high e between the grooves on the edge of the coin. Gently rub back and forth and you should get a nice abrasive high pitch sound that you can modulate by moving the coin toward or away from the bridge pickup. Then put the quarter under the e, over the b and g and under the d. Gently (very gently) tap the coin. You should get a nice combination of low grumble and dissonance from the strings. Play with the tunings, too.

Dylan wrote:Also, take a quarter and catch the high e between the grooves on the edge of the coin. Gently rub back and forth and you should get a nice abrasive high pitch sound that you can modulate by moving the coin toward or away from the bridge pickup. Then put the quarter under the e, over the b and g and under the d. Gently (very gently) tap the coin. You should get a nice combination of low grumble and dissonance from the strings. Play with the tunings, too.

Ah... adding mass to the strings, thus slowing the rate of vibration... very cool idea.

I have a DOD Delay pedal that I cracked open and messed with the sample rate and got some really cool lo-fi sounds.

Say, does anyone know how the Butthole Surfers got that vocal effect on Cream Corn from the Socket of Davis song, Comb? I am assume it's a comb filter, but I've never had a rack effect (or any rack effect for that matter) that had a comb filter. If you aren't familiar with the song, it sounds like a weird combination of a slap back delay and tremolo.

jawknee wrote:I have a DOD Delay pedal that I cracked open and messed with the sample rate and got some really cool lo-fi sounds.

Huh, interesting.. if you don't mind sharing, how exactly did you change the sample rate? I've never opened a digital delay.. it's always seemed intimidating...

I'd imagine it's different for every pedal, but in the DOD there were pots that you can adjust. When the sample rate was brought down, the sample time got longer and the quality went down. It sounded very analog.