| 1. |
Stuff the
guitar with foam rubber or inflated balloons.
Bend a wire coat hanger to facilitate installation or removal. |
| 2. |
Tape
up the f-holes. (The tape may ruin the finish). |
| 3. |
Put
foam rubber in the f-holes, closing them. Doug Turner will
design foam plugs for your guitar. See them at: www.dougsplugs.com They look so cool
you can't tell they are there. I highly recommend these. |
| 4. |
Glue
thin balsa wood painted flat black to the underside of the f-holes.
Because of it's permanence, this isn't recommended. |
| 5. |
Use
a metal bridge instead of wood. |
| 6. |
Use
flat wound heavy strings. |
| 7. |
Place
the amp to the left so that your body shields the guitar. |
| 8. |
Set
the amp at a lower volume. |
| 9. |
Wind
more of the string onto the tuning gear stem, adding weight to the
head stock and more tension on the nut. |
| 10. |
Place
a thin strip of foam under the strings in the first fret to dampen
open strings. |
| 11. |
Wrap
a thin strip (quarter of an inch) of duct tape, adhesive tape, or
packing tape around the strings at the first fret, "sandwiching" them
between the tape. |
| 12. |
Remove the pickup covers for a thinner sound. |
| 13. |
Use
a solid body guitar or an arch top with a plywood top if you must play in a situation which causes
feedback. |
| 14. |
Use as little tone enhancement as possible
on the amplifier. Start with the tone controls on zero and try to
get a sound you like with the lowest possible settings. |
| 15. |
Turn
in the pickup screws on strings 5 and 6 to reduce the volume a little. |
| 16. |
Since
each guitar will vibrate differently and create feedback differently,
experiment with all 6 screws, turning them in and out to find the
best combination. Joe Leonard told me that Steve Howe turns all six
screws in as far as they go. |
| 17. |
When
playing with a band, have the bassist and amp on the drummer's left, put your amp on the drummer's right
and then you on the right side of your amp. Your body will be between your guitar and the rest of the band and amps, shielding it. In the venue pictured above, for some reason, the overall sound was better setting up the opposite way. That's my Stromberg with a plywood top. It doesn't feedback.
|
| 18. |
Get
the bassist to use as little tone enhancement as possible and play
softer. Bass guitars cause more feedback than upright
basses. The smaller (an fewer) the bass amp speakers are, the less
trouble you will have. Hire a bassist with a focused sound that
isn't "boomy". |
| 19. |
Beware
of drummers with shiny new cymbals. |
| 20. |
If
you can be happy with a 10 inch speaker it will cause less feedback
than a 12 or 15. The fewer speakers you have, the less feedback
there will be. Four 10 inch speakers will cause more feedback
than one 10 inch speaker. |
| 21. |
Use
a closed back speaker cab. The sound only comes out
of the front. |
| 22. |
Put
your amp on the floor, not on a chair. Aim it straight ahead. Don't
tilt it up toward the guitar. |
| 23. |
Have
a luthier put a "sound post" in your guitar connecting
the front and the back. |
| 24. |
Plywood
tops feed back less than spruce because the accoustic
response is minimized. |
| 25. |
Holes
cut into a guitar top to install pickups result in less feed back
than floating pickups. |
| 26. |
Play
softer, beneath the feedback threshold. |
| 27. |
If
the drummer is using clear heads, they may be tuned to a pitch
that makes your guitar go crazy. You could investigate this and
perhaps ask the drummer to change his tuning. If that doesn't work, hire a drummer with coated heads next time.
|
| 28. |
David Phillips of Texas uses an accoustic
amp with a notch filter. |
| 29. |
If
you don't like flat wound strings, use round wound on strings 3 and
4. Use flats on 5 and 6 where most of the feedback comes
from. |
| 30. |
Try
a multi-band equalizer to reduce the sound areas that
cause feedback.
|
