crazy guitar sounds

castiron

New member
anyone know how to make some crazy 'weird' sounds using effects. or even not using effects. like how to make cat noises or sirens any weird freaky stuff like that?
 
Re: crazy guitar sounds

first step is to get anything by Adrian Belew. There is no one, I mean, *no one* who does strange sounds as well as he does.
 
Re: crazy guitar sounds

If you want a siren, play slow hammer/pulloffs between two notes that are 3 frets apart (10p7h10p7h10...etc) on the high E string and slowly push down on the trem bar.

That's all I can think of right now
 
Re: crazy guitar sounds

If you want horrible, atonal noise, My Bloody Valentine style, try strumming your strings behind the nut with alot of gain. You can control the intensity by how much pressure you apply to the strings to dampen them with your normal fretting hand.

I've never found a use for this (except maybe to drown out drummers inane rambling)
because it just sounds horrible to my ears. But what ever floats your boat, I guess.
 
Re: crazy guitar sounds

If you have a flanger, turn all the knobs to 10. you will easily enter into "weird sounds" mode.
 
Re: crazy guitar sounds

i use a floyd to summon ghosts




coincidence that this thread poped up again today? i think not.
earlier today i was experimenting with my gutiar and came up with a weird, haunted mansion type sound which i'm going to use for a song in the future. i have a small sniplet of it recorded but it doesnt do the whole thing justice... some might find it very boring and cheesy, but for me it's fun.. builds the anticipation of the fast bits that follow :D
 
Re: crazy guitar sounds

You can emultate a heart rate monitor (the ones that make noises in hospitals) by turning your neck pup vol down, flick to the middle position, play a harmonic on the 5th fret of the G (w/dist) and flick the switch to bridge then back to mid in the rhythm of the heart beat.
 
Re: crazy guitar sounds

Middle "whale" section of Pink Floyd - Echoes:
Plug your vintage style (Crybaby, Vox, etc.) wah in backward, output in the input, etc. and add a delay after it. Use a combination of the Tone pot, wah sweep and volume control to vary the pitch. (The delay adds spaciousness to the sound)

Cool harmonic dive:
Play a 5th fret natural harmonic on the "D" string, play a 7th fret natural harmonic on the "G" string, and as soon as you pluck it fret the 7th fret. If you do it right, the harmonic note continues. Then bend the G toward the floor... On a loud distorted amp you'll hear a sub-harmonic drop along with the dissonance you created.
 
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Re: crazy guitar sounds

Has anyone seen that Van Halen backstage/interview tape during the early Hagar
era where Eddie shows how he does a horse whinny and an elephant sound? I taped
it off of MTV 15+ years ago--I think that footage was shown in one of their concert
videos. If I remember right, his volume pot is all the way down and he hits 3(?)
different harmonics, each on a different string. This produces a dissonant chord--
then, he turns the volume knob up (amp is cranked with distortion and some echo)
and (I think) he has the bar down--turning up the volume and releasing the bar to
sharpen the chord produces the whinnying sounds. I might actually have this tape
in storage--I'll have to dig it out.

Also, Doug Marks, the guy who did the Metal Method series of instruction tapes,
used to have a cassette called "Metal Tricks," which was all about making odd
sounds with your guitar. IIRC, some of it was pretty basic (pick scrapes on the
wound strings with echo, the "bees" sound like the introduction to Hendrix's
"Foxy Lady"--done with echo effect, vibrato, then fading in with the volume knob
with the amp cranked, bending behind the nut, "faking" a wang bar being pulled
up by trilling on a string with your fretting hand and pulling the string sharp with
your picking hand (above the fretting hand).

I actually have this tape (again, in storage)--I'll see if I can find it to refresh my
memory.
 
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Re: crazy guitar sounds

Great_Kazoo said:
Has anyone seen that Van Halen backstage/interview tape during the early Hagar
era where Eddie shows how he does a horse whinny and an elephant sound? I taped
it off of MTV 15+ years ago--I think that footage was shown in one of their concert
videos. If I remember right, his volume pots are all the way down and he hits 3(?)
different harmonics, each on a different string. This produces a dissonant chord--
then, he turns the volume knob up (amp is cranked with distortion and some echo)
and (I think) he has the bar down--turning up the volume and releasing the bar to
sharpen the chord produces the whinnying sounds. I might actually have this tape
in storage--I'll have to dig it out.

Also, Doug Marks, the guy who did the Metal Method series of instruction tapes,
used to have a cassette called "Metal Tricks," which was all about making odd
sounds with your guitar. IIRC, some of it was pretty basic (pick scrapes on the
wound strings with echo, the "bees" sound like the introduction to Hendrix's
"Foxy Lady"--done with echo effect, vibrato, then fading in with the volume knob
with the amp cranked, bending behind the nut, "faking" a wang bar being pulled
up by trilling on a string with your fretting hand and pulling the string sharp with
your picking hand (above the fretting hand).

I actually have this tape (again, in storage)--I'll see if I can find it to refresh my
memory.
Eddie used volume and tone pots
i thought he only had a tone pot on his guitar
 
Re: crazy guitar sounds

Not sure if I understand--but my previous post above yours should actually
have said "500K volume pot" (singular). So he was only having to work the
one knob!
 
Re: crazy guitar sounds

Great_Kazoo said:
Not sure if I understand--but my previous post above yours should actually
have said "500K volume pot" (singular). So he was only having to work the
one knob!
okay got ya thanks
 
Re: crazy guitar sounds

Take a spoon, mute your strings with your fretting hand and tap the strings with the spoon

The old remote control pointed at pickups is always fun

Setting up a chain of effects, putting your guitar facing the amp and then just twiddling knobs through feedback is always fun
 
Re: crazy guitar sounds

Oh, for DJ scratching (I did this in the middle of a solo in jazz band this past year...wicked fun)

I used a gated envelope filter, but an overdriven flange would work as well if you can immediately mute your signal for the scratching...just do short pick scrapes. If you get the envelope filter going, you can also play the strings like a set of congas. Just make sure the filter cuts off before getting too shrill.

I did it and the crowd went nucking futs...


Oh, and another good one is warbling with the wah pedal...it's kind of hard to explain because I've only done it when I was really feeling a song and can barely stand anymore...but you essentially just let your foot spasm back and forth on the wah pedal...it works better with longer notes.
 
Re: crazy guitar sounds

If you have a floating trem...
Using distoriton, dig in and bend a note (lets say... B string 17th fret) and when its up there grab your bar and jerk it "up and repeat, if you do it right it sounds sweet.

Also, (we'll use G string 9th fret for this.. i beleive thats where it sounds best). Hit the note, dip bar and bend not at same time then let go of bar whie holding bend, then hit note again but pull bar up and release bend then release bar....

Hope that makes sense.
 
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