Getting the feedback sustain sound with Axe Fx

shinodax

shinodax

Member
Hello fellow Axe men,

I've been wondering if it's possible to get that feedback sound like a real amp with guitar facing towards it when the sustain dies off. I hope you get what i mean. Anyway, I tend to use the noise gate to cut away excess humming from the amount of gain. The sustain can get very long with comp and some boosting but it always get cut off by the noise gate. I am using headphones to monitor the axe fx and I am not sure if it's the cause of it. Anyone out there with a proper amplification system for the AFX, please advice me. Thanks!

Cheers!
 
It's not gonna happen with headphones. You need a speaker that moves enough air to get the strings vibrating. Here's what a feedback loop is about:
1. strings vibrate
2. pickup turns vibration to voltage
3. amp amplifies the voltage
4. speaker turns voltage to air waves
5. air waves make strings vibrate ---> back to step 2 and we have a feedback loop

Totally doable with a guitar, Axe-Fx, and amp and speaker which are able to move enough air to get the strings vibrating.

Maybe, I don't know if it's possible, you'd use another set of headphones set tightly against guitar body. Now if that set of headphones could make the guitar body and thereby the strings vibrate you could create a feedback loop.
 
Thanks for the info! I read about it somewhere but I cant really remember it clearly. Sometimes on my headphones, it can have tt feedback sustain but it's very rare. I try it with a keyboard amp but no chance getting it as well. Maybe the noise gate has too much threshold. hmm. Anyway since it's doable, I feel much more relieved cos tt feedback sound is one of the main thing I always use when solo-ing.

Another question here. So when im recording, I will tweak the tones with my headphones but I want to achieve tt feedback sustain sound. Seems like it cant be done as everything will be direct to DAW and only miking up a cabinet would help. Any ideas?
 
If I turn up the volume on my studio monitors it will sustain for days. Doesn't have to be way too loud either.

It will depend on a room, guitar and of course the settings you use.


Nick.

shinodax said:
Thanks for the info! I read about it somewhere but I cant really remember it clearly. Sometimes on my headphones, it can have tt feedback sustain but it's very rare. I try it with a keyboard amp but no chance getting it as well. Maybe the noise gate has too much threshold. hmm. Anyway since it's doable, I feel much more relieved cos tt feedback sound is one of the main thing I always use when solo-ing.

Another question here. So when im recording, I will tweak the tones with my headphones but I want to achieve tt feedback sustain sound. Seems like it cant be done as everything will be direct to DAW and only miking up a cabinet would help. Any ideas?
Click to expand...
 
Yes, speakers don't necessarily need to be loud in order to get feedback. And the speaker can be any speaker, guitar cab, studio monitor, pa monitor, hifi, etc ;) So it could be possible that with loud and open designed headphones you could also get feedback, maybe.

And no, you don't need to mic a cab to get feedback. Actually, micing a cab doesn't have anything to do with feedback from guitar.

Also, the position and the direction where the guitar is relative to the speaker has an effect on how easy it is to get feedback. And there is not just one magical position nor direction but several. Walk around the room and play a note and see if it starts to feedback, then move to another position and play the same note. You may also notice that some notes feedback better than other notes in one position and the other notes feedback better in yet another position.

Too high gate settings may sometimes indeed cut the note out before it goes into feedback. You could first experiment with gate off and then raise it to the level where you still get feedback where you want.

Also, if you have strong magnetic pickups too close to the strings, it will be harder to get a note into feedback loop because you need more air movement to move the strings that are being pulled by the pickups' magnetic field.
 
I have a suspect.

You are using gain to compensate for lack of air volume. Once you gig, you will have unwanted noise, scream and feedback.
You have to compensate. Tweak at high volume. Then learn how to translate high level sound into phones (whenever possible).
 
Can't get into "feedback" per say in headphones, but you can get the infinite sustain thing going on a good guitar and
consequently the effect of milking a sustain like that yeah, especially with a light harmonic rolling off at the end of a note.
I don't know how long you need it to go? I mean 15 to 20 seconds or so it actually a long time sitting there milking a note :D
Thru a power amp and speakers it's effortless, but first time i realized i could let it bloom like that in headphones i had a huge smile on my face.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom