Satch Skills

[adanniels]

Hello I have suddenly beccome interested in Joe Satriani. I was wondering how he does the squeal trick where he puts his fret hand finger near the neck pickup and uses the whammy bar. I would like to try it, it sounds really cool.

There is a video of Satch demonstrating "Surfin' with the alien" where he explains it but I don't know what he means.

Here is the link: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7353912377041786985

Thanks

[Pablo Gilberto]

well actually he plays a pinched harmonic on the G-string (with his picking hand of course) and then he lets the whammy bar go up from way down with his fretting hand

greetz

[adanniels]

1.) How exactly do you do a pinch harmonic?
2.) Is there anything special behind him using the fret hand to do the harmonic and using the whammy bar at the same time while he picks close to the bridge.

[TomDeano]

when you pick the note, you pinch the string between your thumb and pick, thus the name "pinch" harmonic. but yeah, you need high distortion. and it comes with time and practice, so dont feel bad if it doesnt work out immediately. its better if it is shown to you in person though.