How to prevent high pitch feedback when palm muting

Question

I have a Les Paul with Burstbucker pickups. They sound amazing because they are so hot (very high output). However, when I play with a lot of overdrive, it will constantly squeal (super annoying high pitch feedback) any time I stop strumming or muting the strings.

I added a noise suppressor (Boss NS-2) to the front of my effects chain, which works great for when I'm not playing. But when I'm palm muting the squeal is heard between each strum. How can I prevent this? And no, turning down the volume or reducing overdrive is not an option; this is my metal guitar :).

Maybe tweak the noise suppressor, add compression, noise gate, eq with high end cut out, etc?

Answer 1

If you are are playing at high gain/volume, then you will need to mute any unplayed strings with your left-hand, or the palm of your right-hand to stop the strings feeding back. Good muting technique is essential when playing loud rock/metal. If at any point in the song you stop playing, or between songs, you can roll the volume pot off to mute the output until you start playing again. This is not so easy on a Les Paul if you are using both pickups because they each have their own volume control. For this reason I use a volume pedal in front of my amp.

The noise suppressor won't really help you, they are designed to get rid of the background hum when their is no signal on their input. Loud feedback counts as a signal, and so the suppressor will let it through.

If you still get the feedback when fully muting the strings, then this sounds like a problem with microphonic pickups, usually a problem if they are not wax-potted (though I believe the Burstbuckers are), in which case you might need to change to more suitable pickups.

Answer 2

In addition to Paulski's answer, there are a couple of very useful ways to reduce feedback in a high gain audio system:

• if the feedback frequency is fixed, cut that frequency out using an equaliser. Typically you won't need to remove it completely, but just reduce it enough that it doesn't feed back any more
• if the feedback frequency varies as you move around, then you can tune it to either help the notes you are playing by increasing the signal level, or if you move to a spot where the feedback frequency doesn't match any of the notes being played them you may find it doesn't feed back
• on stage, place the speakers in front of you. This will reduce the nose level on stage and let you run your monitors at a much lower level

Also, while a noise suppressor may not be that effective, using a compressor/noise gate combination as the first pedal in your chain can kill off feedback before it even starts. I have had to do this in certain venues where I needed high gain but the acoustics were very bad. I ended up cranking the noise gate to a much higher level than normal, with a sharp attack, and then compressing heavily.

Answer 3

1: your guitar cable is rubbish (thin cables tend to cause feedback)

2: Reduce your gain!

One thing a lost of metal musicians do wrong is they dial in too much gain on the amp. The gain will compress your tone loosing clarity and definition and cause feedback and you should especially if you are playing on stage and you cant "cut through" the mix. Im rocking on a peavey 6505+ tube head (used by many popular metal bands) and its rare to find me cranked past 5.5 on the pre gain (post depends on the venue for volume) Mostly i play hardcore metal or gothenburg melodic death metal. The only time i will is with a tube screamer running into the amp when i want a more "flowie liquid" sound on very fast lead runs.

reduce your gain!!!