Help with annoying feedback.

TangyZizzle

S'craic lads,

Skip the spoiler if ya like, its just a tiny bit of history about the guitar and amp.

I just bought my first ever guitar and amp, I got them second hand from a friend who never bothered to use them. He got it for christmas a few years back, made a bit of noise, put it down and never picked it back up.. sooo theyre basically brand new :P

I just need some help, as this is my very first guitar Im just messing around and learning some simple tabs

My problem is, Iv now got a headache because of the constant.. em.. *iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiihhhhhhhhhhhhh* coming out of the amp, how do I stop this?

The amplifier is a 'Burswood' guitar amplifier G-10

If you need any more information from me to help me fix my problem, ask away.

Thanks guys.

Dord

Sounds like the amp is a pile of crap. What guitar is it?

TangyZizzle

Same make as the amp, Burswood. Im thinkin its a crappy starter pack?

Dord

Possibly. You should be able to get some sort of sound out of the guitar though. I'd forget about the amp and get a Roland Microcube. They're about 100euro but a bargain. Sound great and are really really small.

TangyZizzle

Oh I definitely get sound out of the guitar, its just the louder I turn up the amp the louder the sound gets. Iv noticed that when I push that little switch from side to side, the one that.. has something to do with the pickups, Im sorry but I have said this is my first guitar so bare with me, haha.. yeah when I push it from side to side the sound varies from just noticable to fu(king loud.

Maybe its the pickups? and not the amp?

Sofaspud

Is it a low pitched growly sound?

If so, it would most likely be the pickups, based on what you've described.

TangyZizzle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BC9ewiTyFaM

Its basically the sound this guy makes when he puts his thumb on the top of the plug, except its a higher pitch and its constant.

If it is the pickups causing the problem, what will I do? get them replaced?

Dord

TangyZizzle wrote: »

Oh I definitely get sound out of the guitar, its just the louder I turn up the amp the louder the sound gets. Iv noticed that when I push that little switch from side to side, the one that.. has something to do with the pickups, Im sorry but I have said this is my first guitar so bare with me, haha.. yeah when I push it from side to side the sound varies from just noticable to fu(king loud.

Maybe its the pickups? and not the amp?

Are you standing right beside the amp with the gain up very high? :pac:

If so, this is feedback. Sounds normal for what I'm guessing is a stratocaster copy??

TangyZizzle

Its definitely not the guitar, I know this now because when I pulled the plug out from the guitar, the noise coming from the amp got louder. Sooo wheres the noise coming from? Is it a bad cable? or amp?

Sofaspud

There's always feedback when the cable is unplugged from the guitar, especially if the jack (metal bit from the end of the cable) is touching anything.

I'm guessing that the pickups are single coils, i.e. look like this:



It's perfectly normal for those to feedback in that way. Especially if you have the "gain" on your amp turned up.

Have you turned down the guitars volume while it's plugged in? If it's just regular pickup feedback, it should be (more or less) silent when the guitar's volume is down.

TangyZizzle

Yeah thats the kind of pickup that it has, Iv turned down the volume on the guitar and the sound does get lower but I thought the fact that it was still there meant there was something wrong.

I had to google 'gain' so find out what you meant just there, and no its nowhere near being turned up full. Volume is on 1, treble 0 and bass 0. As long as I keep the sound on the amp clean the sound is barely noticeable.. but I wanna play Kyuss :P As soon as I hit the overdrive button the sound is back.

Sofaspud

That kind of pickup is called a "single coil" pickup, and it's perfectly normal for them to output a LOT of feedback when on a distorted / overdriven channel. That's why you rarely see strat-type guitars (or any guitars with single coils) play metal / heavily distorted styles.

There's no problem with the guitar or amp, that's just a normal thing to happen with that type of guitar.

"Humbucker" type pickups look like two of those single coils stuck together, and are so called because they "buck" the "hum" sound, i.e. get rid of the feedback. That's why guitars with humbuckers are more common for heay rock / metal. They give a thicker sound too, so you can eventually invest in one of those when you eventually want an upgrade, or even sooner if you're rich and impatient :P

TangyZizzle

Well sofaspud Im defo one of the 2.. guess which one lol

Ill stick this this setup for a while I suppose, thanks alot guys

demanufactured

TangyZizzle wrote: »

Yeah thats the kind of pickup that it has, Iv turned down the volume on the guitar and the sound does get lower but I thought the fact that it was still there meant there was something wrong.

I had to google 'gain' so find out what you meant just there, and no its nowhere near being turned up full. Volume is on 1, treble 0 and bass 0. As long as I keep the sound on the amp clean the sound is barely noticeable.. but I wanna play Kyuss :P As soon as I hit the overdrive button the sound is back.

The way you have the amp set might be part of the problem, bass 0 and treble 0?

Set them both to 5 and see what difference it makes.

TangyZizzle

Problem's been solved bud :P

exaisle

.....and dont play the guitar while it's facing the amp.....

TangyZizzle

exaisle wrote: »

.....and dont play the guitar while it's facing the amp.....

TangyZizzle wrote: »

Problem's been solved bud :P

Eoin Madsen

For future reference, buzzing and other noise like this are not feedback. Feedback is something completely different.