Quick question

[Ian Stuart]

Can anyone help me? When I’m palm muting open E and A (think breakdowns etc.) I get a lot of harmonic seemingly coming from the strings. I’ve played around with my hand position and it still keeps happening. Any ideas what could be causing it? Could it be that the pickups are too high perhaps?
Please help!
Guitar is a Mayones 6 Duvelle with a Seymour Duncan Nazgul

 

[Andrew Fernandes]

what are you doing with your left hand?

 

[idssdi]

You can create artificial harmonics with your picking hand as well. Maybe you palm mute very slightly and have you picking hand slightly above the strings creating artificial harmonics. Try to really press down a little in a way where the string barely vibrates.
If this won’t help it maybe your fretting hand. If you press down the fret the whole time it probably is not your fretting hand but it can’t hurt to try.

 

[Ian Stuart]

Hey guys, my left hand isn’t doing anything it’s just on 0 open string. I feel like I’m pressing down super hard already Ids, could it be anything else?

 

[idssdi]

How much gain are you using and maybe even more important how close are you to the amp? If you’re very close to the amp it may just be some feedback from the pickup to the speaker.

 

[Ian Stuart]

Ahhh this is where things get interesting!
Signal chain is a follows
Guitar – cable – digitech drop time pedal – cable – di box – cable – focusrite scarlet 2i2 interface – usb – computer running amplitude

 

[Ed Seith]

You shouldn’t be pressing down very hard at all. You’re not trying to make a barre, just damp the strings a bit. You should be pressing no harder than it takes to mute.
If you’re thinking it’s a technique thing, position your phone to take video of your picking hand from different angles, chugga chugga for a few seconds, and then watch the video. You might be pressing so hard you’re touch the strings to the pickups. Or it might be something else.
Try a different preset on the Amplitude, as well. Try a dry signal – no reverb or delay; just gain. See if it goes away.
Also, if you’re using a Scarlett and Amplitube, you shouldn’t have any need for a DI box. Plug the guitar straight into the Scarlett and see if that changes things, too. Make sure the ring on your Scarlett’s input jack stays green. If it’s going red, turn the trim down until it stays green.

 

[idssdi]

What are you using to monitor what you’re playing? It could just be in the cables or something but unexplainable weird noises are usually either feedback or some other kind of technical issue. It can also just be that you have the gain too high some modelers have trouble with that too.

 

[Ian Stuart]

@Ed all give all those suggestions a go thanks. My precious guitar had active pickups and even at the lowest the rings still went red and clipped my recordings. Force of habit I guess but I will try without the DI box.
@Ids I’m using audio technica mx50 monitor headphones through the Focusrite. I’ll play around with the gain too
Thanks for your help guys!

 

[Jak Angelescu]

Watch your gain, drive and treble channel levels. If you have too much gain without a good balance of bass, middle and treble it does that to me too