Recording Guitar Feedback

a) whatever you're already using
b) whatever you're already using
c) however you're already recording, but with everything turned up loud enough to feed back.

You can also enhance feedback with overzealous compression settings...also, get really close to the amp. Feedback is often more about proximity than gear choice.

This is all in addition to the volume/overdrive suggestions from martin/jim above, which are catually the most important hints.

You really shouldn't do anything different with your amp miking technique.

Also:

I'm aiming for a sound halfway between Spacemen 3 and James Blunt.

I've got to say, that's a weird mix!

this may not sound like i'm taking the piss but i really am - how dashed original of you!

as ILMM's inaugural troll, i want you to look deep inside yourself and admit that you lurk here all the time and behind that caustic persona YOU SECRETLY LOVE US!

Get so close that you touch the head of your guitar to the amp.

as ILMM's inaugural troll, i want you to look deep inside yourself and admit that you lurk here all the time and behind that caustic persona YOU SECRETLY LOVE US!

lol :)

But surely one would be better off with a tube guitar amp for starters?

Other then that you should get an amp with an output that dosent mute the speaker itself and run it straight to the comp. or even get a special preamp, coz hi frequencys dont come in easily in the comp

Necks (in order of preference): neck-through, set neck (glued in), bolt-on.

Bodies: hollow, semi-hollow, dense solid-bodies like the Les Paul, others...

Bridges: you want a "hard-tail" bridge that actually has a mechanical connection to the body. Whammys can be used to manipulate the feedback some, but tend to not transmit the energy of the string to the body (and vice versa) as well. Something where the strings actually feed through the body is good, but the Les Paul style bridge works well too.

The absolute winner for amplified string feedback would be a steel-string acoustic with a fairly hot magnetic pickup. Given a bit of compression/overdrive you won't be able to stop the strings vibrating even at low volumes. At higher volumes it'll feel like it's ready to shake itself apart!

I like the idea above of using a small amp in close proximity in order to keep the volume down.

Keep in mind that the sound waves can be transmitted mechanically to the guitar as well. That means that even if you can't get it to feedback at a given volume by holding it in front of the amp, you might be able to get something if you actually touch part of the guitar to the amp. It usually works best if you touch either the headstock or the the strap button end to the amp. If the amp is standing on a fairly resonant (like hardwood) floor you can also often just touch the thing to the floor.

For no-volume solutions you can look to the [url=http://ebow.com]E-bow[/url] or something like the [url=http://www.sustainiac.com/]Sustainiac[/url]

Anything that adds resonance to the guitar sound will help as well. You will need to work to "tune" the resonance to the notes you want to feedback. Wah pedals work for this, but a short delay with a bit of feedback can also be used.

The Boss [url=http://guitargeek.com/gearview/55/]DF-2 Feedbacker[/url] is actually a synthesizer of it's own. It tracks the note you're playing and oscillates at that frequency. Not true feedback. You could get an effect similar to this with a delay pedal that has a hold or infinite repeat function.

If you are actually looking for that squeally horrible feedback you want to look for pickups that are microphonic. As was mentioned above, tap your pickups. If the sound coming through the amp is quite loud and sounds a lot like the acoustic sound you'll be fine. I think that solid state distortions seem to be better for this kind of things than most others. The DOD Death Metal that I have makes some incredible microphonic feedback, though I suspect this is actually some kind of malfunction in the pedal itself (ie, it is self-oscillating somehow).

The best way to get this kind of feedback, however, is to just stick a dynamic microphone in front of an amplifier. Believe it or not, microphone feedback can be controlled and manipulated both by proximity as well as positioning. You can also use filtering (bust out the wah pedal again) to tune the resonance of this "circuit". I've had some quite interesting results using mic-preamp-sweepable mid eq-headphones.

As an addendum to the idea about the acoustic guitar, those dean-markley "woody" pickups work okay for this as well, but it will be a balancing act between string and microphonic feedback.

kidding of course.

I think anything hollow is a bit hard for me to control, unless it's a passage of JUST feedback.

on a side note, I think that the process of recording guitar with the instrument removed from the amp (you know, so the guitarist doesn't have to be bombarded by his raging impotence factory stack) is extremely detrimental to the final glue of a mix. the guitar's gotta feel it.

Urg.

http://www.fernandesguitars.com/sustainer/susartists.html

I did say, however, that the ideal would be an acoustic guitar.

I realize now that I left out "electric-acoustics" with built in piezos. These will give you plenty of string feedback as well, and are fairly resistant to microphonic feedback. The reason I didn't mention them before is that I feel they are mostly useless for anything else. I personally can't stand the sound of piezo pickups except for certain special effects.

you can set it to sweep across the eq range and that combined with a semi and a tube amp/compressor set up is giving me some very controllable and harmonic feedback tones.