Feedback (the rare unwanted kind)

Ok, so most of you know I got myself a Yamaha AE500 the other day. I should have expected a fartload of unwanted feedback at loud volumes, what with it being a hollowbody and all, but instead I brought it to a Greasy Knots practice session.

Now I'm a guy who loves his feedback, but last night was just too much. I tried turning the volume down, standing far away from the amp, positioning the amp differently, etc, etc. Nothing really seemed to help a whole lot. Any tips on getting rid of (or at least reducing) this?

[By the way, I know this question has probably been asked a gazillion times. Dial-up internet is just far too slow to justify going through a bunch of past threads. Forgive me.]

I remember once a band I was in we had an old Peavey Backstage that was basically on its last leg.

It only sounded good when you went full-tilt boogie on every thing and regardless of the guitar you played the feedback when you were not playing was horrendous.

The only thing that would keep it from feeding back too much was either grounding the strings constantly (with your palm) or each time you stoppped playing you immediately turned doen the volume (and even then sometimes you still had to keep your palm on the strings).

If you have the gain up high that could be a possibility.

I'm pretty sure that if you were to take your rig outside, you could crank it without feedback, as long as you kept the guitar body out of the beam from the speaker. But in a small room, the guitar is going to act like a microphone. And it will 'hear' your speaker very clearly, no matter which way you face. In that tiny little reflective-walled room you guys jam in, you have nowhere to hide. I expect that it won't much matter which way you point the amp, its going to be fairly tightly coupled to the guitar. Gain adjustment isn't likely to help, because the problem is caused by the sound level. Simply put, its just too loud.

Making a box behind the pickups isn't likely to help either. The soundwaves from the speaker would still cause the guitar body to vibrate, which will cause the strings to vibrate, which will be sensed by the pickups. Thats what they do.

So, you can try to do something to the walls of your jam space to deaden reflections. Or you will have to restrict your use of the hollow-body axe to other places.

Man... as beautiful as that hollowbody is, it wasn't born to play overdriven rock'n'roll. How does it sound with modulation effects? I suppose you could use the Yamaha for your more subtle stuff, using some effects to spice it up, and break out your Strat when you want to play heavier music. But if you want an axe that will allow you to do either or both, perhaps the AE500 wasn't the right choice. You could trade it in for a semi-hollow or a solid-body.

Thanks for all the tips, guys......I guess you're right, having everything cranked to 10 just isn't right for a hollowbody.

No biggie, it's still a great guitar. :)

a tip I heard of from the dude from The Living End, who plays a Gretsch White Falcon...: He fills his guitar up with cotton wool, and then places black cardboard under the F holes so it still looks cool.

I dunno if this will loose that cool, hollobody sound, but may be worth a try, could be difficult tho, as you dont want to be stuck with little balls on cotton wool in your axe if you change your mind

Originally Posted by: Andrew Sa... I dunno if this will loose that cool, hollobody sound...

Yeah, that's definitely going to deaden it. :p

My 1965 Yamaha SA-30 has plastic baffles covering the f-holes in an attempt to combat feedback, but it will still feed-back if I wander too close to the speakers. Not all bad, really - you have no idea how mind-blowing an overdriving 12-string can sound. :D