How do you Fix guitar feedback?

Answer 1

Feedback is caused when the sound waves emitted by an amplifier react with the strings and pickups on the guitar, causing the strings to vibrate and creating an effect similar to when you play harmonics. There is no simple solution to this problem, but here a few:

1.) Excessive gain and volume are the most common sources of harmonic feedback. Usually, you can fix this by simply changing the position of your body or the guitar so the strings aren't being affected by the standard hum from your amplifier's speakers. You can also simply turn your volume or gain levels down. Sometimes it doesn't take more than half a notch to cut the feedback.

2.) Another fix to this is to add a noise gate pedal to your effects chain. You can adjust the threshold of the gate to cut out the amp's hum and feedback when you are not playing. This takes some trial and error to get right, because if the threshold is too high, you will lose sustain.

3.) Sometimes having too many effects in your chain can cause feedback, in which case the noise gate is a good solution. You might also try experimenting with using your feedback musically. By adjusting your body or the way you hold your guitar, you can get different tones that may actually add sonic texture you more experimental guitar playing. Jimi Hendrix did a lot with these kinds of techniques.