Ever wondered how guitarists pull off the awesome high pitched squeals and bend them up and down by ridiculous ammounts? Well let me show you!

First things first... You've got to get the right sound. You're gonna need a shed load of distortion, so crank it up to the max! Make sure your pickup selector is set to the bridge pickup to give a really clear sound. Finally, set your EQ to a scooped mid setting. This means high bass and treble and low mid. Example settings are Bass: 7.5, Mid:0.5, Treble:8.0. Ajust your own EQ to your suit your own taste (sounds like making a pot noodle!) and add any other effects you want such as reverb and delay.

Once you're done, check out the video:

It helps if you have a Floyd Rose tremolo as this will allow you to bend the notes to extreme ammounts, but you can still do this on a normal trem, just don't go crazy and accuse me of busting your guitar! If you only have the normal Stratocaster type trem, you can still produce the squealing sound, but please don't try to bend it as far.

Right, so how to get those sqeals... It's really quite simple. Just place your finger lightly over the third fret on the G string, exactly the same way you do to play a natural harmonic, pluck the note and remove your finger from the string, then bend the note using your wammy bar. So it is really just a natural harmonic on the 3rd fret.

This technique is more about getting the right tone than being skilled. If you can't do it, it more likely that you don't have the right sound. You need a lot of distortion and high end to pull this off.

Hold your wammy bar in loosely in your right hand so that it is ready for when you pick the note. You can produce this type of harmonic on any string but it works best on the G string. To do a "Dive Bomb" it is best to use the low E or A string. This is when you play the note and then depress the wammy bar so far that you can hardly hear the note. NB. This is only really possible with a Floyd Rose type trem! Please be careful! Don't wreck your guitar doing this!

In the video I demonstrate just a few of the possibilities you can create from doing this. Experiment with your own ideas and see what you can come up with.

To hear this technique in action, check out a few of these songs:

Master Of Puppets : Metallica - There's a great example in the middle of the second solo

Van Halen - He uses divebombs all the time

Dragonforce - Listen to any of their insane solos and your bound to hear this technique used frequently!

Joe Satriani uses a similar technique. Instead of producing a harmonic on the 3rd fret, he uses artificial harmonics. To do this, hold your pick between your thunkb and middle finger so that your index finger is free then pick an open string and produce an artificial harmonic using your free index finger. Now reach around with your left hand and grab the wamy bar. Bend away! More on this soon!

For another wammy bar technique, check out wammy bar warbling!

Andy Webber.