3.6   Pluck Behind Nut

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Plucking behind the nut is a technique used by many guitarists to get a feedback like sound. Although it is not a conventional technique, it can be used to further widen the different sounds you can produce with your guitar.

How to Pluck Behind the 
Nut

The technique is very simple - all you need to do is to pluck the strings behind the nut -this should be done quite hard.

Note that:

  • You should not be touching the strings when you do this.
  • This works best with distortion.
  • This will obviously NOT work with guitars with locking nuts as shown below:

Locking Nut

This effect works especially well with a pitch shifter and distortion. Try the following method if you have a pitch shifter (good method of introducing the guitar into a song)

  1. Set the pitch shifter so that the foot pedal varies the pitch from normal to 2 octaves above normal.
  2. Turn the volume knob on the guitar down all the way.
  3. Set the foot pedal to the position so that it is 2 octaves above normal.
  4. Pluck the strings behind the nut hard.
  5. Gradually turn up the volume knob until it is up full.
  6. Shift the pitch back to normal (from 2 octaves above) using the foot pedal.

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