Squealing

Hello all, I have a question that I'm hoping to get as many responses to as possible. I was recently auditioning a drummer(bass player was there too) and we decided it would be best to jam with him to see how well we could sync up immediately. Audition aside I noticed that I needed a tad more volume since the drums were terribly overpowering for what my amp was set at originally, which was about 1.5 on the master volume. My sound is very very midrange oriented and has the ability to cut through the mix quite well, which wasn't so much the issue here as it was just lack of being able to be heard WITH the drums.
Naturally I turned the volume up and finally found a sweet spot between the bass and drums that made a very good sounding mix, the only problem was that I had horrible squealing feedback when I would switch over to my bridge pickup(I keep the neck turned off and use the toggle as a sort of 'kill switch'). It was horrible and terribly loud.
So, if anyone here has had these same issues and has found a sort of solution, whatever it may be, please tell me.
I don't have any experience with a 212 or 412 cab, but I think it could help a bit with taking the amount of volume going to my single 12 and instead dividing it over 2 or 4 speakers, but again I don't have experience using them, and this is just a thought about how to help rid my rig of unwanted squealing at the necessary volumes for practice, and maybe a few gigs(venue depending).

I appreciate any help that you can give with this.

Thanks,

Case

its your guitar, stand farther away from the amp and dont face the speakers... when i play live a lot i do that because you get terrible feedback at high voluemes

how do you expect us to help without knowing what gear you are using? if its cheap stuff then its obivously going to squeal

yeah thats true

guitar amps and effects please...

Casey,

just got the email Bro...

Cs

Gear:
-Early 2000s Peavey Bandit 112 80W solid state amplifier-clean channel only
-Dean Mustaine V with DiMarzio Super Distortion in Bridge Pos.
-Ibanez Tube King TK999HT distortion pedal
-6 band eq pedal.

thats feeeeedback

try using less distortion...those great names actually dont use that much distortion compared to what we think

also,try a position betwen you and the amp where the feedback is not heard...preferably a bit far of the amp

yep less distortion dont face the amp try to stand as far away as possible from it... the further away the better (and your ears wont divorce you like mine)

haha I usually stand as far away as possible(20 foot cable, 5 foot patch, 15 foot basement :/ )
I finally found a sound that is oddly enough like Peace Sells era Mustaine and actually doesn't feedback that much at higher volume levels. Of course it still does, but the noise gate on the pedal kicks in if I just turn around basically.
Very unorthodox way to get my sound though....very odd....I like it but, I didn't think to even try this way to get it.

so here's the golden question:
did you ever try using a noise gate? it might help

Better quality cables actually help a lot. I got one the other week, and it basically made my noise gate obsolete. It still feeds back, but it's very controllable, and not too bad. I have it to the point where I can turn my 100 watt to 6 or 7, and just use the feedback for the musical purposes if I want.

@GMG

I've got the noisegate at the end of my distortion pedals stages(like EQ, Gain, Volume, etc. then the noisegate). It works but it's really only good for the annoying bzzzzz in the back ground. Which is good since I like a lot of gain...like a lot...not Metal Zone amounts but I do like a nice fizzy/grainy distortion that is somehow unattainably chunky ;)

I'm going to be getting a new cable here soon too, since my main cable is iffy(was good, now it works when it wants to).
Any brand in particular that is renown for their 'quietness'?

I've heard a lot of good things about Monster cables.

go with full tone for 20ft cables and get some george l's for patches... planet waves are good too... but **ty cables will cause all types of **

the music shop I go to carries Fulltone cables(and other products) but I think that they only carry the one foot patch cables, since I didn't see any other sizes. They did have some coily cables...hmmmmm...I'm thinking about taking the gearmanndude way on this one haha

They do have planet waves stuff and it is moderately priced too haha

Two things that helped me on a Srat and a Crate amp I used to have:

1. The back of the amp was open, like many are, and would project sound from the wall it was in front of. I moved it away from the wall and put a pillow in the back to sheild the sound reverberating all around my garage. It also gave me the flatter sound I was looking for.

2. My bridge pickup was not properly grounded. There was a ground wire that went through the body up to the back of the trem bridge that was disconnected.

I fixed those two things and didnt have the problem anymore. Did you install that pickup yourself?

I did not install the pickup myself but had to make a reconnection to the output jack and thus had to check all connections again since I had it open. It was properly grounded(and I have no buzzing feedback without the gain on). Pickup is pretty solid connection wise(except the guy wired the switch in backwards haha)

I've been putting Electrical tape around the pickup ring hoping it will help to deaden the vibrations that would make the pole pieces squeal, don't know if it is doing much good though.

Yeah. When it's the pickup, it's because there's some sort of loose metal around or even if the wounds arent tight enough. I read that they could be dipped in some sort of wax to sheild them. Sometimes the pickup could be set too high also.

I think if you do a little bit everything that's suggested you'll solve your problem.

Good luck!

Noise gate with long Thereshoold (70-80) and 0 release,thats what i use and it works really well

Any recommendations on which noise gate to look for Alex? Not too concerned about brand, more about if it is affordable or not, since the job market is terrible right now :/

The Boss NS-2 is everywhere and is really good

cool, I will have to check them out. Thanks man

Can you try the setup with another guitar to see if the characteristics of the feedback are the same? If the pickup is going microphonic, wax potting is supposed to be pretty straightforward.

http://www.seymourduncan.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10722
http://www.guitarnuts.com/technical/electrical/index.php