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Guitar Squeak

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I’ve been listening to lots of acoustic folky singer-songwriter stuff as is my wont, and am increasingly struck by huge amount of guitar squeak on it. Looking up the problem online I’ve read about special oiled strings to avoid it and also using the technique of lifting your hands off after playing a chord instead of sliding them along. It is possible to eliminate it – for instance you never hear any squeaking on Gillian Welch and David Rawlings songs. If I was a music producer I would operate a zero-tolerance squeak policy in my studio. I can’t understand why musicians who take so much trouble writing, singing and making a record are seemingly blind to the issue. Maybe singers are playing the guitar themselves and would be better hiring in more skilled performers. Perhaps more sophisticated and sensitive microphones tracked to every instrument exposes it whereas on older recordings you cannot hear it.

Either way it really gets to me like a high-pitched “chalk down a blackboard”, only worse, and I find myself awaiting the squeaks with growing intolerance. Does any one else notice it as much as I do? Also the guitarists among you, how do you tackle it?

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Comments

  1. It tends to come from how you mic an acoustic guitar. An ideal position for one mic would be ahead of the sound hole. If you’re using two mics, one would be even closer to the fingers. In my experience, the song is often new and you’re just glad to have a take where you (or the other session guitarist) gets the notes, feel, detail, tempo and strumming or fingering pattern right. We don’t tend to mind the odd bit of evidence that this stuff is manual labour.

    Speaking of which, this is my favourite bit of ambient squeaking noise – including plenty of points where he hits the frets with the guitar slide:

    • Actually that clip sounds ok to me. Interesting it makes a difference where mics are sited. The worst thing I find is where the guitar squeaks happen when no actual notes are being played and nothing can disguise them.

  2. The first time I noticed significant guitar squeak was on Sinead O’Connor’s ‘Mandinka’, and I thought it sounded great, really suiting the record. I can’t say I’ve been much bothered by it elsewhere, but now you’ve mentioned it I’ll no doubt hear it everywhere!

    Noisy inhalation by some singers is very annoying.

  3. I actually find it quite engaging. For example the Dylan boot / alternative version of Blood On the Tracks – Blood On The Tapes with plenty of squeak and even buttons or cufflinks scraping on the guitar – just so intimate.

    • See also the recording I did on Sunday. Squeak city. Nice track – good job. Is that chirruping at the beginning and throughout string squeak? Personally I’d try to remove it as it’s distracting.

      • That was recorded in the round with a Rode Soundfield ST450 mic direct to 2-track. The sound of real people in a real room playing real instruments in real time. Possibly the best mic I’ve ever used. That’s what it sounded like in real life.

        Next time it’ll be back to mono!

          • Oh don’t. I use an AT 4033 beloved of Nashiville engineers for acoustics and that bugger hears everything. I also love my cheapo Thomann TBone ribbon mic which is a steal at about 65 quid and sounds fab for electric guitar.

            • Shure SM7b is my holy grail. Adore it. And I have a Neumann TLM103 for large-diaphragm condenser stuff. And you can never go wrong with the trusty SM57.

              Audio interfaces, pres and compressors are a total black hole too. Recently dived into the money pit that is Universal Audio. The plugins are RIDIC. And make me jones very very hard for their real boxes – the 1176 and LA-2A in particular.

              I tell you, I could spend millions given half a chance. Could wipe out a lottery win in an afternoon.

              • I too had a SM7B – never used it. Flogged it off. Don’t know why. But I have a TLM103 too for vocals which is great. I’ve two 4033s as a pair for things and an Oktava OM12 with different capsules which is great. And a 57 ad 58 of course. And the ribbon. So I am good for mics. I just got the Cakewalk LA-2A plugin emulation which is brilliant. I have GAS for a Golden Age compressor to go with my GA Pre73 pre and eq modules. Love this stuff!

              • That Soundfield pees all over the SM7b from a great height, but you’d hope it would at 10 times the price*. I’ve used Neumann ribbons and everything, and the Soundfield is the only one I’ve ever heard which has no “character”. It is just totally natural-sounding.

                I sat about a yard away from that mic, just out of the circle, and it really did sound just like that. That recording is a snapshot in time, which is just what some records should be.

                (*) Who needs a new car, anyway?

                • I like the colouring of the SM7. It works great on baritone and alto voices for really intimate stuff. I wouldn’t use it for instruments I don’t think. But I do prefer dynamics for deeper singers anyway. I always feel like there’s a bit too much air in most big condsensers I’ve used. Great for higher voices but I like a bit of low-mid poke which I feel you get more of with a dynamic like the 7. Just a personal preference thing I guess. 🙂

      • As an aside, when alerted to this thread, the titular Helen* admitted that she’d never noticed the squeaks before, and she’s on it.

        *I’m here all week.

  9. The opposite to this real-life sound is that Def Leppard album where Producer Matt made them record it note-by-note to eliminate string squeak and snare rattle. It sounds like it was recorded in a vacuum – rock without the roll.

  10. Quite enjoy the clacking of Topper Headon’s pedals at the beginning of Jail Guitar Doors.

    There’s a Colleen track where the squeak is so heavily reverbed that it’s practically the main instrument . Summer Water? Lovely sound.

  11. It’s an interesting topic. As Bart says, micing approach can make it worse, and Skirky is right, in some cases its inevitable (though can be ameliorated somewhat mind you it’s a faff). But also there’s a production decision about whether it adds to the overall feel (dare I provoke derision from the synth pop people by mentioning authenticity?) or is an irritating noise. I know mix engineers who hate it and go through each guitar track either cutting it out or muting it as far as possible. Others leave it in. Like all questions of taste it’s a tricky one. Personally I don’t mind it but sometimes it’s really annoying. On the fence as usual.

    • Heavy-gauge strings tend to cause more squeak than lighter gauge, in my experience cos the winds on the strings are that much bigger. But yeah, I guess you’re always gonna get more squeak if you close-mic the fingerboard rather than X-Ying a couple of good pencil condensers somewhere near the soundhole.

      The frequency response of the mic will make a big difference too – lots of mics favoured for acoustic work can be quite toppy or top-middy which is going to mean squeak gets through more.

      But saying all that, I like a bit of room and non-musical noise. Love the sound of a piano sustain pedal being released at the end of the song, or a reverb tank splashing when the amp is knocked or moved, or a fleeting buzz as a snare resonates with a bass note. It’s all cool. I guess it’s about how skilled the recording engineer is in finding that balance between “real” and “really intrusive”.

  12. First time I noticed it was on Mouthful of grass which was the instrumental on the B-side of Alright Now. Taken from Free’s eponymous 2nd album.

  13. Hm, this is interesting. I can’t hear it at all. Well, I probably can, but I don’t really understand what part of the guitar noises it is that you hear as a “squeeky” so I can’t separate it from the rest. I’ve listened to the exemples given on this thread and I still don’t know what you mean! To me it’s all just what guitars sound like, what they’re supposed to sound like. Perhaps I’ve been ruined by listening to an awful lot of old blues – more likely to annoy me through crackles and pops of the primitive recordings, or muffled and strange sounding vocals.

  14. Seems to me, as a non-player, that if the tune and the playing of it are really good, it’s no problem.
    I remember being told many years ago that it’s sometimes unavoidable if the fingers need to be moved significantly between chords.
    The less involving I find the music, the more annoying it can be, if present. That’s my view.

  15. You know what i love? Drum squeak. Specifically, a squeaky bass pedal. Makes the drums sound alive, I think.

    There’s one Led Zeppelin song in particular (can’t remember which one) where John Bonham sounds like he needs a good oiling.

  18. I love a bit of deliberate guitar squeak, as evidenced in the solos by Billy Gibbons (the outro solo):

    and Andy Partridge:

    This is achieved by hitting the string with the pick and the thumb at the same time.

  21. I like some grit with my grist. Bring on the squeak, I’ll hear it and see the hand slide to the next chord; it adds to the experience. I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a winding squeak that sounded out of place. John Lee Hooker never took his boots off.

  22. I don’t mind it and if I manage it while switching between the two chords I can manage I feel quite please with myself.

    Does it happen with other string instruments? Do Vanessa Mae and Julian Lloyd Weber squeak? I’m sure there’s squeak on Stray Cats double bass……

  23. I had a thought. Do you think squeaks are more prominent because people play acoustic guitar quieter these days?

    Hear me out. The louder you are strumming or plucking the strings, the louder the guitar will be in comparison to the squeaks made by the fret hand moving about. Sixties guitarists (thinking Bert Jansch, Paul Simon) sound to my ears as if they are attacking the instrument more, whereas yer modern singer-songwriter is more gentle, letting the notes resonate.

    Tell me I’m right.

  28. as a four chord wonder, can I also bring “fret buzz” to the party?
    both my cheapie guitars suffer horribly from this…dispite much hamfisted setting up.

    my fave track demonstrating this is “small black flowers that grow in the sky”…catchy title that…from everything must go by the manics.

    if its ok for JDB, I guess i’ll live with mine.

    can we also have a shoutout for “snare rattle”…..at least you know theres a drumkit in the room when the guitarist cranks out his intro.

    FISH.

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