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Decibill wrote:Hollows and semi-hollows make tons of noise at higher gain levels....

This x100

Dunno why I didn't think of that since my only guitar is a hollowbody
You gotta commit to that noise, though. Volume and tone knobs only do so much.

Hi guys! Many thanks for your responses. It looks like I should clarify my question to you.
We play some drone/space-rock sounds like this at the moment:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYG_iZQVHjM[/youtube]

but we intend to make our sound closer to mix of heavy noise rock (like sometimes guys from Neurosis do) and dark psychedelia.
Today I found this video of Steve Von Till and that is really similar to what I am trying to do with my guitar:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaUiQYOButE[/youtube]

Decibill wrote:Hollows and semi-hollows make tons of noise at higher gain levels....

Plus you can tap the body for some cool percussive sounds. If you've got your strings tuned to an open chord, it could be a great way to generate drones.

As for the Steve Von Till vid, it looked like he was just playing a Tele-ish thing and using pedals for drones... I couldn't be sure, but it looked like he had a Tele neck pickup and a P90 bridge pickup... so maybe that's part of the sound you're looking for?

You just made me think of this:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoqLCFd8oNs[/youtube]

It's pretty subtle here, but sounds nice.

I'd recommend anything with a decent amount of string length behind the bridge. Not only do you get typical behind the bridge stuff like Lee and Thurston sometimes do + extra harmonics at some positions, but you can strum behind the bridge + slide notes around on fretboard and it sounds amazing.

One thing I like to do too that goes along with tapping on the guitar is to actually pound your fist on it*. With muted strings you can make it sound like a broken drum, but you can also let certain notes ring open for a cool drone effect. I normally do this with a decent amount of distortion + phase.

Another fun thing to do for noise that can apply to any guitar is to "slap" harmonics. Makes it much easier to fret notes + get harmonics for those notes than other techniques imo.

While guitar choice is important, it's more about how you abuse use it and what effects are being used.

*This is on my blacktop Jaguar. It's probably not a good idea to pound on your semi-hollow/hollow body guitar...

I don't know what your budget is, but it seems like Electrical Guitar Company guitars could be good for drone and noise. You mentioned Neurosis, and Scott Kelly just had a custom one made for himself.

Not sure about how the bodies for ECG are, but if they're like what I've seen from The Obstructures (in pics) then I'd imagine them being really good for noise. Not only that, but Steve Albini uses aluminum necked guitars for almost everything, and he's one of the first guys I think of when I think of noise rock guitarists.

Also, teles might be pretty good for this too. Norman Westberg gets some pretty evil sounds out of his.

Kramer DMZ guitars can get some pretty jagged tones. Don't expect it to sound like a Bean (or EGC) but they can be had somewhat cheap. October File by Die Kreuzen would give you an idea.

Brahskolnikov wrote:Scott Kelly

He could probably make a Bullet sound good, but then we probably all could... You gotta have the NOISE inside in order to let it OUT...

I'm hearing chorus, tapeish delay, and hitting pretty hard.

Anything with single coils that makes you happy will get you there.

Many examples on my site below using a VI, Jaguar, or a Mustang

I think an electric with a resonator body, a humbucker in the neck, one of those teisco pickups in the bridge, a pickup selector switch and a volume knob would be perfect. It'd feedback like nuts at any volume and kill everything with treble. A tone-selector switch, ala the danelectro select-o-matic, would be pretty awesome too but not necessary.

I say Jaguar, because if it was good enough for Rowland...

I went jag and never looked back. Trem makes a huge difference for me. Marr jag gives you a humbucker too.

wfs1234 wrote:I think an electric with a resonator body, a humbucker in the neck, one of those teisco pickups in the bridge, a pickup selector switch and a volume knob would be perfect. It'd feedback like nuts at any volume and kill everything with treble. A tone-selector switch, ala the danelectro select-o-matic, would be pretty awesome too but not necessary.

holy smokes
now were talkin

ugly 80s ibanez/kramers are the ONLY guitars for noise rock

ryan summit wrote:

wfs1234 wrote:I think an electric with a resonator body, a humbucker in the neck, one of those teisco pickups in the bridge, a pickup selector switch and a volume knob would be perfect. It'd feedback like nuts at any volume and kill everything with treble. A tone-selector switch, ala the danelectro select-o-matic, would be pretty awesome too but not necessary.

holy smokes
now were talkin

Yeah, I've been thinking about this for a while...

If you hit it with your hand while you were playing, even without distortion or high gain whatevers, you'd get some crazy sounds. A piezo pickup would probably add a lot to this guitar too.