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foam in the f-hole


jc1funk

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I use my 335 in a heavily distorted setup (fuzz into an overdriven marshall crunch channel). More often than not the guitar will howl loudly and obnoxiously if I'm not playing. Muting the strings doesn't solve it, only clicking off the fuzz, which I do where possible.

 

I'm not talking high pitched squealing or microphonic feedback. I'm talking low mid resonance, loud. And it kills the "gaps" in my playing.

 

So I thought I'd put foam in the upper f hole. Problem is, it's proving difficult to get in there which means it'll be REALL difficult to get out if I need to.

 

My question is, from your experience, if by putting foam in the f hole I manage to control the unwanted feedback, will it also kill that aspect of the guitar that gives you the sustain and wanted/musical/in-playing feedback that i want and need to retain?

 

Thanks for your help.

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In my opinion, puttung foam into an f hole or even both won't change that much about sustain and feedback as well. Considering your description, I think the feedback is caused by vibrations of the entire wood structure causing the pickups to vibrate with them. Even muting strings won't help since the pickups move relative to them.

 

My suggestion would be putting foam of matching sizes into the pickup cavities. The pressure to the pickups from below should be just right, sufficient for eating up vibrations but still allowing the springs for holding down the pickup at the desired height. Treating the pickup cables with care is recommended.

 

Trying this solution won't also cause any trouble in case you want to go back.

 

Finally, the problem you described may affect solidbodies, too. In particular, I had to deal with guitars of pals with third party pickups and mounting springs in them. The springs had a different resonance frequency and therefore caused feedbacks unknown with the original parts. E. g. the springs supplied by DiMarzio for many years caused feedbacks at higher frequencies than stock Gibson ones. We usually went with using both different springs and foam blocks under the pickups.

 

Hope this helps.

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I use my 335 in a heavily distorted setup (fuzz into an overdriven marshall crunch channel). More often than not the guitar will howl loudly and obnoxiously if I'm not playing. Muting the strings doesn't solve it, only clicking off the fuzz, which I do where possible.

 

I'm not talking high pitched squealing or microphonic feedback. I'm talking low mid resonance, loud. And it kills the "gaps" in my playing.

 

So I thought I'd put foam in the upper f hole. Problem is, it's proving difficult to get in there which means it'll be REALL difficult to get out if I need to.

 

My question is, from your experience, if by putting foam in the f hole I manage to control the unwanted feedback, will it also kill that aspect of the guitar that gives you the sustain and wanted/musical/in-playing feedback that i want and need to retain?

 

Thanks for your help.

 

I have the same setup with both of my Marshalls/Keeley Fuzz pedal and experience the same problem. Fuzz pedals have higher frequency range compared to other pedals and can easily produce feedback with a overdriven amp (which is good and bad). A fuzz pedal can also negatively interact with plasma tv and light dimming switches. Maybe you should just use a solid body like a Les Paul, like Slash does instead. Works for me.

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that defeats the purpose entirely of the tone that a 335 is designed to make.

 

To each his own, but no way would I do this, I would ditch the fuzz before I'd do that.

 

I have an ES-135, and it's pretty good about resisting feed back with overdrive pedals, and natural amp gain.

 

Like I said, diff. strokes for diff. folks...

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As I recall, someone makes f-hole plugs that you can put in/take out easily. Can't remember where I saw those but do a search on the web & I bet you can find them. They were $30-$40 dollars for a git I think.

 

If I had more time I'd look for you. Getting ready for our road trip out west for vacation.

 

Aster

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I don't think foam in the f-holes will solve your problem.

 

Since you are running a fuzz pedal into an overdriven crunch channel, you've obliterated the tone of the 335 anyway so I say just use your Strat instead [rolleyes]

 

This is the most ignorant opinion on tone I've ever seen on this forum... and that's a big call. I've never had so many compliments on my tone as I have with this set up. Maybe use your ears and imagination instead of making assumptions about what a particular guitar should sound like? Here:

https://www.triplejunearthed.com/artist/siren-black

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The world would be a very boring place if we were only allowed to play the music our guitar was designed to make. Do you honestly think Gibson had Led Zeppelin in mind when they came up with the Les Paul? Or Leo was imagining a Hendrix would come along when he was working on the Strat? I play my viola in an alt rock band: I highly doubt Gaspero De Salo was thinking of that when he was trying to get better results out of the cumbersome fiddles that were around in the 16th Century. Music is littered with examples where the instrument came first, then a player worked out how to use them to levels the designer never dreamed of - from Bach's visionary violin partitas through to the way DAWs have revolutionised modern recording.

 

If you think a 335 can't, or shouldn't, be used a certain way because that's not what it was designed for, then I'm not sure you get this whole music thing.

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The world would be a very boring place if we were only allowed to play the music our guitar was designed to make. Do you honestly think Gibson had Led Zeppelin in mind when they came up with the Les Paul? Or Leo was imagining a Hendrix would come along when he was working on the Strat? I play my viola in an alt rock band: I highly doubt Gaspero De Salo was thinking of that when he was trying to get better results out of the cumbersome fiddles that were around in the 16th Century. Music is littered with examples where the instrument came first, then a player worked out how to use them to levels the designer never dreamed of - from Bach's visionary violin partitas through to the way DAWs have revolutionised modern recording.

 

If you think a 335 can't, or shouldn't, be used a certain way because that's not what it was designed for, then I'm not sure you get this whole music thing.

 

Completely agree. I play very hard rock and heavy metal infused instrumental music as my primary form of personal satisfaction and I do it on a Memphis ES-335. Or should I say have been for the past few months since I got the 335. For a long time I played a combination of Les Paul and American Standard Strat trying to cop the tones I had in my head and was never satisfied with the results. I pursued my sound with those guitars because all of my peers and most guitarists I would talk to would say things like "you can't play heavy metal on a 335, it's not what it's built for" or something like that. Well many years went by before I decided that I needed to try something different and when I did I decided to try an ES-335. It turned out to be exactly what I needed for my personal sound. The tones I've been looking for were in the 335 all along, but I held the the false idea that certain guitars just weren't up to certain tasks because I listened to others instead of trying something for myself. And it's not just tone, my playing is getting better than ever on my 335. It's the right guitar for me in every way. Of course everyone is different, but that's the point, you're supposed to find out what works for you.

 

I'm now a firm believer that you can't find your personal voice in music until you listen to what is coming out of you and accept that it is you and not your musical idols, and you can't find your tone until you stop being overly influenced by the opinions of other people about gear and instead start using your own ears and following your musical soul. There is no right or wrong out there. It's all up to you and the beautiful part about it all is that there is a great adventure in there for those willing to undertake it.

 

I truly believe more people fail to become the musicians they want to be because they fail to find out who they are musically and to take the time to find out what gear can actually get them where they want to be.

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