Strumming electrics 🤔

Gear & Tools Talk
21

Absolutely. Play right next to the bridge and compare it to the 12th fret, massive difference in tone.

With electrics your not so much playing for volume, that’s what an amp is for

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22

Nice vid LBro and good to see you.

It is true, bridge picking even on an electric is noticably brighter, sharper, twangier, cuts through.
Playing near the bridge even has a name: ponticello.

23

Good demo LB and certainly sounding good between Bridge and Mid but again I guess that is down to taste. I like it a bit crunchy dirty and full, so down that end things are good. Others may want something a little thinner and cleaner and will find that heading up the neck. All very subjective at the end of the day.

But @Majik said it best !

:scream: :scream_cat: :scream: :scream_cat:

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24

Love me a little calculus with my guitar

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25

You do know that’s not the hard bits of skin on your fingertips? :wink:

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26

Fingertips, what do you think I’m a dummy? Calculus on me teeth, been practicing some Hendrix. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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27

Me to, but from not brushing, not Hendrix :roll_eyes:
“In dentistry, calculus or tartar is a form of hardened dental plaque” (wiki)

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28

This is great, Keith. For the math literate, that equation is not that difficult. “n” is an integer which denotes which overtone: n=1 means the fundamental, n=2 means 1st overtone, etc. L is the length of the string, d is the pluck position and h is how much you displace the string when you pluck it.

The part in square brackets, for a given value of n, gives the amplitude (or strength) of that overtone. If you do the calculation (I did. I know … nerd city), you find that the amplitude of the higher overtones increases as you pluck closer to the bridge. Twangggggg!

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29

And you a math teacher. For shame!

:smile:

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30

Ok folks, thanks again for your all your indulgence :smiley:
Special mentions for @jkahn @Majik and @LBro who went above and beyond the 2 cents and sent links to whole dollars. Keith your formula didn’t work for me, but that may be because I rounded π to the 5th decimal digit. I might try again later :wink:

The scientist in me decided to take your advice and just do the experiment myself and I’m happy with my results, which seem to largely agree with what many of you were saying anyway. (you’ve seen me enough, so I won’t do an LBro version)

My original questions were:
Does it make that much difference where you strum an electric guitar?

  1. Yes, it does.

If yes, is it purely a (1) volume effect or a (2) tone quality as well?

  1. When plucking or strumming with the same force at small intervals from the nut all the way down to the bridge, the volume (amplitude) increases to a maximum (loudest) at the centre of the string at the 12th fret, where you also get the harmonic. (This makes sense physically as well if you think of where an archer instinctively places the arrow on the string)
  2. The closer you play to the 12th fret (middle of the string) the more low frequencies you get. The bridge area only sounds ‘brighter’ and twangier because the lower (bass) frequencies are not resonating as much. The high, bright, frequencies are all still there in the centre, but somewhat overshadowed by the lower ones. Interestingly the sound quality right up at the nut is very similar to the pickup area down by the bridge in both volume and tone. (Mainly academic, as it’s of little practical use.)

Language/words we use to describe sound can be ambiguous :thinking:. Lbro, in his original comment and The Mad One, in this thread described the bridge end as having a ‘fuller’ sound. For me ‘fullness’ would imply the full range of frequencies, i.e. more of the lower (bass) frequencies, which resonate loudest at the 12th fret.

Practical implications for me: As I mentioned above, I’m not a tone-chaser. I often just strum my electric as I would an acoustic with my fingertips, which is much quieter than with a pick. Strumming up the neck closer to the 12th fret should hopefully increase my volume and ‘fullness’ of sound (which I want as I’m playing on my own).

Has this simply been a exercise to justify my unstudied, lazy, (or as @roger_holland so unkindly put it) ‘sloppy’ technique?
Only Carlsberg knows… :wink:

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31

If you are even the slightest bit interested in Fourier analysis then do yourself a favour and watch this four part series on the harmonic analyser machine from over 100 years ago. It’s a machine that can decononstruct a complex looking wave into its constituent sines/cosines. Truly amazing.

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32

This is a good point, but not completely academic. Check this out:

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