Lewguitar
New member
True or false?
This was posted by Bill Lawrence in response to a post on the TDPRI.
"This thread just caught my attention, and I can’t believe what I see. It reminds me of the violent arguments some people of a small kingdom had about the color of the new king’s beard. Finally, the king arrives, and guess what – the king had no beard!
Actually, what I see here is an argument about the validity of Isaac Newton’s Third Law of Motion: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Let me assure you, both the acoustic and the electric guitar are subject to the same basic laws of physics, though their final functions are different.
The vibrating strings transmit the signal via the bridge to the top of the guitar. Now, we have to apply the laws of elastic collision to determine the propagation of longitudinal waves in various media. The elastic properties and the mass of the body Vs. the mass and the tension of the vibrating strings determine the quantity of energy that is used to vibrate the air. Make a simple test -- take two identical low E strings, put one of them on an acoustic guitar and the other one on a Tele and tune both strings to a low E. When you play both strings with the same force, you will see that the string on the Tele has a much greater amplitude than the string on the acoustic guitar. As a result, an identical pickup would not only generate a much higher voltage but also a different harmonic spectrum on the Tele, resulting in a totally different tone.
Each part of the guitar will cause an opposite reaction on the vibrating strings,and this is precisely what a pickup will sense. There are always the same questions like “what gauge of strings do you prefer.” I select my gauges to compliment the guitar. I have one Tele that sounds the best with .009s and another Tele that requires .011s to sound right.
Now let me address the subject of this thread – solid body guitars are not designed to move air, and therefore, I cannot tell you how a guitar will sound amplified just by listening to the acoustic properties. Also, the differences in vibrations are too minute to detect by touch. Most, but not all, guitars that are acoustically loud are poor performers when amplified and some guitars that sound fat and sweet acoustically can sound amplified thin and edgy. Judging a guitar by its weight is not an issue either. All that counts is the resonance of all its component parts assembled as a total.
There is a way to check out the tone of a guitar by its acoustic sound. I’ve been using this method for 60 years and not yet failed to select the right guitar, but you have to know what to listen for: I lay the guitar on my shoulder so it barely touches my ear. Then I scratch softly with one of my fingernails across the strings near the nut and listen to the harmonic spectrum up to the sizzling highs.
If anybody knows a better method, please let me know.
Bill"
This was posted by Bill Lawrence in response to a post on the TDPRI.
"This thread just caught my attention, and I can’t believe what I see. It reminds me of the violent arguments some people of a small kingdom had about the color of the new king’s beard. Finally, the king arrives, and guess what – the king had no beard!
Actually, what I see here is an argument about the validity of Isaac Newton’s Third Law of Motion: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Let me assure you, both the acoustic and the electric guitar are subject to the same basic laws of physics, though their final functions are different.
The vibrating strings transmit the signal via the bridge to the top of the guitar. Now, we have to apply the laws of elastic collision to determine the propagation of longitudinal waves in various media. The elastic properties and the mass of the body Vs. the mass and the tension of the vibrating strings determine the quantity of energy that is used to vibrate the air. Make a simple test -- take two identical low E strings, put one of them on an acoustic guitar and the other one on a Tele and tune both strings to a low E. When you play both strings with the same force, you will see that the string on the Tele has a much greater amplitude than the string on the acoustic guitar. As a result, an identical pickup would not only generate a much higher voltage but also a different harmonic spectrum on the Tele, resulting in a totally different tone.
Each part of the guitar will cause an opposite reaction on the vibrating strings,and this is precisely what a pickup will sense. There are always the same questions like “what gauge of strings do you prefer.” I select my gauges to compliment the guitar. I have one Tele that sounds the best with .009s and another Tele that requires .011s to sound right.
Now let me address the subject of this thread – solid body guitars are not designed to move air, and therefore, I cannot tell you how a guitar will sound amplified just by listening to the acoustic properties. Also, the differences in vibrations are too minute to detect by touch. Most, but not all, guitars that are acoustically loud are poor performers when amplified and some guitars that sound fat and sweet acoustically can sound amplified thin and edgy. Judging a guitar by its weight is not an issue either. All that counts is the resonance of all its component parts assembled as a total.
There is a way to check out the tone of a guitar by its acoustic sound. I’ve been using this method for 60 years and not yet failed to select the right guitar, but you have to know what to listen for: I lay the guitar on my shoulder so it barely touches my ear. Then I scratch softly with one of my fingernails across the strings near the nut and listen to the harmonic spectrum up to the sizzling highs.
If anybody knows a better method, please let me know.
Bill"
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