PaoloGilberto
Well-known member
How about this?
Revolutionary guitar string rocks the guitar world
Revolutionary guitar string rocks the guitar world
- Thread starter PaoloGilberto
- Start date
DrKev
Moderator
Interesting. The actual science article is here...
The physics of unwound and wound strings on the electric guitar applied to the pitch intervals produced by tremolo/vibrato arm systems
Basically the paper calculates and predicts what will happen and then verifies it experimentally. Which is NICE and probably the first to do it in a science journal. I had figured out the pitch variation years ago - so have many others I'm sure, including all the string makers. You can do it too!
[Strongbad voice ON]
Just follow my simple step-by-step instructions. I make science fun!
[Strongbad voice off]
1) With a guitar without a cut-away under the bridge, (e.g. Luke, Silhouette, AL, Morse, Strat,) adjust the claw springs for a minor third up-pull on the G-string when in standard tuning (like the Luke factory setting, which is as Jeff Beck does and what Fender recommend too).
2) With your tuner, note the amount of up-pull on the other strings. With standard 9-42 it will be approx...
High-E: 1/2 step (E to F, one fret)
B string: 1 whole step (B to C#, two frets)
G string: minor third (G to Bb, 3 frets)
D string: 1 whole step (D to E, two frets)
A string: minor third (A to C, sort of)
Low E: Minor third + 1/4 step (E to G plaus a half fret)
3) Notice how with your whammy bar the B and D strings go out of tune almost the same amounts. The G and the A string similar but not quite so together. Knowing how much the strings go out of tune, you can do interesting things. e.g.
Play an open position D Major chord. Pull all the way up on the bar and you get a C Major chord!
Play an open position E minor on the highest four strings and pull up and get a F# Major7.
It's pretty cool! It's also been damn all use to me though.
It's not rocket science to realize that on the wound strings you could pick the core diameter to get any tension and/or up-pull you like. That's what the science paper does and it would appear does it well.
Is this a breakthrough? I don't think so. The paper points out that there are already tension balanced string sets out there, and aftermarket tremolo units for standard string set gauges that keeps the strings in tune. But nobody really cares all that much. Will that ever change? I don't know, but I doubt it.
But thanks for posting!
The physics of unwound and wound strings on the electric guitar applied to the pitch intervals produced by tremolo/vibrato arm systems
Basically the paper calculates and predicts what will happen and then verifies it experimentally. Which is NICE and probably the first to do it in a science journal. I had figured out the pitch variation years ago - so have many others I'm sure, including all the string makers. You can do it too!
[Strongbad voice ON]
Just follow my simple step-by-step instructions. I make science fun!
[Strongbad voice off]
1) With a guitar without a cut-away under the bridge, (e.g. Luke, Silhouette, AL, Morse, Strat,) adjust the claw springs for a minor third up-pull on the G-string when in standard tuning (like the Luke factory setting, which is as Jeff Beck does and what Fender recommend too).
2) With your tuner, note the amount of up-pull on the other strings. With standard 9-42 it will be approx...
High-E: 1/2 step (E to F, one fret)
B string: 1 whole step (B to C#, two frets)
G string: minor third (G to Bb, 3 frets)
D string: 1 whole step (D to E, two frets)
A string: minor third (A to C, sort of)
Low E: Minor third + 1/4 step (E to G plaus a half fret)
3) Notice how with your whammy bar the B and D strings go out of tune almost the same amounts. The G and the A string similar but not quite so together. Knowing how much the strings go out of tune, you can do interesting things. e.g.
Play an open position D Major chord. Pull all the way up on the bar and you get a C Major chord!
Play an open position E minor on the highest four strings and pull up and get a F# Major7.
It's pretty cool! It's also been damn all use to me though.
It's not rocket science to realize that on the wound strings you could pick the core diameter to get any tension and/or up-pull you like. That's what the science paper does and it would appear does it well.
Is this a breakthrough? I don't think so. The paper points out that there are already tension balanced string sets out there, and aftermarket tremolo units for standard string set gauges that keeps the strings in tune. But nobody really cares all that much. Will that ever change? I don't know, but I doubt it.
But thanks for posting!
Last edited:
PeteDuBaldo
Well-known member
Taking this science and applying it in a different way,
IIRC many years ago Drew @ EBMM came up with a way to calculate the optimum gauges for JP's alternate tunings so that each guitar (regardless of tuning) would have the same tension as his standard tuning guitars.
DrKev
Moderator
It would be very cool if they would publish a version of that that's easier to read than D'Addario string tension charts.
