I’m a happy bunny!
Endless moving around of pickups on spare electric guitar has never really satisfied.
The maths (arithmetic) suggests the harmonics that give a single note its tone are multiples of the root frequency: f, 2f, 3f, etc.
for a note C, the full sound would incorporate all these notes:
C, C2, G2,
C3, E3, G3, Bb3
C4, D4 …
C2 is an octave above C etc.
The wonderful open source software MuseScore just happens to have a midi approximation to a sine wave, so I had a play:
(MuseScore regulars please note. I’m a complete beginner and guaranteed to have done something wrong!).
Screenshot:
Note: the higher harmonics on a guitar string are increasingly wild approximations to the given notes.
Changing the relative volume of the harmonics generates some truly bizarre sounds – guitar stomp box (FX) overdue 🙂
Related: CREATIVITY,
Addendum September 2020:
I’ve since built my own electric guitar (first such project), and done a major upgrade on a Squier Affinity (excellent build and playability with poor pickups). All three pickups replaced with hotrail pickups, each independently switchable between single coil and humbucker mode. Like project #1, neck and bridge pickups in humbucker mode with the middle as single coil gives 5 distinct, very pleasing tones …
Very pleased with the results 🙂
Conclusion: The exact placement is not so important as the contrast in output between the middle pickup and the neck / bridge. This gives unique sounds (with a strat type setup) at selector positions 2 and 4 (neck/middle, bridge/middle).
🦉 © Peter Fairbrother @pjforguk www.pjf.org.uk 🌄
I would like to hear more songs from my favorite Cornwall composer….will it ever happen?
It will. I’ve been mending flat roofs and the like, which are priorities in dry weather🤔☔ but the musical loft beckons. It’s easier with lyrics (limits the infinite options) so I’ll try to write something new… Tomorrow! 📝🎶
What’s the Emoji for “we’ve heard that before”? 🙄🎼
Further experiments with the Affinity Plus (my name for project 2) today, show all 14 combinations of pickups give promising and different tones. I’m VERY pleased!
Project 1 is called Sleepless…
I look forward to new music from the loft. That would be a good name for your forth coming album! Perhaps you could grow long hair and add 3 members forming a group. Yes,I can see it all now!
The B Tells?