Menu
--- In , Michael S Springer
<springerms@j...> wrote:
>
> You see, it's more complex than that:
> It took me a while to see it, but
> not only is the string vibrating in relation to the pickup,
> but the pickups are themselves vibrating in response to
> vibrations transmitted from the bridge through the body through their
> mounts, either on the body or on a pickguard.
>
> The vibration of the pickup in response to the body provides
> the richness of the tone, similar to the sound chamber of an acoustic
> guitar,
> since the sound waves take longer to vibrated throught the body to the
> pickup.
>
No....I don't think so. You actually do not want the pickup to
vibrate; this is one of the ways you can produce feedback. For
example, early electric guitars were just acoustic hollow bodies with
pickups slapped onto them. The arch tops would resonate with the
strings, vibrating the mounted pickup, and hence feedback. That's when
various people "thought outside the box" and came up with the solid
body guitar. Sure the pickups probably do vibrate as a result of
resonating with the strings on a solid body guitar, but it would be so
very small I doubt very much you could get enough current out of that
effect alone to make it to the amp.
>
> Also, if you change a Strat's pickup mounting screws from the stock
alloy
> ones
> to stainless steel, you will get a different sound, proving that the
> pickups do
> get some resonance from their mounting points.
I find this very difficult to believe. This goes up there with writing
on CD's with blue magic marker in my book.
>
> I have also heard that you can use a doublenecker guitar to prove this:
>
> Plug in one of a double neckers two "guitars" into an amp, but <play>
> the other one... The plugged in neck's pickup's are picking up body
> resonance
> from the other one.
I would like to try/see/hear this. I would hazard a guess that the
pickups on the other neck are just detecting the changing magnetic
field around the other neck, resulting in a very weak signal. I don't
think the heavy mass of an electric guitar body, especially a double
necker, would vibrate enough to induce a signal on a pickup. It may
also be that the other set of strings, under high tension, could
resonate over the other pickups. You could test that by muting the
other strings with your hand/arm while playing the other set.
All IMHO of course.
BN
