harmonics

[blackmusic]

hey guys,

when people are talking about pickups, what do they mean when they refer to harmonics, and what are harmonics?

~thanks as always

 

[Cwadroon]

Good question, if it's what I'm thinking your asking, a harmonic(to do with guitars anyway) is a tone thats brought on by lightly placing your finger (or using your pick to create) over a string and producing a sound that (help me here professionals) generates a "harmonic" sound different then that which would usually be created in that situation.

 

[Chris Shaeffer]

They might be talking about the "harmonic overtones" that the pick-up emphasizes.

Each note has many harmonic overtones- say you play an A 440 it will have overtones at 880, 1320, 1760, etc. on up all the way out of human hearing. So each note pretty much fills up the whole frequency spectrum with harmonic overtones. They are all there at the same time.

HOW each instrument emphasises those overtones gives them their unique sounds. For acoustic instruments you have different woods and metals that effect this, as well as different ways of producing the sound itself. While these factors all effect electic guitars as well, the pickup can have a HUGE effect on the sound the guitar has.

So a pickup that sounds muddy might be over emphasizing the lower overtones and not picking up the higher ones at all. A pickup that sounds brittle might be hyping the higher overtones and leaving out the mids and the lows.

Its kind of like EQ in a way, but a lot more subtle.

Take care,
Chris

PS. I should add that playing technique can also have a huge effect on what overtones are emphasized. A good player can make any instrument sound good- the sound doesn't just come from the pickups.

 

[amt7565]

To follow up with Chris's comment. Any note you strike on the guitar produces the fundemental note. So if you play say "A" which is 440Hz, then that note also produces integer multiple notes of 440. That is; 880, 1320, 1760 etc. But still the volume of 440 is the highest. And so you hear mostly 440 and a little bit of the other harmonics(880, 1320, 1760 etc).

Guitar players play harmonics in such a way that, the 440Hz is subdued. So, what happens is that you hear more of 880, 1320, 1760 etc and less of the 440. Hence the high screaming, yet melodious note of "A". This is what in general is knows as harmonics to musicians.

For "A", 880, 1320, 1760 etc., are referred to as Harmonics.
You can play natural harmonics by carefully placing your fingers over certain frets of the guitar. You can play artificial harmonics best with distortion ON and pinching the string between your finger and pick(If you did not know this yet).