Re: Calculating harmonics of a vibrating guitar string

Craig 'Lumpy' Lemke wrote:
Pt wrote:
Just a note on harmonics.
A fretless bass seems to have many more harmonics than a fretted
instrument.

I've never noticed that.

Playing arco with an upright bass presents all kinds of
harmonic problems. Everywhere the bow touches the string
creates a sort of "pinch harmonic". So as you ascend the
fingerboard positions, you have to move your bow toward
the bridge to avoid the nodes. Overtones on a low pitch
instrument like URBass are audible farther up in the
series because you're starting so low. With overtones
on a guitar high E string, after the first few overtones,
it's about out of our audible range. But on a bass, esp
an UR bass with it's relatively huge scale length and
higher string tension, you can hear partials quite a
bit further up the series.

We can play thumb stop harmonics which are sort of
like pinch harmonics in reverse. Stop the string
with your LEFT thumb around the top of the fingerboard
(like our 20th fret) then with another finger from that
same LEFT hand, stop a harmonic above that (toward the
bridge).


Lump



I think you're observing what I was trying to get at, and the example of a fretless instrument points it up even more - those partial ones that I think you're saying aren't really whole notes?

--
- Rufus
.

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