Guitar string tension: effect of total length

[Hornbein]

Controlling pitch with muscle memory alone leads to poor results

Tell that to Jimi Hendrix, BB King, Eric Clapton, etc. etc.

 

[billy_joule]

Tell that to Jimi Hendrix, BB King, Eric Clapton, etc. etc.

Surely they would agree. Maybe that's why pre-bends are relatively rare in blues? The fine pitch control required to reach the blue notes (notes that are between the pitches of the 12 equal tempered notes) makes accurate pre-bends difficult as the usual means of pitch control cannot be used.

Pitch control for all musicians of non-fixed pitch instruments relies primarily on their ability to discern pitch.
If a musician cannot recognise when they are in tune then they cannot develop pitch control muscle memory in the first place. Muscle memory pitch control will never be as accurate when the aural feedback loop that was required to develop it is removed. As mentioned, this is a driver for increasing the quality of the feedback signal through better monitoring systems.

 

[Hornbein]

Surely they would agree. Maybe that's why pre-bends are relatively rare in blues?

They do it a lot. Here's my favorite example, where Jimi Hendrix bends down instead of up. //youtu.be/LyqC6_TgLOo?t=40s

BB King does it a ton. Here's an example with a closeup of the fingerboard so it's visible.

 

[Chrono G. Xay]

I think what you're doing by pre-bending, letting the string slide off your fingers, or plucking at the end vs. towards the middle, is changing which harmonics of the string are dominant once the string is released.

That is not the case. You are isolating a smaller mass at roughly the same tension (owing to how the string is depressed slightly at the desired fret, resulting in--hopefully--the smallest of unavoidable bends) and allowing that smaller mass to vibrate instead- a length of string which has its own modes of vibration and fundamental frequency, and whose modes' frequencies follow the harmonic series. Then, that isolated lesser mass has its tension increased further by way of an excursion across the held fret, following a limit function for force/distance needed until the desired ratio of frequency change has been achieved, based upon past experiences with that string at that fret and/or surrounding frets/strings.

Playing 'natural' harmonics, on the other hand, by way of lightly resting the tip of one's finger on a point dividing the string's length by a simple fraction (such as 1/2L, 2/3L, 3/4L, etc.) and then plucking the string, isolates which modes are allowed to vibrate.

 

[billy_joule]

That is not the case. You are isolating a smaller mass at roughly the same tension (owing to how the string is depressed slightly at the desired fret, resulting in--hopefully--the smallest of unavoidable bends) and allowing that smaller mass to vibrate instead- a length of string which has its own modes of vibration and fundamental frequency, and whose modes' frequencies follow the harmonic series. Then, that isolated lesser mass has its tension increased further by way of an excursion across the held fret, following a limit function for force/distance needed until the desired ratio of frequency change has been achieved, based upon past experiences with that string at that fret and/or surrounding frets/strings.

Playing 'natural' harmonics, on the other hand, by way of lightly resting the tip of one's finger on a point dividing the string's length by a simple fraction (such as 1/2L, 2/3L, 3/4L, etc.) and then plucking the string, isolates which modes are allowed to vibrate.

He's not talking about natural harmonics.
The harmonic content of a plucked string is affected by how it's played. That is why a string plucked nearer the fixed end has a different tone than when it is played near the middle of the vibrating section - The former excites more higher order harmonics (more shrill tone) and the latter excites the fundamental more (duller tone).

 

[Chrono G. Xay]

^ Ahhh, ok- if that's the case, then definitely. :-)

(I don't remember if it was in this thread where someone mentioned how acoustic pianos are designed so that the felt hammers strike at 1/7L soas to better avoid exciting the lowest dissonant harmonic, #7...)

 

[HowlerMonkey]

I invented "the sustainer"

 

[Chrono G. Xay]

I invented "the sustainer"

...