The sound of the bass is influenced by various factors. One of them is the place where the finger touches the string (here the main indicator is the distance from the bridge).
However, first a small digression. When a bass player begins to touch (hit, pinch) strings, sound vibrations create overtones (also called harmonics). Overtone is an overlay of fundamental tones. For example, the basic tone of the A note is 440 kHz. However, during the performance of a melody, a musician can create a note in which there are harmonics with a frequency of 880 KHz, 1760 KHz, and others. A similar situation is observed with other notes. This is explained by the fact that the string vibrates, which is manifested in the synthesis of various frequencies. At the same time, there is always the main tone and auxiliary ones.
The imposition of additional frequencies on the main creates a certain sound. If the balance between them changes, the sound of the string gets a different shade. For example, if you tweak a string in a place that is 1/3 the length of the bridge, the more energy will be transmitted to the fourth, fifth harmonics. The main tone will receive less energy, and the third with the sixth overtones will generally remain without energy.
Of course, you can continue the detailing, however, it is quite difficult to read. In general, it should be said that the sound and the distance between the point of contact with the string and the bridge are dependent. So, if you play closer to the bridge, then most of the energy will be received by overtones, and the smaller part - by the main one, and vice versa. It turns out that each point of the string has its own harmonic balance. For this reason, the placement of the pickups has a great influence on the sound.
Higher frequencies are produced on the pickup nearest to the bridge. If we take into account the average pickup, then it does not have fourth harmonics from an open string. Such a puller has a Fander Stratocaster guitar, which can be learned from the lessons offered at www.spmuz.ru/instrument_bas-gitara.html.
As you can see, the sound depends not only on the distance to the bridge, but also on the position relative to the overtones.
For this reason, the sound of the note D, which is played on the 10th fret of the E string, is denser than on the open string. Although harmonics are weakly formed, they are not perceptible due to the appearance of the pitch above the pickup. Interestingly, changing the position of the sound removers will cause the string to “sing” differently. Actually, for this reason, manufacturers make several pickups in guitars, they realize the possibility of switching between them.
If you take the company Fender, then it makes the guitar two samples. The first is P-Bass, or Precision. Such a guitar is characterized by the presence of one pickup, which consists of two parts. It is located in the middle between the neck and the bridge. The second guitar is Jazz (J-Bass). It made two pickup. One of them is located near the neck, the other - at the opposite end. Due to this, it becomes possible to regulate the balance between overtones and fundamental frequencies.
Leave Your Comment