Pickup placement and string vibration/harmonics

[ikay]

For anyone who might be interested.

[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]In response to a thread about the 'sweet spot' on the 'general' forum I've drawn up a couple of graphics showing string vibrations of the first 7 harmonics and some common pickup positions. Purpose of this was to help visualise the harmonic content being sensed by different pickup positions and how this varied from open to fretted notes.[/font][/color]

[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]The vertical line for each pickup shows how much of each harmonic is being sensed. For example, in the first diagran, a J neck pickup gets a good dose of the first four harmonics of an open string but hardly any of the higher harmonics. By contrast, the bridge pickup gets a much more even spread but with less lower harmonics and more higher harmonics.[/font][/color]

[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]The first diagram shows vibrations for an open string. The second shows vibrations for a string fretted at the 12th fret. This clearly shows that the mix of harmonics being sensed by the pickup is substantially different for open and fretted notes.[/font][/color]

[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]For ref the pickup position measurements are as follows (all measured from nut):[/font][/color]

[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]J neck - 27.9"[/font][/color]
[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]J bridge (60s) - 31.45"[/font][/color]
[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]J bridge (70s) - 31.84"[/font][/color]
[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]P bass (centreline) - 28.61 "[/font][/color]
[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Stingray (centreline) - 30.5"[/font][/color]

[attachment=135413:string harmonics + pickup position 1.jpg] [attachment=135414:string harmonics + pickup position 2.jpg]

Edited May 23, 2013 by ikay