Navigating the vast selection of guitars available at music shops or online retailers can be overwhelming. However, science can be a valuable tool in determining the best guitar for you.
The Science of Guitar Construction Guitars rely heavily on science for their construction and sound production. The measurements and fine-tuning that go into making a guitar are extremely precise. Understanding the science behind the guitar can help measure quality and determine the best guitar for you.
The Science behind the Guitar
Tone-wood and Sound Waves Sound travels through different materials at different speeds. Wood is an ideal material for musical instruments as it is responsive to sound waves. The first instrument makers settled on wood for its ability to effectively transport sound and its tonal qualities. Different types of wood produce different sounds, with some producing brighter sounds and others creating warmer, deeper overtones. This is referred to as tone-wood. Choosing the right type of tone-wood is an important scientific measure of a guitar’s quality, but availability and cost can also play a role.
Common Tone-woods and their Qualities
- Ash: A common, bright sounding wood known for its ability to sustain chords and notes. Ash is one of the strongest and most affordable woods used in guitar making.
- Alder: Found in Europe, it is known for its low weight and a balanced, rich tone with a mix of high, mid-range and low frequencies. Alder is favored for blues and rock styles and is low-priced compared to woods such as mahogany.
- Basswood: One of the softer tone-woods, basswood is native to the Americas and is used for its balanced, slightly warmer tone. It is very affordable and often seen in mixed-wood guitar models.
- Mahogany: An extremely resonant hardwood that favors warmer tones, mahogany is strong but malleable and is favored by luthiers for its durability, pleasing red color and ability to produce a rich, twangy sound.
- Maple: Primarily used for the neck and fretboard, maple produces an extremely bright sound due to its hardness. It is found primarily in North America and is used to produce defined, biting tones.
- Rosewood: A heavy and visually stunning tone-wood, rosewood is often incorporated into a guitar’s back and sides for its rich, warm sound.
Other Factors to Consider Aside from the type of wood used, there are other factors to consider when choosing the best guitar for you. These include;
- the guitar’s body shape
- neck width
- string action
- and personal preferences
However, the type of wood used and its tonal qualities are a key scientific measure of a guitar’s quality. Keep in mind the specific qualities of tone-woods and how they align with your personal preferences and music style to determine the best guitar for you.
Remember, a guitar with the right tone-wood for you will sound better, be more responsive and ultimately, provide you with a better playing experience. And, by following the science behind guitar construction, you can make an informed choice on the right guitar, with a list of factors to consider.
Guitar Acoustics
The basic premise of acoustic guitars is the transfer of the natural sound of the strings to the body of the guitar. This cavity then acts as a resonance chamber where the sound waves from the strings cause the wood of the guitar to vibrate. The air inside the chamber then distorts and creates compression waves which are amplified, travel out into our ears, and are translated into sound or music.
In general, the wood used on the back plate and face plate interacts with different frequencies. The front usually favors higher frequencies, while the back tends to vibrate when coming in contact with lower frequencies. The two plates balance out these two frequency ranges into a unified sound. This balanced sound defines the overall tone of the guitar.
The way the plates interact with string vibration is called resonance patterns. In other words, sound waves create a pattern on the wood. The job of a luthier is to find the right wood, then mold it into a shape that makes the best pattern possible for the tone desired.
Due to the complexity of measuring the intricacies of these patterns, the science behind the way sound waves interact with the wood inside an acoustic guitar is limited. It is generally accepted that luthiering is far more an art form that utilizes elements of science rather than the other way around. For this reason, it is difficult to scientifically assess the build of an acoustic guitar to determine its quality. Opinions and judgments are the only real measure, and are not quantifiable. It simply cannot be translated into an equation. It all comes down to personal preference and what each person views as a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ sound.
With this in mind and beyond the basic requirement of an acoustic guitar enlarging the sound sufficiently, it is up to each consumer to determine what sounds best. Following your gut instinct is highly encouraged. Word of mouth and help from more experienced guitarists is also invaluable.
Harmonics and Tone
Consider a single musical note played on a guitar. To the ear, it is a singular sound, but in reality, it is formed of numerous related frequencies vibrating simultaneously to create that specific note. These are called overtones. When they are multiples of the original note played, they are called harmonics.
A guitar string is a coiled bundle of various metals, with a specific weight, girth, and tension. This means that any vibration it creates will be imperfect due to these real-life characteristics, as well as environmental considerations, such as air resistance.
When a string vibration is initiated by a finger or plectrum, the sine-waves created are affected by the fact that the string is held in place on the machine heads and bridge. These points of contact mean it cannot vibrate perfectly: the extremities of the string will alter the shape of the vibration and create harmonics that trail in relation to the core frequency played.
If the wave was viewed mathematically and its full frequency range analyzed, you would note a large peak at the core frequency of the note, and then less pronounced spikes for the overtones. In a perfect world (or using a computer), where the string was free of imperfections and the environment had no impact, you would in theory see one large peak at the core frequency, but nothing else. This would result in an ersatz, artificial and clinical sound.
Conversely, if there are too many harmonic overtones, the guitar would sound boomy and sodden, almost oversaturated with frequencies. The tone of a guitar is, therefore, dictated by how the instrument manages the mixture of these frequencies and how rapidly they audibly subside.
Though it is clearly impossible to notice all.
Internal Wiring and Components
Basic electronics require a steady, constant signal to maximize the efficiency of a circuit. The same applies to a guitar. Due to the relatively low voltage required to power an electric guitar, the quality of the wire used has no effect on the guitar. The important factor is the quality of soldering work and the components used to transfer the signal from the pickups to the jack output.
By components, we refer to the knobs, switches, and selectors that control each pickup. They allow the player to adjust the tone and volume, to switch to or deaden a certain pickup to create a specific sound. Numerous lower-end guitars offer basic models of these components that are prone to malfunctioning. Wires that detach due to shoddy craftsmanship, jack inputs held loosely in place affecting the signal, and unresponsive switchers that fail to turn on pickups, are all common problems. There is a direct link between the cost of the guitar and the quality of the wiring/components. To avoid any issues, be ready to spend a little more.
Hardware Guitar hardware is loosely defined as any component other than the internal wiring, components, and wood. This includes machine heads, the bridge, and the tailpiece. Different types of hardware have varying functions. A correlation exists between a price-tag and quality. Hardware is, therefore, a trustworthy gauge of a guitar’s overall quality. The reasoning behind this is that better hardware improves tuning precision and keeps strings in tune for longer, notably after temporarily altering their pitch with a tremolo or whammy bar.
Machine Heads Also known as tuning pegs, these vital mechanisms are basically what keeps the strings of a guitar in tune. Mounted on the head, they firmly grip the strings via a protruding metal spindle through which a string is fed, then tightly wrapped around. The rotating knobs then allow the player to change the note/tuning by altering the tension of each string. More tension equals a higher pitch, and less tension, a lower one. This makes them one of the most important pieces of hardware. Cheaper models are often temperamental and only keep a tuning for short periods of time, before the player is forced to readjust. Being able to rely on machine heads to do their job should be a prime consideration for a beginner and a virtuoso alike.
Bridge Located on the lower part of the guitar, the bridge is designed to stabilize the strings above the fretboard on the neck. The height of the strings then determines the action, covered.
So, if you’re a fan of the GUITAAARRRRR… Why not hop over to our GUITARS store and see if there is something you like.
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