Harmonics

feylya

Now, is there a harmonic at every postition on every string on every guitar?? My house mate insists there is, yet I say there's only harmonics at the node/anti-node. Yet experiments I've done has shown there to be harmonics at every point. Who's right?

Gordon

heres a google

Maybe you are thinking that there are only harmonics for the tonic note and he is saying that by pressing against a particular node one would receive a different note because of the sum of the other widths of the vibrations.

There are theoretically an infinite amount of 'nodes', therefore there are theoretically an infinite amount of harmonics. Which presumably would mean that one could play harmonics at any position on a string. The problem is being able to play them and being able to hear them.

This does not include banjos however, banjos don't have harmonics just like a ducks quacks don't echo.

Oeneus

There are a few harmonics that aren't that audible to my ears but tend to make my dog go nuts.

Don1

Hehe
I must try that.

There is one everywhere. You set up a stationary wave of fixed length (the distance between bridge and nut) and vary the ammount of nodes/antinodes on it.
Audibility of all of these comes down to the frequency range of your ears and the electrics. The harmonics that give the biggest sound are low(ish) frequency (few nodes/antinodes) so they are picked up no probs and our ears respond. Narrow wavelength high frequency ones either can't be heard or are just too damn high for the pickups to detect!

Giblet

The problem with harmonics is that are certain positions, the both sides of the string vibrate at the same speed, and are nearly as loud as each other, where at other places, one part of the string vibrates much faster than the other, and you can't hear the harmonic, but it's definatly there.

A First fret harmonic is just about audible on my acoustic.

mirv

Maybe his friend was talking about pinch or artificial harmonics? You can use them at any fret, so that might be it.

dabhoys

I'd say its a good chance that your friend is talking about pinch harmonics and artificial harmonics which I think in there own right sound nice.

Zakk Wylde would have to be one of the more famous guys to use the technique. Adam jones fromt tool has a habit of using it too. go to harmony central if your interested in reading some more detail on harmonics. They've got some good articles...

feylya

Na, it's not pinch or artificial harmonics. I know those. It was basically that at any point along an open string, there is an harmonic, whether you can hear it or not. Thanks for the replies.

Treebeard

Originally posted by Gordon
just like a ducks quacks don't echo.

I did not know that

feylya

Actually they do. It was only very recently discovered that it has a really really really faint echo but it's there!

mirv

Well, there IS a harmonic for every point on an open string, its just that to make it, you might have a harmonic for an unbelievably high frequency as you'd need to add more and more nodes and anti-nodes to make for it to vibrate harmonically, but for most it'd inaudible to the ears hence pointless.

It's a matter of definition of the word harmonic too, as my 3rd fret harmonic is substantially quieter than my 12th fret harmonic, it depends what you stop calling audible or not.

herbie747

Originally posted by Gordon
just like a ducks quacks don't echo.

Duck's quack's DO echo. That's just an urban myth - I bet you think that putting callcards in the freezer regenerates them, and Marilyn Manson is the guy from the wonder years...

Gordon

So you believe that banjo's don't have harmonics herbie?

I think you misconstrue my misleading post...

herbie747

Originally posted by Gordon
So you believe that banjo's don't have harmonics herbie?

Where did I say that?
I just said that duck's quacks DO echo....:dunno:

Gordon

sigh

herbie747

Aaaaaah, now I get it. Touche, Gordon....touche!