What Is Most Responsible For Harmonic Content, In Your Opinion?

Which One Matters Most?

  • Total voters
    25
TSJMajesty

TSJMajesty

Rock Star
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I don't claim to know for sure, but until I played a Majesty thru an Axe III, or thru any of my Mesa amps, I'd never heard a guitar with so much rich harmonic content.

If pressed, I'd probably say it's PU's, followed closely by how they're amplified. Or maybe it's the Mesa predominantly. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :rofl

What's your thoughts?

How bout guys who play more than 1 guitar (unlike me, haha)? @Warmart , what do you think, if you were to compare your Majesty to one of your other, very awesome, axes, using the exact same rig?
 
Well I can speak for pinch harmonics, they are obviously to a point dependent on amp settings (gotta have gain), but I have a few that rip them out even when I don't execute well.

Others I have, you have to talk pretty to them first, hold the guitar just right and then execute perfectly or it goes kinda boinnnngggk.

In the end, it's nigh impossible to say whether it's pickups or bridge or string brand/size or ???, but I'll lean towards overall guitar construction. I probably sound a little like Paul Reed Smith now, but of all the marketing mumbo-jumbo he spews, I'll agree with one of his statements - "Anything that touches the string is god". Just simple and easy to understand physics - anything that can interfere with the strings vibrating is going to have a price.

But even if everything is perfectly mated, if you have shit pickups you're going to suffer, and they don't touch the strings :grin
 
Warmart said:
Well I can speak for pinch harmonics, they are obviously to a point dependent on amp settings (gotta have gain), but I have a few that rip them out even when I don't execute well.

Others I have, you have to talk pretty to them first, hold the guitar just right and then execute perfectly or it goes kinda boinnnngggk.

In the end, it's nigh impossible to say whether it's pickups or bridge or string brand/size or ???, but I'll lean towards overall guitar construction. I probably sound a little like Paul Reed Smith now, but of all the marketing mumbo-jumbo he spews, I'll agree with one of his statements - "Anything that touches the string is god". Just simple and easy to understand physics - anything that can interfere with the strings vibrating is going to have a price.

But even if everything is perfectly mated, if you have shit pickups you're going to suffer, and they don't touch the strings :grin
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I will respectfully disagree with this. You don't need gain to get a pinch harmonic. I can get them on my guitars without them even being plugged in. I think it has more to do with a good setup and knowing where the harmonic nodes are on the string. If you are having trouble on a guitar getting them to ring out, try moving your picking hand a little up or down on the string and you should find a spot where they are able to be played.
 
I think it has a lot to do with the construction of the guitar and the setup. The pickups and amplification are only going to pick up what is there and make it louder.
 
JasonE said:
I think it has a lot to do with the construction of the guitar and the setup. The pickups and amplification are only going to pick up what is there and make it louder.
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I dunno -- I think most people prefer tube to solid state amps specifically because of the terrible THD specs the tube amps we love have at the volumes we love to run them at.
 
JasonE said:
I will respectfully disagree with this. You don't need gain to get a pinch harmonic. I can get them on my guitars without them even being plugged in. I think it has more to do with a good setup and knowing where the harmonic nodes are on the string. If you are having trouble on a guitar getting them to ring out, try moving your picking hand a little up or down on the string and you should find a spot where they are able to be played.
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I agree with both of you. Your fingers have to be at the right spot, but getting certain ones, are hard w/o more gain.

The 1/2, 1/3, and 1/4 natural harmonics (which is what a "pinch harmonic really is), are gradually harder to get to ring clear, the further you go up in string divisions (harmonic 'nodes.) Go on to 1/5, etc., and they get harder w/o gain.

Take VH's On Fire. Those harmonics are 1/7 the length of the string. It's quite hard to get them to pop out w/o gain.
 
JasonE said:
I will respectfully disagree with this. You don't need gain to get a pinch harmonic. I can get them on my guitars without them even being plugged in. I think it has more to do with a good setup and knowing where the harmonic nodes are on the string. If you are having trouble on a guitar getting them to ring out, try moving your picking hand a little up or down on the string and you should find a spot where they are able to be played.
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I'm totally with you. I should've been more clear! The kind I like need gain, but then that's how I play 95% of the time, anyway! :grin
 
Without harmonics, all you got is a sine wave. And I haven't heard any guitar that sounds like a sine wave.

I don't know that there is more harmonic content coming out of the pickup than what was present on the guitar string. However, pickups have a tonal balance and so will emphasize certain aspects of harmonic content (i.e., increase the amplitude of those harmonics compared to the rest of the signal) which I guess you could say can make it seem like there is more of the already existing harmonics, but isn't generating new harmonic content. Additionally, higher output pickups will drive an amp harder, which will . . .

. . . increase the harmonic distortion created within the amplifier, which will generate more harmonic content. Like the pickups, the amp will also have a tonal balance that may emphasize certain particularly pleasing harmonics.
 
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