Aperture question

[ShannonH]

I have long been a lover of the tapping style of playing, and having hung out at their forum for a while (Tappistry.org) I find the problem of getting good tone from the tiny amount of attack generated from tapping an interesting challenge. I woke up late last night thinking, what effect could fiddling with the aperture have on sustain and tone overall? Especially when we're talking strings from .100 to .09 in size?

A couple of considerations:
1) Does aperture affect overall magnetic pull? Can I increase aperture, decrease magnet pull, and still get good sensitivity?

2) would it be better to tighten aperture to as narrow as possible and then fiddle with the magnetic pull.


Most of the time, the real issue is the higher strings. The path of choice for many seems to just use Barto's or other active circuits. I still haven't heard an active pickup that I love...

Peace
Shannon

[Mike Sulzer]

This question is a bit complicated, and it needs a careful description of how a pickup works. Let's start by determining this: what does "aperture" mean to you?

[Possum]

....

I don't think increasing magnetics is a good idea, you know what stratitis is I assume? Humbuckers give a fuller ouput from the double coils and double aperture. So thats the direction you ought to go in. I used to play 9 guage strings and getting a full tone never worked for single coils unless I used pedals. The guys who use tapping use alot of gain usually, but don't forget its your fingers and technique that are the first thing thats happening. You should be able to play unplugged and get it working well there first. Probably the pro tappers like EVH mostly use humbuckers, string pull with buckers is lower than single coils. Average gauss from each coil on a bucker is about 250 or so, single coil strats are 1000. Magnet pull kills sustain fast. So you probably want a hotter bucker and/or a higher gain amp/master volume. My two cents on the subject. Did you know Harry DeArmond is credited with inventing tapping? He used the technique to demonstrat his guitar "microphones" to show how sensitive they were.

[StarryNight]

I wonder if more attention can be placed on the location of the pickup with regards to the strongest harmonic area of the strings. I'm not a big tapping fan. I love the musical possibilities but I find the sound kind of anemic. Guys like Stanley Jordan drive me nuts 'cause the playing is high caliber but the sound seems not to fit.

now this i like:...!
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcQYt7xvA8M&feature=player_embedded"]YouTube- Roy Smeck[/ame]

[Possum]

....

I love Roy Smeck, Harmony made some killer Roy Smeck signature guitars back in those days, they really great guitars. OK, so lets see Eddie Van Halen try THIS:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAQSUFxCpBo"]YouTube- Roy Smeck[/ame]

[David Schwab]

Guys like Stanley Jordan drive me nuts 'cause the playing is high caliber but the sound seems not to fit.

I hate his tapping tone! Except for Stick players, I think tapping sounds like crap, especially on bass, unless it's very distorted like Van Halen.

Using a compressor will help things greatly.

Interesting story about Stanley and tapping. I went to high school with an amazing guitarist named Joshua Thompson, (who later became a record producer and collaborator with R&B singer Joe).

RADAR REPORT: JOSHUA PAUL THOMPSON

Josh was into fusion players like John McLaughlin and was always telling me he wanted to figure out how to play rhythm and lead at the same time.

So while in collage, Josh and Stanley were roommates. Josh said to Stanley that he wanted to figure out how to play rhythm and lead at the same time, and they made a bet to see who could do it first. Jordan won the bet.

[ShannonH]

so, what does it mean to me....

I mean by aperture what the esteemed Mr. Schwab describes it as on his website, to sensing area of a pickup. This seems to make the largest difference on basses, but in my sleep induced stupor, I wanted to apply it to the smaller strings.

Possum, I agree, a humbucker seems to be the option of choice, but many tappers prefers the sound of a single. Maybe something like the Screamin demon or humbucker from hell would be along the lines of what is needed. I have yet to get great tone from putting 9's on a strat, unless you use really hot ceramic pickups, then it's really amp and pedal tone, not the guitar.

David, I also agree that often the tone is just anemic. The technique is fun because it allows a guy to compose the basslines with the melody. I really hate the sound of the chapman stick, no body wood makes a big difference. The Megatar and the Warr sound better, but still have limitations. The pickup cavity on a megatar is huuuge, so there is all kinds of room for different electronics.

Maybe the way to go is wider spread with a A2 or A3 magnet.

Check out this guy:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgpKvtk7cvk"]YouTube- Tendinitis song by Jan Laurenz on megatar[/ame]

[David Schwab]

You can make a humbucker, and spread the coils father apart under the treble strings, so it's shaped like "<". That will give a fuller tone to the treble strings.

[Mike Sulzer]

I mean by aperture what the esteemed Mr. Schwab describes it as on his website, to sensing area of a pickup.

OK, that is this:

"Aperture" is the width of the string sensing area of the pickup, and is generally the distance between the two coils of a humbucker."

So the question is: is sensing two narrower areas separated by the distance between the coils the same as sensing the whole area? (A humbucker does more like the former because the field is very small between the two coils.)

As has been discussed before, the relative strengths of the harmonics are different in the two cases. This argues for an aperture definition that is like a line on a graph. It would have one peak for a single coil and two for a humbucker.

For the fundamental and lower harmonics, I think it is the the total magnetic pull that counts, not how it is distributed. That is, it would depend on the field strength added up along the whole aperture. So a wide aperture would give the same pull with an overall weaker field that a narrow aperture. It could be a lot more complicated for the higher harmonics, but a lot of work to show how.

[ShannonH]

and a new name

You can make a humbucker, and spread the coils father apart under the treble strings, so it's shaped like "<". That will give a fuller tone to the treble strings.

I could call it the "Flock of geese". Hopefully they don't sound honky. I think that is a valid design point though. Thanks1

[ShannonH]

OK, that is this:
For the fundamental and lower harmonics, I think it is the the total magnetic pull that counts, not how it is distributed. That is, it would depend on the field strength added up along the whole aperture. So a wide aperture would give the same pull with an overall weaker field that a narrow aperture. It could be a lot more complicated for the higher harmonics, but a lot of work to show how.

Looking at the last two posts, this maybe what Warr is doing. They have one bucker for the Bass side, and two lower gauss magnets sensing the highs, positioned at an area that looks a lot like a where the harmonics would live.

I'd like to do that in a single pickup.

[Possum]

....

Why are you using 9 gauge strings? Put 11's on it and set your guitar up to use 11's, lower the action, adjust the truss rod. Properly set up a strat with 11's can be very easy to play unless you're doing Albert King type bends. You might want to switch to 10s for awhile then move to 11's, it takes some getting used to. On Gibson scale I use mostly 11's, then 10's on strats, sometimes 11's. You get better tone with heavier strings. I used to use 9's because I had tendonitis problems in my hands for a long time, but I changed my diet and it went away, changing to heavier strings was a joy, I just could never get the kind of fat tone out of 9's that I wanted to, even with using pedals.

[David Schwab]

I like 9's. I used to use 10's, but I like the tone and bend-ability I get from 9's better. That's on 25.5" guitars. And I'm a bass player so I'm used to big fat strings.

Heavier strings don't sound fuller... just a little louder. They are tuned the same after all. On my lucite bodied guitar, anything heavier than 9's sounds too bright and tinny!

And too many guitar players use way too much low end. It leaves no room for the bass and other instruments.

[Possum]

...

Well yeah they do sound fuller, otherwise I'd still be playing 9's. 9's sound "plinky" to me and with my damaged hands it was always real frustrating to me that I could never get the fat sound heavier strings give you, so I had to use pedals and became a "pedal baby." I'm talking single coils here. With buckers you can get away with it better, after all Albert King used a 9 as his top string for those big bends, but I can't imagine SRV playing 9 gauge strings on a strat and getting that kind of tone. Page used 8 gauge strings and if you listen hard you can tell.

[David Schwab]

9's sound plinky if you play plinky. I like to practice to with no amp so I can get a smooth tone from the guitar. Part of the problem is people use thin picks and don't hold them right. Then you get that awful plinky tone. Thin picks = thin tone.

SRV also tuned down a step, so he might as well had 9's on the guitar. It all equals out in the end.

A lot of players use 9's and get a good tone without a lot of effects. Take Brain May for example, he uses 9's. That's also a 24" scale guitar! He never sounds plinky.