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Location: Jacksonville, Florida | Since I always play guitar alone, I don't have anyone to confirm or dismiss this question. Is it possible for the relative tone and volumne of an instrument to change slightly depending on the relative humidity and temperature? I live in north Florida and take my guitar outdoors in the evenings and play. This time of the year it can be either cool or warm, damp or dry (in any combination). Seems to me that the guitar(s) sound better at times, but I haven't discovered an actual pattern. Or may be my imagination. Any ideas? |
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Location: NJ | absolutely !!!! a warm dry night the sound will carry for ever a damp humid night it is like playing in a box.
The top can soak up humidity and not vibrate the way it should and sound differenet. I am not so sure if the changes are drastic I would think they are more subtle but they are changes just the same. |
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Location: puerto vallarta, mexico | here is a link explaining some of the rules which apply to the propagation of sound.
http://www.sfu.ca/sonic-studio/handbook/Sound_Propagation.html
probably more than you want to know, but this is the physics of it. |
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Location: Atlanta,Ga. | HEY AL, ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!!! Now can you tell us how the wet bulb and dry bulb effert humidity.Whats dew point?Does my slot head Adamas sound better in Texas or Florida? (just kidding) :rolleyes: |
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Location: NJ | because of the makeup of the Adamas there would be little if any effect.
you lost me with wet bulb? what are you referring to? |
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Location: Scotland | Air temperature & density will affect the speed of sound, though this is hardly an issue when your ears are inches away from the guitar, given that the speed of sound at room temperature is around a foot per millisecond. It's more to to with the hygroscopy of the soundboard. I once had a cedar-topped guitar which lost volume & projection in damp weather, that isn't going to happen with an Adamas.
Paul |
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Location: Atlanta,Ga. | Al, i was just kidding!!!! Actually dry bulb and wet buld is how you get humidity readings.You get a sling phsycrometer and you get the wet bulb and dry buld reading and avg. it out to get the percent of relative himid ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzz
Sorry, i put myself to sleep!!! |
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Location: NJ | I know you are kidding looks like I learned how to measure humidity...go back to sleep.... |
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Location: NJ | Forgive me, I had to scroll up to the top of the page to see where I was. For a second I thought I miss-clicked and wound up on the webpage of the Tex Antoine School of Meterology or Jonathan Nash's "Phun with Physics" page.
Hey, 12 Bar: Perhaps when it's a nice comfortable evening you FEEL better, hence you possibly PLAY better, ergo maybe you SOUND better.
(Note: the obscure reference to Tex Antoine - a local New York weatherman/drunk in the 60'-70's who used to draw little cartoon characters during his weather forecasts. Got thrown off the air for making an "off colour" remark about the preceding news (rape case) story. |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | Hey Neighbor,
Technically the humidity might change something but I'm not sure we can really hear it. Now I have noticed when I sit out in the screen poarch under the big ceiling fan, that will make the sound funny, particularly the high strings. Took me a month to figure out it was the fan! |
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| If you are playing through an amp the speakers soak up moisture. Adamas`s are less likely. |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | No amp, Don't plug it in, Play it straight!
Actually I was playing an old National and the fan gives the high strangs a leslie effect, sortof. Couldn't figure out why it kept sounding out of tune. Then it turned into a pile of rust on my right knee. All that Fla humidity! At least we don't have to shovel it. |
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Location: Scotland | Bill, you could be on to something here. Cut a big hole in the back of your National (or three holes if it's a tricone) & put in some of those little battery operated fans. A resonator guitar with an onboard leslie effect!!!!! Don't cut up a new one, get one of those beat up '30's ones, you could could experiment with the fan speeds and..........hang on ..... the drugs are beginning to wear off.....I need to go and lie down for a while |
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Location: puerto vallarta, mexico | when it was really cold and still on the north slope up in alaska (technically a desert) you could hear people talking a couple hundred feet away. cold dry dense air. remember the highschool physics demo where you put a ringing wind up alarm clock in a bell jar and draw a vacuum. the alarm gets quieter until it has no sound at all near a complete vacuum. take a tuning fork and touch it to one end of a 20' bar of a 1/2" steel bar and put your ear to the other end. the denser steel conducts the sound better than air. density isnt a reliable measure of sound conductance however. lead is used for sound insulation and it is much more dense than steel. alot has to do with the ability of the substance to transfer wave motion. as a wave moves through the ocean or the air, the molecules don't move with it. if a wave starts in hawaii, the breaker crashing on californias shore isnt hawaiian water. currents and winds move water but waves don't. wave propagation is complicated and it is difficult to compare apples and oranges. there are just too many variables.
bill, rusty strings are a real pain here too. if i play at a beach party and dont spray the strings before and after i can kiss them goodbye after 1 use. unfortunatly because of this i don't buy the strings i'd like to and buy the stuff on sale. i got a bunch of takamine lights for $2 a set. theyre ok but dont sound like elixers. what are your favorite cheap strings? |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | Russ, I use the Adamas 1818 sets, I haven't run out yet!! It's getting close though. I've heard good things about the elixers.
Paul, we actually put a strobe in one of the 86 collectors, the one Mark O'Connor is playing so it would go off when the camera triggered it. Then we put in some dry ice to get the effect of smoke. Had to take out the preamp and the door, a big project! the effect was pretty cool though.
I'm also experimenting with one of those baseball hats with the fans built in. They're big with the older set in Fla. That way I'll get the leslie effect wherever I look, or maybe just whatever I see will sound that way. I won't be able to wear it out of state of course. I'll keep you posted.
[ April 13, 2002: Message edited by: cwk2 ] |
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Location: puerto vallarta, mexico | i give up----what is the leslie effect. last time i asked about mots it gave me a new word for guitar trivial pursuit on those slow nights. hope this one is half as good. |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | No this one is real.
The old Hammond B3 organs would be played through a leslie speaker. In the cabinet are some horns that spin inside the cabinet. There is a switch on the organ and the player can turn it on and off as desired. When a guitar is played through this is sounds great, like Stevie Ray on Cold Shot although I don't know if that was a real one or an effect. While this is a nice effect, imagine trying to tune your guitar while it's on. |
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Location: Scotland | Russ, for cheap but GOOD strings try www.stringthis.com Less than $2 a set.
Paul |
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Location: Zion, Illinois | I went to that website. It said that 1 set of phosphor bronze is $6.00. 4 sets would be $11.90 (almost $3 / set).
How many sets do you buy for $2 / set?
You could also try webStrings.com
Starts at $285 / set.
Bradley
[ April 14, 2002: Message edited by: Bradley ] |
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Location: Scotland | Check the prices of multiples, once you get to 12 sets you make substantial savings. I buy 72 sets at a time, by the time I've paid tax, duty & shipping they still cost less than the UK trade price.
Paul
[ April 14, 2002: Message edited by: Paul Templeman ] |
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Location: Zion, Illinois | 72 sets. I don't have enough guitars (yet).
Bradley |
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Location: UK | That sites no good for me :(
I use 11`s on my acoustics, and they DONT do 11`s
I buy Roto p/bronze |
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Location: puerto vallarta, mexico | thanks for all of the info and the links amigos. do you find phosphor bronze or 80/20s best for general use? as expensive as strings are here, 72 sets would be a good way for me to go. i like the straight feature in a tube too. paper packs here encourage rust even before you string up. i'll stock up while in the states.
bill, i think i got thet leslie effect going one night while i was chasing the worm around the bottom of a bottle of mezcal. it CAN happen without musical instruments. i'll show you when you visit someday.
[ April 15, 2002: Message edited by: musicamex ] |
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Location: NJ | Paul;
Thanx for the info/site.
Sounds like a good deal.
How do they compare with say, D'Addario's?
I find myself changing once a week (when I have a gig that week) and that could be a substantial savings, if I like the strings.
I like the "tube" idea too.
Years ago, I used to use "Nashville Straights" that also came packaged "uncoiled". Those things used to last forever! (or so it seemed then).
I'll have to check these out. |
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Location: Scotland | Cliff, It's so long since I've shelled out the £6.95 on a set of D'Addario that I can't remember what they sound like. I'm perfectly happy with the bulk strings. I also use a product called Stringlife (www.stringlife.com) which is a liquid polymer coating. It stops my rancid body chemistry killing the strings within minutes of me touching them. I got a trade-price deal on a couple of boxes of the new D'Addario EXP coated strings, so I'm looking forward to trying them, but they're expensive, about £5 a set wholesale.
They're Daddario's answer to Elixirs, except that instead of coating the entire string they just coat the wrap.
Paul |
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Is it my ears?
