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**Dreamland_Rebel** · 06-05-2003, 03:24 PM

Re: Does midrange help artificial harmonics?

just a quick note. the electric guitar realy only puts out midrange frequencies. your amp and pickups do the rest.

**Misanthrope189** · 06-05-2003, 04:56 PM

Re: Does midrange help artificial harmonics?

Ah, thanks...and rodrigo, how do you know all of this about hertz frequency range? It's not only you...there are some others on here that know what frequencies certain tonal ranges lie in...like this harmonics one here. Is there a way I could learn this? It would probably be a big help for learning to use a graphic eq optimumly.

Cheers,
Nick

**StuTDavis** · 06-05-2003, 07:38 PM

Re: Does midrange help artificial harmonics?

I always suggest with artificial harmonics is to do a lot of practice them with your guitar unplugged/unamplified. A good, well set up guitar in acoustic mode will produce and hold an artifical harmonic audibly for a short amount of time, anyway. It's good practice, in learning how to do them, and hearing how your attack and placement will affect the sound and sustain. And, I think you'll realize, it's not necessarily that those mids (or anything else in your setup) that helps you MAKE or PRODUCE artifical harmonics, so much as those things just do what they are made to do with everything in your sound--AMPLIFY them.

I had crapola gear for years and had "trouble making harmonics". I never played my guitar unamplified to know any different. Once I got better gear setups, and play without amplification sometimes, it became more apparent that it wasn't necessarily ME that was the problem with artifical harmonics--it was that my setup just didn't amplify the frequencies they lie in very well. It made me feel a lot better about myself hehehe...

So, the point is, if you can make those harmonics unamplified, you're doing it right, those frequencies are there, but if you aren't hearing them through your amp setup, then something in there is damping/deadening/killing them for some reason. Whether it's a weak input signal from your pickups (which you DEFINITELY don't have with those HM Live Wires hehe), other gear before the amp it's a wimpy input section, the preamp, some other gear after the preamp, the power amp, the speakers, OR your playing area...those frequencies are being lost somewhere, and you just need to find a good way to bring them back in a natural sounding state. For some people, it can be a good boost on the front end, through a booster circuit, EQ or distortion/overdrive pedal etc, for others it's maybe cranking the gain or EQing on the amp's controls, tweaking effects, boosting after the preamp somehow with an EQ, cranking the power amp volume, changing the cab/speakers, or even the rather drastic decision to change your playing area somewhat. Everything is going to change what you "hear" from the combination of your guitar and gear.

**rodrigo_echeverri** · 06-05-2003, 08:32 PM

Re: Does midrange help artificial harmonics?

Originally posted by Misanthrope189:
rodrigo, how do you know all of this about hertz frequency range? It's not only you...there are some others on here that know what frequencies certain tonal ranges lie in...like this harmonics one here. Is there a way I could learn this? It would probably be a big help for learning to use a graphic eq optimumly.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Nick.. that's easy... you know how people refer to the 440 reference?... well, have you actually hear what this note sounds like?... go download the AP guitar tuner and play with it...

I just found this that can give you an idea of the frequency range we are looking at:

"A piano has 88 keys stretching through more than 7 octaves. The lowest note on a piano vibrates at 27.5 Hz and the highest vibrates at 4,186 Hz."

Look at this link please:

Interesting link about ferquencies

[ June 05, 2003, 08:35 PM: Message edited by: rodrigo_echeverri ]

**Misanthrope189** · 06-05-2003, 08:55 PM

Re: Does midrange help artificial harmonics?

Ah, cool...so if a piano's highest note is about 4khz...is a 31 band eq spanning a 20khz range necessary, or does that square wave of higher frequencies of the fundamental fall into play, and 20khz isn't out of range? Thanks for the link, and even for the small piano frequency fact, that's cool to know, especially since I play.

Cheers,
Nick

**rodrigo_echeverri** · 06-05-2003, 09:43 PM

Re: Does midrange help artificial harmonics?

well, distortion is what makes the guitar expand beyond those boundaries... what I mean by the square wave stuff is that when you apply distortion, a whole bunch of higher frequency harmonics come to life.... so even if in theory the highest note in a guitar is like 2.5K, when you distort on that thing there will be stuff going on at higher frequencies than that.. therefore the EQ is right to go up to 10K and above as you can still find something there...

As for the low frequencies a bass can go pretty close to 20 Hz....

[ June 05, 2003, 09:46 PM: Message edited by: rodrigo_echeverri ]

**rodrigo_echeverri** · 06-06-2003, 12:24 AM

Re: Does midrange help artificial harmonics?

well, the frequency at which an artificial harmonic occurs is usually mid-high... my guess would be that it lies in the 600-1500 Hz range.... you need to boost this band in order to highlight your harmonic coming out.

I am sure if you play with the low-highs as well you will notice the harmonic can become more or less aparent. For example if you have a graphic EQ and say you have bands that are 75-150-1K-3K-6K (my carvin)... I would play with the 1K and 3K ones to boost harmonics...

The reason why I would include a band as high as 3K is because of the square wave effect on high frequencies... since your harmonic is actually a distorted sound, a part of it will be at thigher frequencies than the fundamental (which is already high).

[ June 05, 2003, 12:26 PM: Message edited by: rodrigo_echeverri ]

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Does midrange help artificial harmonics?

Does midrange help artificial harmonics?

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