Folk Culture

1. “How does a string work?”

A tightened material (silk gut, metal or nylon, or any combination) when plucked or bowed oscillates or vibrates at a certain frequency (cycles per second) the instrument vibrates along with the string and amplifies the sound waves.

2. “Why does a short string sound higher than a long string?”

The wave has a shorter distance to go so it’s “frequency” goes up.

3. “Why does a fatter string sound lower? (like guitar)

A fatter string has more mass more mass means the sound wave travels slower, so it produces a deeper sound at the same tension more tension produces a higher note.

4. Why does a fatter string sound duller and out of tune?

Stiffness is a factor it takes more energy to move the string so the sound decays faster.

5. Why does a tighter string sound brighter?

The closer you get to the tensile strength of a material, the more efficient the energy is used to vibrate up to a certain point. stiffness becomes a factor and break age will occur.

6. Why does a guitar sound out of tune?

When you go up the Fret Board if you have thicken or thinner stings, or if you Raise or lower the Pitch?

The scale length is out for a certain pitch and thickness of string you can vary the material sizes but not a lot. A fatter string gives more tension. A thinner string gives less at the same pitch.

7. How does a wound string work?

It is a way of adding mass to a string without raising the tensile strength for instance say you have a material that has a tensile strength of 25 lbs, and you had it at a pitch that put it at 26% percent of fits tensile strength it wouldn’t sound very good but if wrapped it with another material and doubled the mass it would raise the tension to about 40-50% but it wouldn’t raise the tensile strength. If you just doubled the size of the string by using something twice as thick you would also raise the tensile strength, this can work in some cases but not in most you could do it with a long scale, but not with a short scale.

8. Why do strings break?

Lots of reasons 90% percent of the time it has nothing to do with how the strings were made. Most of the time its one of the following reasons:

A. String was damaged when it was put on the instrument. Each instrument has its own rules, but in general you have to have at least two complete wraps around the peg or machine. This distributes the pressure on the core. Don’t tear the string.

B. Instrument is not properly set up. The bridges and nuts on must new instrument need to be set properly, and most of the time the makers don’t do it. Also older instruments get worn and have to be checked.

C. Bad tuning and playing habits. you can’t pull and pull on a string night after night and expect it to hold up, if you overstress a string you pass it’s tensile strength and it breaks.

D. String was old and stress-out. Guitarron strings in particular are very delicate just because they are fat, it doesn’t mean you can abuse then the core is under constant strain and as a result it actually gets thinner over time, and finally the mass and the tension exceed the tensile strength, especial, when you pluck hard, that initial burst of energy is much higher than when the string is just vibrating you actually raise the pitch slightly.

9. Why can a guitarron string make a “wow” sound?

This is called “in harmonicity” in Spanish its called “variation”. The pitch will go up then down before leveling off. This is due to a lack of tension and a low percentage of tensile strenght The string and some times when a string is hit too hard.

On a short scale like the guitarron, it is very difficult to get the balance of percent of tensile strength and tension, and playability needed. A longer scale would mean a thinner string, but you wouldn’t be able to play as easy and arcing would be a factor.

10. Why does the same note sound so different of on different instrument?

Because each string instrument produces a different “recipe” of overtones. Each musical note we hear is made up off the prime and many overtones. A nylon 1st on a guitar and a metal 1st on a guitar produce. Completely different harmonic combinations. add different types of wood and braces, not to mention string combination and the variety is endless.

11. Which string is the best?

The best string is the string that sound and feels best on your instrument. The only person can answer that question is you not me, not your friend. you remember, what sound good on one guitar or guitarron or vihuela may not sound good on another.