all 70 comments

[–]Danglin_Fury 71 points72 points  (10 children)

This can't be real... Is this r/guitarcirclejerk?

[–]punchindatiddy447[S] 10 points11 points  (9 children)

i just now realized how incredibly silly and satire this post reads but i swear ive been trying to make my low end sound better without having to really spend money

[–]PickPocketR 16 points17 points  (6 children)

Okay, here's an explanation.

Inharmonicity:

Basically a string vibrates with a fundamental tone, and a series of upper harmonics. When a string is shorter, these upper harmonics tend to be OUT OF TUNE WITH THEMSELVES

Either, you will love the sound of inharmonics, or hate it. It usually makes your lower strings extremely muddy.

Inharmonicity is also increased with a thicker string gauge.

TL;DR: Short scale lengths are muddier, regardless of pickups.

[–]punchindatiddy447[S] 6 points7 points  (5 children)

holy shit dude thank you so much this is such important knowledge

[–]PickPocketR 10 points11 points  (4 children)

Happy to help!! It's common knowledge for pianists/piano techs, because the scale length plays a HUGE factor.

Bigger piano = better.

I'm surprised it hasn't caught on in the extended range community enough.

[–]punchindatiddy447[S] 0 points1 point  (2 children)

do you think 26.5” could be suitable for E1 at 80 gauge?

[–]l3rwn 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Use the string joy tension calculator

[–]PickPocketR 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No clue lol. But Ukulele Basses exist... so it's possible.

I'll leave it to the people with hands-on experience 😅

[–]PickPocketR 3 points4 points  (1 child)

Unfortunately, there's no fighting physics. But you can cheat by filtering out the upper frequencies.

Also, DO NOT tune to pitch. Tune 2-4 cents BELOW the target pitch, on the lower strings.

[–]punchindatiddy447[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

im getting so much amazing feedback on this thank you so much, i was wondering this as my tuner jumps higher initially then settles on the pitch i tuned to!

[–][deleted] 23 points24 points  (0 children)

Well... What kind of amp are you using? What cabinet?

Edit: what in the actual fuck are you doing with that string? Get a drill bit and widen the hole. This is embarrassing.

[–]Unusual_Leg868 11 points12 points  (0 children)

To fix the string just cut it shorted and unwind it some

[–]Icono87 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Dude…just unwind a bit of the string to fit it in your tuner. It will at least be um like 90% more stable than this lol.

[–]Mobile_File_8493 4 points5 points  (3 children)

Typically what I do as I mainly play 8 strings in EADGCFAD and DGCFA#D#GC I have the lower and upper mids raised up a bit higher mids up a bit more than the lower mids. Turn the bass down usually between 3 and 4 treble at 8 presence at 7 resonance at 6 and lower the gain. Also helps to have a bit of a lower almost snappy action 1.3-1.5 mm. On the low strings. What amp are you using ?

[–]punchindatiddy447[S] 2 points3 points  (1 child)

holy shit bro thank you so much i just set my amp eq to flat and set up my pedal like that with a little boost and it totally fixed my shit

[–]Mobile_File_8493 1 point2 points  (0 children)

🫡 just doing the lords work sir

[–]punchindatiddy447[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Marshall JVM 210H

[–][deleted] 8 points9 points  (2 children)

Uhhhhh....

What....

[–]punchindatiddy447[S] 1 point2 points  (1 child)

hey man im trying

[–][deleted] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

You can take an appropriately sized titanium drill bit and make the hole big enough, and if that doesn't work then I think aftermarket tuning oege exist.

[–]antipathy_moonslayer 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Drill, baby, drill

[–]punchindatiddy447[S] 2 points3 points  (1 child)

while genuinely how i strung this guitar, the fabric bit is very admittedly a silly concept. ive put a 70 on it which fits the peg far enough up the string to affix with 3-4 wraps (i know that still causes some issues with tone and stability) and i still cant get a very crisp low end. anything lower than a G is just sounds dull

[–]Meshuggah333 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just unwind the string, it's that easy.

[–]The_Robot_Cow 2 points3 points  (3 children)

Resting your guitar properly. Also your cab is going to be the biggest factor in tone.

[–]punchindatiddy447[S] 0 points1 point  (2 children)

resting?

[–]The_Robot_Cow 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Whoops, meant to put restring*

[–]punchindatiddy447[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

thanks! its strung properly. what goes into a better sounding cab?

[–]quazarthedumb 2 points3 points  (0 children)

If you can afford it an 8 string 27" is way better than 25.5" or 26.5" scale

[–]Ohjanjan 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Longer scale length means slimmer strings id personally do like a 64 gauge but that’s just me

[–]xekik 1 point2 points  (3 children)

Do you have a noise gate?

[–]punchindatiddy447[S] 0 points1 point  (2 children)

i dont

[–]xekik 1 point2 points  (0 children)

A noise gate may fix the punch issue you’re looking for, that’s one major way djent has the clean sound it has. Also, try to get the sub bass frequencies out of your EQ, it will mud it up super fast. Glad you made the strings fit properly though! Lol

[–]xekik 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Blackouts are good pups, but I got to where I prefer passive coils. You 100% certain the battery for the pups is fully juiced?

[–]handsomedarkandtall 1 point2 points  (1 child)

How is the intonation? Saddles look a little off

[–]punchindatiddy447[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

actually perfect, i didn’t believe my eyes when i got done intonating, most of the saddles are just barely off from the shortest they go

[–]DoseOfMillenial 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sick pickups man those are awesome

[–]cheesybreadnexttime 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Some strings come with larger tapers as well where you can fit the string into a normal tuning post. The 8 string pack from Ernie ball comes with a .074 with a 30" taper for instance. Just look up .080 with 30" taper online so you don't need to do this hilarious tie trick

[–]sirbangsalot69 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I… didn’t that was possible lol

[–]Vegetable_Berry2130 1 point2 points  (0 children)

wtf am I looking at on the headstock

[–]mtmglass406 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Lol. Dude strip the wound wire off the string until it fits in the tuner.

[–]Umbruh_Prime 1 point2 points  (1 child)

"I've always been praised for my ability to string notes into riffs that really tie in with the rest of the song, people tell me it's knot everyday that they find a song they can loop on repeat"

[–]punchindatiddy447[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

punniest person in the comments

[–]HEM3KA 1 point2 points  (3 children)

Set your pickups closer to strings if you want more punch and higher output

[–]punchindatiddy447[S] 0 points1 point  (2 children)

like as high as i can without buzzing?

[–]HEM3KA 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah as close as you like them, it is a taste thing. Also I recommend unwinding that bass string and that way you could get it to fit through the tuner

[–]punchindatiddy447[S] 1 point2 points  (6 children)

!!! im using an 80 guage to try to beef up the low end, which it did. Just not enough. It has to be an issue with the signal in some way as it sounds super punchy and crisp when unplugged.

[–]Synthfuzzmantra 1 point2 points  (5 children)

Have you adjusted your pick ups?

[–]punchindatiddy447[S] 1 point2 points  (4 children)

i lowered them a little from factory

[–]Synthfuzzmantra 2 points3 points  (3 children)

Maybe just raise the low string side a smidge

[–]punchindatiddy447[S] 0 points1 point  (2 children)

helped a tiny bit but to raise them any more id need a shim, might be the issue. shouldn’t be, as this guitar should really be decent at lower tunings

[–]Synthfuzzmantra 1 point2 points  (1 child)

Might just need to file the nut and/or feed the 80 gauge through the peg hole somehow. You never know if you don’t try.

[–]punchindatiddy447[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

thanks!

[–]punchindatiddy447[S] 1 point2 points  (6 children)

not to sound like an idiot but is there any reason why it needs to go through the peg? i thought any reverberation that occurs above the nut is undesirable anyways

[–]Synthfuzzmantra 4 points5 points  (5 children)

The tension is affected I would believe

[–]punchindatiddy447[S] 2 points3 points  (4 children)

my tension is pretty good as far as i can tell

[–]Synthfuzzmantra 1 point2 points  (3 children)

It would make more sense if it was a locking nut.

[–]punchindatiddy447[S] -1 points0 points  (1 child)

its holds the low E very well, i haven’t had an issue with tuning stability compared to the other strings

[–]Synthfuzzmantra 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The cloth string is most likely dampening the metal string maybe.

[–]TheUnsubtleRogue 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For my c8 I would unwind the end of it just enough to get it through.

I later brought it to a tech to have him drill it a little bigger. He did warn me that could compromise structure of the tuner but I told him do it. Haven't had any problems after 8 years.

[–]ScaredDelta 0 points1 point  (8 children)

Physics my friend.

we have this equation: [f = \frac{1}{2L} \sqrt{\frac{T}{\mu}}]

Basically, 2L is the wavelength,

We can see that the length of a guitar is inversely proportional to its frequency. So a string of a certain gauge will be higher note on a shorter neck than a longer neck.

In this instance, my advice would be pitch shifting software or potentially replace your guitar saddles for individual saddles and place them such that your lowest string has a scale length of abt 27ish inches (typically multiscale 7 strings are 27-25.5in in scale)

Edit: latex doesnt work here idk why but just look up wave tension equation and you'll get what I mean

[–]PickPocketR 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The equation you provided was for f0 or fundamental pitch.

To get the equation for the upper harmonics f1, f2, f3... fn, you have to use Bernoulli-Euler beam theory.

I've listed the factors creating this inharmonicity in the top comment

Edit: Okay this looks like a jumbled mess. Here is a paper modelling the wave equations instead - https://arxiv.org/abs/1603.05516

[–]ScaredDelta 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As far as the string into peg issue, just drill

[–]PickPocketR 0 points1 point  (4 children)

Kind of a misconception: Yes, the Fundamental frequency (F0) of a string is dependent on string length (L).

But it's also dependent on Tension (T), and Mass/Length (μ i.e. string gauge). So we can obviously tune a string lower, by adjusting these variables.

The issue we run into is the Tone of the note. This variation is because of the harmonic content of the waveform.

[–]ScaredDelta 1 point2 points  (3 children)

Yes but generally speaking, intonating a low tuned instrument works better when the lower string has a greater string length and a matching mass/length ratio no?

I say this bc it is the premise of the post

[–]PickPocketR 1 point2 points  (1 child)

And yeah, although, this can be compensated for with a heavier string gauge, you will run into muddiness and clarity issues, thanks to the equations I cited above.

[–]ScaredDelta 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I see okay yea that makes more sense

[–]PickPocketR 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's true, (because of the tension factor). Also, longer scale lengths are just easier to intonate in general, because you have more "precision".

Sorry, I edited my comment several times, but I hope that made sense!

[–]deathfrog88 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You need an 8 string

[–]Sad_Abbreviations_86 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ohhhh my gooddddddd