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Ben

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About Ben

  • Birthday 07/08/1988

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  • Location
    UK
  • Interests
    Guitar Playing,
    Guitar building,
    Stating the obvious,

    Squash- don't play much any more but I want to start again cos it was good. (Shame I wasnt though :P)
    Wasting my life on the internet
    Wasting my life (and money) going out
    Base jumping
    Watch TV occasionally
    Listening to music, mainly stuff that nobody else my age does since most of the music popular with my agegroup at the moment seems to be mind-numbingly bland.

    Cats. Cats are amazing. That counts as an interest.

    Visit my official store!!
    http://www.cafepress.com/benthackray

    I was going to try to use all 50000 characters that the forum allows, but I'm bored now and I'm only on 728 :(

    Whilst at uni I dont really do any of the above though...
    Just the guitar playing i guess

    seems that all that 95% of people want to do at uni is drink and go clubbing.
    Not that thats such a a bad thing though :P

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  1. So to clarify; In a single sentence, am I right that your theory is that this 'sweet spot' at the 24th fret is because there is an unusually high concentration at that point of nodes and antinodes of the fundamental frequencies of all the frets? edit: also, wxMaxima lets you plot things easily. Its pretty simple to learn and free. (also here's the link for platforms other than windows)
  2. The subjectivity is in what exactly is "there" though. You are right that the physics is fundamentally highschool-level physics (although when you get to interference of multiple waves it makes life a lot easier if you use complex numbers, which here in the UK are A-level), the issue is the complexity of the system. For example; stars have forces between them due to gravity. Simple highschool physics, right? Yet to model a galaxy full of these stars, you need some of the worlds most powerful supercomputers! The problem is the sheer amount that's going on. What are you going to draw a graph of? You would need to quantify the 'creamy' sound you describe if you are going to plot anything, and I don't see how that's possible. How do you intend to prove that this effect is due to the reasons you describe and not some other factor? You were trying to calculate something approximately-but-not-quite the scale length from something approximately-but-not-quite the distance from the nut to this magical node ? Or perhaps working what scale length your guitar would need to have its node directly over one of the neck pickup coils? Ultimately, I think Prostheta summed it up nicely:
  3. Essentially, yes. While the physics of each little component is graspable, overall there's just so much to take into account that you aren't going to easily get to any solid conclusions. The problem with your method is that it is very subjective, and your conclusions as to the causes of the perceived change in sound are pretty much just conjecture. How do you know, for example, that this change in sound wasn't due to the mass of the capo changing the resonant frequency of the neck? Apparently some people dislike mp3s for the same reason; they remove the frequencies higher than your ear can immediately detect.
  4. My opinion is that you guys are probably wasting your time approaching this from a theoretical perspective. I expect there's waaaay too much going on for you to realistically model mathematically without using some kind of complex computer simulation. For example: All this node/ anti-node stuff only applies to standing waves. Traveling waves are also involved... my guess would be that they are largely behind the 'attack', as I can only imagine picking a string creating traveling waves, that will then decay into standing ones. Interference between standing waves, traveling waves, and multiple harmonics of each makes the situation a lot more complicated. If anybody was ever going seriously try to figure this out, then I propose approaching it empirically: 1. Take a les paul, and a pickup with the flattest possible frequency response (to be really rigorous, work out its response to different frequencies and de-convolute with the data later) 2. Figure out a way to make the position of the pickup variable. Ideally while still attached to the body. (This would be easier if you were going to deconvolute the frequency response of the pickup with your data later, as then the pickup could be made smaller (there would in principle be no need for it to even resemble standard guitar pickup, as it's effect on the sound would be being removed from the data) 3. Connect the pickup to a computer to record the sound. (I don't know how good the analogue-to-digital converters in sound cards are, so if they suck then find a good one) 4. Play every fret on every string, and record. 5. Repeat 4 for a variety of pickup positions (and ideally for various guitars!) 6. Analyse the data. Fourier transform it, fit functions to the data and so on. 7. You now have functions describing frequency response vs pickup position and vs fret for a given pickup position for a given string, and what ever other relations you want between those variables. This scheme should be able describe the effect of pickup position only. The overall sound of the guitar would be influenced by many other things also... (pickups, strings etc) .. and if you wanted insight into the overall effect you would need to investigate those too. Basically I think you are wasting your time with over-simplified pictures of something very complex. It's like all these alternative medicines that will chose one aspect of the very complicated system that is the human body, (eg enzymes, or free radicals or "friendly bacteria"), and then decide that everything revolves around them... when reality, while they may indeed be a very important part of the system, they are just a small part of a very large system. While in principle what you are saying may indeed be correct, I doubt you will ever be looking at enough of the full picture to get anything useful from this approach. Also, hello again everyone! (I haven't posted here in ages because I've been very busy trying to get a decent degree)... only one exam left now .
  5. http://www.jimfogarty.co.uk/Higgs%20opening%20p450.jpg This has to be probably the nerdiest guitar I've ever seen! Your painting skills are awesome.
  6. Ben

    Death Magnetic

    Absolutely no dispute on that
  7. You lost me at '$20 a pick' I'd have to try it to believe it. I've tried lots of picks, but the one that I seem to keep coming back to is some dirt cheap 1.2mm plastic one that came from ebay for something like £3 for a bag of 50. go figure. Guess I'll have to wait for the dollar to weaken a little more before I try one of those.
  8. Ben

    Death Magnetic

    You are telling me you prefer Hetfield's "new" voice?You must be drunk. I dunno... In terms of the actualy quality of the vocals I dont think there's much in it, however Hetfield's new voice is perhaps worse to listen to because its so disappointing when compared to his old voice. I expect Mustaine to sound like a nasal, whining 11 year old eunuch doing his best to sound angry and sinister but I expect better from Hetfield, and it just sounds wrong. Ok. I only own 'Peace sells' and 'Rust in Peace'. I'm no megadeth expert by any means, my opinions just based on what I've heard. Holy wars is the only song I can listen to without the vocals making me cringe at least slightly Some great riffs though.
  9. Ben

    Death Magnetic

    I dont particularly like ac/dc's vocalist... Feel sorry for me then . Megadeth have some great guitar riffs and solos, and his voice is tolerable on many songs, but there's some I can barely listen to because I tire of his vocals so quickly. I'm not trying to 'nail' you, it just seemed odd to me that you could actually like Mustaine's vocals Then you suck...so bite my pillow,bi**h.. (that was a joke...no offense meant..I should not have to say that,but I will anyway) Don't worry I'm not easily offended and I've read enough of your posts here to know that you were joking... Its probably because it was the first metallica album I heard, so it didnt seem a dissapointment compared to their earlier stuff. I do agree that everything pre-black album is superior though.
  10. Ben

    Death Magnetic

    Wes- explain this to me: -you heavily criticise James Hetfield's singing (which I agree has seriously degraded) -I'm pretty sure I've read a few times that you like megadeth, but I have not once heard you criticise Dave Mustaine's vocals... Perhaps years of playing loud metal have damaged your high frequency hearing so much that Mustaine's horrible squealy voice becomes tolerable My opinion of the new album is that its not in anyway terrible, but nor is it anything remarkable in any way. Its just derivative and not innovative.... it sounds almost like someone trying to write something in the style of late 80s Metallica, and getting it pretty close but not quite nailing it. Still... its probably better than anything else they have released since the black album. (I quite liked the black album. Bite me.)
  11. Wow, That guitar is spectacular! Great work.
  12. It does actually send a report as if it were a PM, but you dont actually have to go to the effort of finding the mod's profile and pm-ing them; just click the report button thats at the bottom left of the post you want to report.
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