Direct pickup mounting

[Hotrock]

Just thought I'd add my 2 cents.

Before I start I would like to say that unlike Wes I haven't done any experiments. I also don't know if this is true for guitars but I'm using knowledge from a different area and applying it to guitars.

From what I can work out the tone that can be heard from a pup can be attributed to two factors in this argument.

1) The strings vibration through the magnetic field of the pup.

2) When the string is plucked the body also vibrates and this vibration is transfered to the pup. Therefore there is a secondary function of vibration that could be seen as the pickups vibration in relation to the strings. Obviously this is very much a secondary factor when considered against the primary factor above.

If direct mounted pups are used, the secondary factor plays a much bigger part (providing it is hard mounted, like with the maple spacers as opposed to the foam). More of the bodies vibration will be transmitted to the pup and therefore the pup will move in relation to the strings more.

If mounting rings are used a spring/mass/damper system is created, therefore transmitting less of the bodies vibration through to the pup, and the pup therefore moving less in relation to the strings.

I've got to reitterate again that I'm building my first guitar and I'm fairly useless at playing so I have very little practical knowledge, it's just how the scientific part of my brain works

[G_urr_A]

I just thought I'd add on to what Hotrock said

The idea of factor 2 there seems to me like it would be an accetable explanation for the loss of definition that Wes experienced, since the big piece of wood being the guitar would take longer to stop and start moving than the thin string, thus keeping the pickup in relative vibration after the first note had stopped ringing on the string, instead of stopping quickly and letting the next note's attack be clean and unaffected by the previous note's decay.

Only a theory though.

[GuitarMaestro]

Good thought!