Why does a steel sound this way?

[Will C]

Out of fascination about why a steel sounds like it does, and because the inner engineer is still in me, I got hold of some audio software which acts like a spectrum analyser. It does this by performing maths on the signal, known as a fast Fourier transform.

I wanted to know why a steel sounds different from, say, a conventional guitar. After a bit of mucking around to get the signal levels right, so I wasn't over-driving the circuits, I started to get some answers. The signal has to be clean: any trace of distortion produces higher harmonics which obscures the "steeliness".

A conventional guitar produces a fairly even set of harmonics in addition to the basic note you are picking. Those harmonics are lower in strength, the higher you go. It seems that a steel produces a "parcel" of harmonics even stronger than the fundamental, especially the 2nd, 4th, 5th and 6th.

I then looked to see if I could spot what makes "tone". I think I am seeing another parcel of harmonics higher up, around the 10th - 14th harmonic, when the "tone" is good. This would be what our ears tell us is that extra "edge" that we interpret as "tone", clarity or "bite". One thing is for sure, if there was ever any doubt about whether you can get the same tone without picks, this shows you that it's very hard. Picks definitely produce that extra "bite", according to the spectrum scope.

Fascinating stuff...

[JohnDavisStringsHere]

Will you gotta get out more

[Will C]

Ha ha probably right, John. But it's good to know that there is something there that you can measure, it's not all in the mind.

[Ken Byng]

Interesting Will. While I'm not sure that tone can be measured, it can be assessed by an end user. Many factors can affect the tone of a steel guitar besides the obvious controls on an amp. The bar and its weight, vibrato and pressure on the strings can have an affect. The thickness of picks (if worn), and the dynamics of the picking action also affect tone. The pickup, leads, volume pedal and electronic effects can play their part too.

Some guitars have pleasing overtones while others have not. If you are blessed with one that has good inherent tone, stick with it.

[bobhcot]

Will, I'm delighted to hear somebody is trying to apply some science to all this stuff. I don't pretend to understand everything you describe but I'm more than willing to listen and ask questions. Has nobody ever done this before? All those discussions about solid wood versus mica, aluminium necks versus wood, and so on, and nobody has put a meter to it and tried to fathom it all out? Power to your elbow sir. This can only improve the end result.

You're quite right Ken of course, but I do like an explanation!

[U_twelve]

Been done to death on the US forum over the years both technical & subjective... Some say tone is all in the hands but I think it's all in the ears

[Mark]

Will... It's not a bad thing to pursue this. Anything that steers you towards understanding your sound, encourages you to listen to your own playing, tone and tuning will more than likely lead to an improvement. Now you're aware of the harmonics being produced, give some thought to the frequency area typical harmonics might fall around, the magnitude of the harmonics and how the ear perceives the volume of those harmonics in relationship to the equal-loudness contour curves.

Mark

[Donny Johnston]

Listen to the Moon, Tone to the bone.

[Jif]

Interesting Will.

My view is it must be about the developing interaction between the harmonics. What makes good tone I guess is subjective, the harmonics must inter-modulate in a way that sounds musical to the ear.