G String Compensation

[Phil Gagnier]

And nobody wants to deal with a damp G-string... hee hee... (sorry, couldn't resist).

By the way, welcome to the Forum Phil!

Lmao!! Thx brother... I like it here... Plan on staying

 

[JohnH]

Why? And please remember Pythagorus is watching.

The guys we really need to be paying attention are Robert Hooke, Thomas Young and Vincenzo Gallilei (father of a more famous son). But Pythagoras should certainly watch too because he might learn something.

When we fret a G string at the 12th, we stretch it a bit more than it was, and the force in the string increases by about 1% ( eg from say 7kg to 7.07kg force), assuming say 2 to 2.5mm action (Hooke, take a bow) This raises frequencies by 0.5% (square root of tension - thks Vincenzo). So to compensate, we make the bridge further away from the 12th fret, by 0 5% of half the scale length.

Fretting at the 1st fret, if say it is about 1mm action there, adds about the same increase in tension and sharpness of frequency. But to compensate for that we need to move the bridge 0.5% of the length to the 1st fret. Ie, more than beore so in this case theres no one perfect place to put the bridge that intonates everywhere.

You have to get that action really low at the high frets, but unfortunately, that needs precision and many stock guitars come with nuts cut way too high. You can intonate as accurately as you like at the 12th, but then it cant then also work out at 1st.

G strings, with their cross section of larger area, but with similar force to others, are working at a lower stress than B or E, so the stretch added by fretting with a certain action (props to Pythagoras for that maths) causes a greater % change in its tension, so a greater amount sharpness in terms of cents of a semitone, hence more of a PITA.

 

[12barjunkie]

The guys we really need to be paying attention are Robert Hooke, Thomas Young and Vincenzo Gallilei (father of a more famous son). But Pythagoras should certainly watch too because he might learn something.

When we fret a G string at the 12th, we stretch it a bit more than it was, and the force in the string increases by about 1% ( eg from say 7kg to 7.07kg force), assuming say 2 to 2.5mm action (Hooke, take a bow) This raises frequencies by 0.5% (square root of tension - thks Vincenzo). So to compensate, we make the bridge further away from the 12th fret, by 0 5% of half the scale length.

Fretting at the 1st fret, if say it is about 1mm action there, adds about the same increase in tension and sharpness of frequency. But to compensate for that we need to move the bridge 0.5% of the length to the 1st fret. Ie, more than beore so in this case theres no one perfect place to put the bridge that intonates everywhere.

You have to get that action really low at the high frets, but unfortunately, that needs precision and many stock guitars come with nuts cut way too high. You can intonate as accurately as you like at the 12th, but then it cant then also work out at 1st.

G strings, with their cross section of larger area, but with similar force to others, are working at a lower stress than B or E, so the stretch added by fretting with a certain action (props to Pythagoras for that maths) causes a greater % change in its tension, so a greater amount sharpness in terms of cents of a semitone, hence more of a PITA.

 

[Biddlin]

theres no one perfect place to put the bridge that intonates everywhere.

OK and thanks for the explanation.
That's why we're equipped with very dynamically articulated digits, sensitive ears and critically discriminating mind.

 

[mickeydg5]

Solid strings also have more weight, require more tension and sound brighter to me.

That is why some rather wound G.

 

[Phil Gagnier]

Lmfao!!!!!!!!

 

[Barfly]

Depending on the way I write a song I'll tune the b and high e slightly flat. Negative on the G.