Influences of electric guitar pickup magnetic force on string vibrations

Abstract

The design of a magnetic pickup has a significant impact on the tone of an electric guitar. In particular, the magnetic force from the pickup can influence the string vibrations and cause a beating effect, depending on the strength of the magnetic force and the amplitude of the string vibrations. To understand this behavior, we performed experiments and simulations. We measured and modeled the transversal string restoring force at various displacements from the magnetic pickup in directions both parallel and perpendicular to the guitar body. We observed that the magnetic force distribution is asymmetric in the perpendicular direction but symmetric in the parallel direction, which distorts the frequency of vibrations in opposite ways for the two directions and causes a resultant beating. This effect increases with larger string amplitudes or greater magnetic force and also varies over the duration of a plucked tone.