software

Has anybody else here had problems with string oscillation -- and does anyone have some tips to fix it?

DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM

String oscillation is sometimes mistaken as quot;string buzzingquot; but it is more similar to a vibratto or tremolo effect in sound. That is, if you hit a note, say 15th freet high E string, its sound will quot;WAVERquot; going up and down almost like a sine wave. I took one of my guitars to a reputable repair guy and he told me that it is often very difficult to eliminate. He said you can get it if you pickups are too high (I guess the magnetism of the pickup pulls the vibrating string down) or even if you pickups are too low. He also mentioned some other factors.

EVIDENCE ITS NOT BUZZING (IN MY CASE)

In my case with the guitar un-plugged I can fret every note on every string without buzzing. This is mostly due to the fact that my action is somewhat high (7/64ths at the 17th fret on both the low E and high E strings).

MY GUITAR

My guitar is an Ibanez RG 570 DX with 3 seymour duncan pickups: (1) a 59 in the neck, (2) a Vintage rails in the middle, and (3) a Duncan Distortion TB-6 in the bridge. The guitar intonation is correct, and I use light strings 9-42.

** THE MYSTERY **

The great mystery for me is that the string oscillation will go away if I switch pickups with my 5-way switch.

For example, With the 59 neck pickup the high E and B strings have no oscillation, but the G string sounds bad.

However, with the Distortion in the bridge the G string sounds perfect but some notes on the high E string oscillate!

When the 59 and vintage rails are combined in the 4th position (no coil splitting) there is no string oscillation on the high strings at all (high g, b, e).

WHAT I HAVE TRIED....

Switching my strings to 10s (10-46) seem to lessen the problem -- but I do not want to play with 10s.

Raising the action and lowering the pickups works sometimes -- but never in such a way that all the pickups are free of oscillation

ANY IDEAS?

I really appreciate any help or ideas to address this problem.
Also misery loves company so any similar stories, if nothing else, are also appreciated. Maybe I should just accept this?

Sincerely,
Bubba

INteresting. I have something similar. On my Mccarty, i have passive WCR Fillmores about 3/32quot; from the strings and I am using 11-54 strings. Intonation is not perfect but close and sometime sthis will result in the wavering thing. I hear this on certain distorted chords depending on the postion and chord/strings in question. I notice it most on the A and high D.

But, I also get a hissing/buzzing sound when the pick hits the strings and maybe even if I finger pick but is silent otherwise. I wonder if this is related. It is most noticable when splitting the humbers. Weird.

You think in your case it is because your intonation was not perfect?

eh?! Oscilliation is vibration I can see what your problem is but it seems a weird thing to call it as if the strings don't oscillate or vibrate then you don't get anything.

Well you cannot call it a buzz and I believe other guitar techs call it quot;oscillationquot;.
Search for the word quot;oscillatingquot; in this page:
from : localhost/members.aol.com/gtctracy/tips.htm

Yeah that's fair enough bubba I suppose it is like some sort of secondary oscillation I just think it's a strange term to use.

I have this on 2 of my guitars on a few frets. Doesn't bother me so i just left it alone lol

ETAISONHRDLUCMFWYPGVBKJQXZ lt;lt;lt; The alphabet in order of most commonly used letters. Just throwing this in there for my 500th post.

I think most guitars have it to some extent. It has something to do with the harmonic nodes and the pickups placement. Supposedly that is why pickups are laid out like they are because those are the most efficient places for them.

Snowdog

Sounds like ol' fashioned quot;Strat-itisquot; to me. It's a problem found a lot more on Strats (hence the name) because the poles on a Strat (or Tele) pickup are magnets rather than just magnetic metal extending the magnetic field from a bar magnet below. It causes the string to sound out of tune with itself. Therefore you can't raise a traditional Strat pickup as close to the strings as a traditional humbucker.

The neck pickup is usually the culprit because it sits under a portion of the string that is easier to pull on (try pulling the string above the neck pickup and then above the bridge pickup and you'll see what I mean). Therefore it follows that the middle pickup will have less of an effect and the bridge pickup even less than that. Your neck pu is a 59 (I assume traditional full-size humbucker rather than the Li'l 59), which has an Alnico 5 mag so maybe try switching to Alnico 2, 3 or 4, or maybe an quot;agedquot; 5 if you can find one. The tone will be different of course, but that may not necessarily be a bad thing.

But it could still be the middle pickup -- the Vintage Rails uses a ceramic bar magnet and ceramic mags are very strong. Try lowering it and see if that works.

Heavier strings will reduce the problem some because they have more tension on them, have more mass and are less susceptible to the magnetic pull.

There may also be some problems with the frets or even the brand of string you use.

Keep looking and trying and asking -- don't give up...

@ idsnowdog

Thanks for your help, if its the nodes then there is not much I can do barring carving out new pickup positions, no?

@Zhangliqun

Thanks for your long post. Out of curiosity if its strat-itis then how come the 59 doesnt affect the high e and b but does affect the high G? Also the vintage rails is very weak in magnetic strength than the DD and 59, no? The Frets are in pretty good shape and the strings I use are either boomers or elixir nanowebs... Thanks for your encouragement.

The best definition I could find of quot;Strat-itisquot; is this:

quot;Strat-itis is simultaneous multiple discordant frequency syndrome. Dirty or rusty strings can also cause this but many players know this horrible phenomena is caused by excessively strong magnets in the pickups, here's how it works. What happens is the magnets of the pickups pull a section of the string (the part that's over the pickups) into a U shaped vibration path. Normally the strings vibrate in what is essentially a single-plane path or pattern. Lets say that the time taken for a string (not subjected to excessive magnet pull) to complete one cycle or oscillation is X milliseconds. Traveling in a U shaped path it actually takes longer to complete one cycle or oscillation since the distance is greater via a U shaped path, so the time is X U milliseconds. Now it's getting clear that what you have is a string that has a section of it's length vibrating in a U shaped path and part of the remaining section traveling in a direct single-plane path and yet another section traveling at all frequencies between these two extremes. This means that the three sections are actually vibrating at many different frequencies when the string should be vibrating uniformly at a single frequency. What happens when you mix all these different frequencies together? Uggghhh, dissonant Stratitis that's what! It's bad enough hearing 2 non-harmonious notes coming from a single string, but when you get multiple dissonant frequencies (or notes) being produce simultaneously from a single string the results are absolutely horrendous. A string that's out of tune with itself no less, big time. That's what Strats do when you adjust the pickup magnets close to the strings. But when you adjust them to prevent Strat-itis, output, sensitivity and dynamic range are reduced.quot;

FROM:
from : localhost/psg.com/~dlamkins/Articles/tone-terms.php

and

from : localhost/www.kinman.com/html/toneWorks....htm#stratitis

That's exactly it:

quot;This means that the three sections are actually vibrating at many different frequencies when the string should be vibrating uniformly at a single frequency.quot;

...it sounds out of tune with itself, like I said.

Thanks Zhangliqun, but do you have any tips for dealing with it?

Really for all of the bad press strats have for strat-itis they were one of the first scientificly designed guitars. The stager on the pole peices, pickup placement etc all were meant to deliver the best performance. Lowering the pickups a bit can help as long as you still like the sound. There is a Japanese website where they go into the whole harmonic node calculation. It is strange how the science of things comes into play.

Snowdog

Yea i had this problem on my old Ibanez RG. I still can hear it on my Jackson, but its not near as bad. Just curious, but do you play in front of a computer monitor? (a crt?) I play in front of my comp all the time, and it got me thinking if it messes with the pickups or electronics over time. Glad someone posted this.. ive mentioned it to a couple of techs and they dont know what im talking about lol. Shows how much they know...

@ suislidE03 I play in front of a flatscreen monitor but I don't think monitors can affect the electronics over time. True crt monitors cause interference, but affect the electronics permanently? I don't think so...

@ idsnowdog Well if you're right the ibanez rg people miscalculated the nodes or something...

Anybody else have any tips for alleviating the problem?

lower all your pickups and try playing then - it wont sound as good, but do it temporarily to see if you have a pickup height issue, or its something else

tom

Stratitis is caused by having single coil pickups too close to the strings.

The problem you are having is usually caused by a defective string or a bridge that is out of intonation.

ive had that problem too. I think it dissapeared after I sent my guitar for maintance (string change, intonation etc...)

I'll try and solve the wave equation with the initial condition of a U shaped place between 1/8L and 1/9L (being 1/10 a full lenght string) and see what I get with fourier =).