Friday, 16 September 2011

How guitars work...

How electric guitar pickups work

The physics of guitar strings
How does an electric guitar turn movement (in a string) into that amazing twangy sound you can hear? Like this!
  1. Bar magnet (gray) in pickup generates magnetic field all around it.
  2. Magnetic field (gray curved lines) extends invisibly upward through metal guitar strings above the pickup. (It also extends downward through the guitar, but that's not relevant here.)
  3. Guitar string (brown) changes the magnetic field when it vibrates from side to side.
  4. Coil of thin wire (yellow) wrapped around pickup "feels" changing magnetic field and generates tiny electric current.
  5. Amplifier boosts electric current enough to drive loudspeaker.
  6. Loudspeaker turns electric current into sound.

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