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Thickness, tightness, length

Why Do Guitar Strings Sound Different?

Six strings on one guitar give six different notes, and only three things about a string decide which note it makes.

Thicker strings soundlowerTighter strings soundhigherShorter strings soundhigherAnd the body makes allof it loud
Three rules, six strings.

  1. Step 1 of 5

    A plucked string flicks back and forth.

    The string flicksback and forth Pushing the airhundreds of timesa second

    Pull a string aside and let go, and it does not stop in the middle — it overshoots, again and again, hundreds of times a second. That shuddering pushes the air, and that is the sound.

  2. Step 2 of 5

    Thicker strings are slower.

    A thin string Flicks quickly — a highnoteA thick string Flicks slowly — a lownote

    A heavy string is harder to whip back and forth, so it does it fewer times a second — a lower note. That is why the low strings on a guitar are visibly fatter.

  3. Step 3 of 5

    Tightening raises the note.

    1 The note isslightly flat2 Comparedagainst a knownnote3 The peg istightened untilthey match

    A tighter string snaps back harder and so vibrates faster. That is all tuning is: turning a peg to change the tension until the note is exactly where it should be.

  4. Step 4 of 5

    A finger shortens the string.

    Full lengththe openstring's noteThree quartersa few noteshigherHalfexactly oneoctave up

    Pressing a string against a fret leaves only part of it free to vibrate. A shorter piece vibrates faster, so the note goes up — and halving the length raises it a whole octave.

  5. Step 5 of 5

    The body does the being-loud.

    1 The thin stringshakes2 The wooden bodyshakes with it3 Far more air ismoved — it isloud

    A string on its own is almost silent — it is too thin to move much air. It is bolted to a big hollow wooden box that shakes with it and pushes far more air about.

    An electric guitar's body is solid and quiet on purpose. A magnet under the strings senses the shaking, and an amplifier does the being-loud instead.

The short version

A string's note is set by its thickness, tension and length, and the instrument's body is what makes it loud.

Try it yourself

Stretch a rubber band between two fingers and pluck it. Pull it tighter and the note rises exactly as a tuning peg does.

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