RESEARCH ARTICLE The physics of unwound and wound strings on the electric guitar applied to the pitch intervals produced by tremolo/vibrato arm systems Jonathan A. Kemp1,2* 1 Music Centre, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Fife, United Kingdom, 2 SUPA, School of Physics & Astronomy, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Fife, United Kingdom *
[email protected] a1111111111 a1111111111 Abstract a1111111111 The physics of wound and unwound strings on the electric guitar are presented here, and a1111111111 a1111111111 the pitch intervals produced by the movements of a Fender Stratocaster tremolo unit are explained. Predicted changes in pitch sensitivity of different strings are given, and experi- mentally verified, for changes in saddle height, the distance of string free to move behind the nut and ratio of diameters/masses of the core and windings of wound strings. Also, it is shown that changes to the gauge of strings (assuming the string tension is sufficient for lin- OPEN ACCESS ear behaviour and in absence of changes to other construction details) don't alter the pitch Citation: Kemp JA (2017) The physics of unwound intervals produced by a given angle of tremolo arm use assuming the instrument is set up and wound strings on the electric guitar applied to the pitch intervals produced by tremolo/vibrato arm with the same sounding pitches and starting bridge angle. It is demonstrated that it not pos- systems. PLoS ONE 12(9): e0184803. https://doi. sible to equalise the relative sensitivity of unwound steel stings on a Fender Stratocaster org/10.1371/journal.pone.0184803 type tremolo unit through string construction techniques.