012 plain steel strings and bend them the distance needed to raise the pitch one full step. Nevertheless, my method was to use a pair of. Perhaps the friction (or lack of same) at the nut and bridge is what we are feeling when a guitar feels easy to play, or, conversely, when we say it fights us. I'm counting on the physics majors out there to rush in at this point with the equation that I'm oblivious to. My theory was that if the overall length of a string was longer, there might be a perceivable difference in the force needed to stretch a string to a given interval. Admittedly, human fingers can detect minuscule changes in pressure, so I wondered if my 20-pound test instrument would have the resolution to pick up any variation. My string test contraption was originally built to measure the linear tension of strings, but I only had to make a few changes to convert it to quantify lateral resistance. Could there be another force at work, like lateral resistance? It seemed impossible, but it was time to resurrect the string tension fixture to find out. But how could this be? You'd think that if you feel tension, it could be measured, yet my test instrument showed no change. Some of the string manufacturers I spoke to in my research, despite their knowledge of the science behind the materials and construction of guitar strings, offered that there might be a perceived difference. They've reported that the strings were tougher to bend and felt stiff. There have been many seasoned musicians I've known who swear that a flipped 6-in-line headstock tightens up the low strings. Still, the feeling persisted that I could sense a difference on instruments with long lengths of string between the bridge and tailpiece, such as an archtop jazz guitar. Nothing else, like peghead length or tailpiece position, matters-full stop. ![]() In simple terms, this means that for a given vibrating length, the tighter you pull the string or the heavier the gauge, the more tension it will have. The laws of physics state that string tension is determined completely by the active (vibrating) length of the string, the pitch the string is tuned to, and the string's mass. After being assailed with comments and emails loaded with physics lessons detailing the math behind my conclusion, I now know that it was folly to assume any other conclusion. I cobbled together a crude measuring fixture and determined that the length of string beyond the bridge and nut did not affect a string's (linear) tension at a given pitch. In a previous column, I investigated the relationship between overall string length and its resulting tension.
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