How to help a muddy guitar sound — part IV

In response to part III of this unexpected little miniseries, our dear friend Chris Palmer sent this:

Another thing to look at is pickup height, especially if the problem is muddiness.

If the pickup is too close to the strings, the magnets will actually choke the strings and inhibit vibration (!).

(And if the pickup is too far away, the sound will be quiet and thin because it can't detect enough change in the magnetic field.)

How helpful is this! I love that we’re getting into all this detail about how guitars work this week. It feels inspiring.

And, also, what else involves physical things making noise and interacting with some sort of microphonic element? Oh, everything but electronic instruments? Now all this guitar stuff not only feels abstractly interesting, but also useful and relevant to my work, even though I’m not a guitar player. Imagine that.

Finding connections — jamie