Where does Dave strum?

[goalten106]

I noticed something interesting last night whilst watching the "Live at Fulsom Field" concert, and again while watching Storytellers. It appears that Dave, at least in those two instances, strums well below the sound hole on his guitar (i.e. towards the bridge). On Fulsom footage, it looks like he almost strikes the low E string right at the bottom of the sound hole, continues through, and strikes the high E almost at the bridge. At first I thought this was probably just because he was standing and thus hold his guitar "diagonally"... but when he's sitting down with the guitar on his knee during Storytellers, he also strums below the sound hole.

So now, my questions concerning this:

1) Has anyone else noticed this, or is it possibly just an illusion?

2) Does this affect the overall sound that Dave makes? I've noticed that playing closer to the bridge on my guitar creates "less deep" of a sound than when I play over the sound hole, and that often when I play Dave tunes I feel that my playing is far deeper than his despite the identical chords.

Am I onto something or just an idiot?

[Corona5k1635]

damn str8 you're on to something man

thats where he always plays. its prob cause he used to play a Chet for so long to "cut through the bands big sound" with a choppier more electric sound. so now he's out of his Chet days and he plays all regular acoustic (other than the electric stuff ya know?) so he still wants that sound so to kind of get it he plays ..as you said...WELL below the sound hole.
this give a less deep sound and is funky.

oh yes. and as for hittin' the low e nearer to the sound hole than the high e ..(high and low e as in tone) its cause dave's style always accentuates the base notes. if you listen to him playin' seek up (for example) with timmy on L@LC you can barely hear the 7 on the g string during the verse. yes. that is it.
oh and if you hear him play a x02220 (aka A major open chord) you really hear the x02 waaay more than the 220. if you can follow that.

hope that helps.


dave

8)

[goalten106]

Whoa cool. Thanks man. Damn, that was a knowledgeable answer! I'll fool around with it a bit.

Peace...

[DustyDave]

You produce a lighter sound the closer you comes to the bridge of the guitar , thats why you often see some very nice strums that goes back and forth over the soundhole , to get those really bassy sounding strums maybe every 4th downstrokes or so , you just play either where the soundhole is , or a little behind it , and then move up to the top part of the soundhole when you want the darker sound and then strum once , then go back to the first place again ....

[ihopeyoulockedthedoor]

he also likes to put a slight mute on the strings right at the bridge on some songs....remember....TONE TONE TONE & FEEL FEEL FEEL
thats what its all about.....

[DustyDave]

Yeah there's a million ways to alter / change the tone by just moving your hand a bit , laying it here and there , etc etc

[grock]

OK guys heres grock's quick physics lesson.

The note you hear when a string is plucked is the fundamental frequency. harmonics are found by dividing the fundamental frequency by a whole number. for multiples of 2 (2,4,8) you get the fundamental note but just a different octave. But the divisions of 3,5,6,7 etc are not the same note as the fundamental frequency. when you place a finger at 12 and pluck it you hear the 2nd harmonic. at 7 is the 3rd harmonic. at 5 is the 4th harmonic and so on

When you strum directly over the 12th fret, this is midway down the string and will accentuate the fundamental frequency (the actual note) because the string is plucked at it's major point of motion.

nearer the bridge these tones (and the other harmonics above) are accentuated. this leads to a brighter tone. and a much more complex tone too. In effect, you are changing the harmonic content in the string by selecting where to pluck it. so where you strum can be just as important as what you strum.

On a side note, this explains a lot about how to use a tuner. you should really be plucking the note only above the 12th fret. this eliminates a lot of noise (extra harmonics) in a tuner and you'd be surprised how quickly the note settles down to clearly see what it is.

[DustyDave]

Very well explained grock

[Corona5k1635]

most interesting...


dave