I used to work in numerical modeling \u2013 a computer algorithm approximating an ideal equation approximating a physical process.\u00a0 One of my best papers demonstrated that for decades other Ph.D.s had been using approximations that produced non-physical results even in the ideal equation for ground water flow.\u00a0 The approximations violated the min-max condition for elliptical equations.\u00a0 And all it took was a simple 3-point test; which I developed because it was hard to understand and I wanted to make sure I did.<\/p>\n
Never take anything for granted.\u00a0 Demonstrate to yourself that it actually works as advertised.\u00a0 Never take a press release as proof.\u00a0 If someone claims a guitar does something, ask for the test methods and results.<\/p>\n
For example, I worked up about 72 pickup circuits for two humbuckers and a single that could potentially produce unique humbucking tones.\u00a0 But I know from my own tests that the more pickups you use in a circuit, and the closer together the pickups are physically, the closer the tones are likely to be.\u00a0 So, one should expect that a number of those 72 potential unique humbucking tones are going to be so close together as to not count.\u00a0 How many?\u00a0 That remains to be tested.<\/p>\n
One time, I put two different humbuckers 1\u00bd inches apart, center-to-center, one from a Fender Bullet and an economy distortion humbucker from Allparts.\u00a0 I twirled a plain steel string over them, and looked at the coil signals on an oscilloscope.\u00a0 Instead of seeing the same signal, they had unexpected phase shifts, even between signals from the coils on the same humbucker.\u00a0 This was back in February, so I don\u2019t remember exactly what happened – just have the notes.<\/p>\n
But the problem went away when I removed one of the humbuckers.\u00a0 It seemed that just having the magnetic field, mass and coils of the second humbucker may have done it.\u00a0 It suggests that if the pickups are too close together, then the fields interact in such a way that even when humbucking pairs work to buck hum, the ideas of in-phase and contra-phase signals may be a bit flexible in ways that can affect tone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I used to work in numerical modeling \u2013 a computer algorithm approximating an ideal equation approximating a physical process.\u00a0 One of my best papers demonstrated that for decades other Ph.D.s had been using approximations that produced non-physical results even in … Continue reading