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Topic: Ultra-High Frequencies |
Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 18 Jul 2016 10:57 am |
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Has anyone ever done a study on the UHF put out by steel guitars, which are out of the audio spectrum for humans, but other animals can hear?
I wonder how our instruments compare with other musical instruments. Are we creating a living hell for the dogs, cats, horses and rodents around us?
All the musical rules about fifths, octaves, chords, etc., still apply in the audio spectrum that is outside of our hearing range, even though we cannot hear them. Whales communicate in subsonic frequencies that we cannot hear, yet those subsonics are capable of carrying chords and harmony, just like the sounds that we hear. |
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Edward Rhea
From:
Medford Oklahoma, USA
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Posted 18 Jul 2016 11:40 am
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Interesting....
I don't know about the animals, but definitely for the wife and children! |
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Ian Rae
From:
Redditch, England
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Posted 18 Jul 2016 12:36 pm
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My hound is reasonably tolerant of me playing pedal steel, but then the amplifier doesn't really put out any frequencies that he can hear and I can't. In the interests of stability, most gear is limited to around 20kHz.
He is tolerant of most of my varied tastes in music, but then he is a rescue dog so there may be some politics going on there. He will leave the room for harpsichord music (a clue there as I suspect he dislikes the transients) and he really doesn't like the squeaky finger noises of classical guitar. Have to say I'm with him on that.
_________________
Make sleeping dogs tell the truth!
Homebuilt keyless U12 7x5, Excel keyless U12 8x8, Williams keyless U12 7x8, Telonics rack and 15" cabs |
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Dick Wood
From:
Springtown Texas, USA
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Posted 18 Jul 2016 12:52 pm
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I have 2 cats and a Yorkie and they will all fall asleep in the bedroom where I practice.
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Cops aren't paid much so I steel at night. |
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Ben Edmonds
From:
Greenfield, Massachusetts, USA
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Posted 18 Jul 2016 3:00 pm
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| My dog loves it. She can be a real pain but is very calm when I play and just goes to sleep |
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Georg Sørtun
From:
Mandal, Agder, Norway
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Posted 19 Jul 2016 2:24 am
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With their weak acoustic signiture, and hot-wound PUs that act as pretty efficient low-pass filters, our PSGs don't produce much of anything above 10-15KHz to disturb any living being with ... as long as the pedals don't squeak 
Our amps and other electronic units can of course produce TIM (Transient InterModulation) with overtones that go well above what we humans can hear, but with the speakers used most of that gets limited to within human hearing range too.
Much more of a chance that we can "talk to" whales, as producing subharmonics - beats and vibrations - isn't much of a problem on most PSGs. Hope there are no whales around when I play mine, as I use equipment that accentuates beats from my PSGs, and might inadvertently send the wrong signals to them...  |
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Tony Browne
From:
Norfolk, UK
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Robert Harper
From:
Alabama, USA
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Posted 25 Jul 2016 10:59 am Frequencies
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The first Steel I bought, the owners dog would sing with him playing the Steel. I dunno, have seen that since
_________________
"Oh what a tangled web we weave when we first begin to deceive" Someone Famous |
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Rick Collins
From:
Claremont , CA USA
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Posted 25 Jul 2016 11:34 am
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| Alan, you might be right __ I had not considered it. Since our neighbor's dogs relieve themselves on our front lawn (not with ultra-high frequency) but, still quite frequently, I might consider mounting an extension speaker out front. |
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Brett Day
From:
Pickens, SC
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Posted 25 Jul 2016 11:49 am
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| I had a tabby cat who loved one room in my house, the guest bedroom and it was her favorite place to sleep during the day. My steel stayed in the room with her because at the time, I had a CD player in there that I used to practice. Well, I'd walk in there, plug the steel in, turn the amp on, and she would either jump down from the bed in the room and walk out, or some days, I would already be sitting at the steel, and she would jump down from the bed, look up at me and meow, as if she was saying, "You woke me up" or, "I'm outta here cause I don't wanna hear no steel |
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Jim Sliff
From:
Lawndale California, USA
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Posted 19 Aug 2016 11:57 am
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Not sure - but I avoid playing above the 14th fret except on lower strings and use a B6 copedent that's a 4th below E9. I can't take the high-pitched, whining step sound.
_________________
No chops, but great tone
1930's/40's Rickenbacher/Rickenbacker 6&8 string lap steels
1921 Weissenborn Style 2; Hilo&Schireson hollownecks
Appalachian, Regal & Dobro squarenecks
1959 Fender 400 9+2 B6;1960's Fender 800 3+3+2; 1948 Fender Dual-8 Professional |
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Ray Minich
From:
Bradford, Pa. Frozen Tundra
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Posted 28 Aug 2016 4:18 pm
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The correct name for frequencies above the range of human hearing is "ultrasonic".
UHF would apply to frequencies like 460 megahertz... and typically in the RF world, not the world of mechanical vibrations.
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Lawyers are done: Emmons SD-10, 3 Dekleys including a D10, NV400, and lots of effects units to cover my clams... |
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David Mason
From:
Cambridge, MD, USA
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Posted 29 Aug 2016 2:12 am
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| We willfully use speakers that kill highs, as do electric guitarists. Plug a steel direct into a PA some time. I use the same amp for bass and and steel - an SWR SM-500. But I've tried bass speakers with horns and it's just plain awful to hear the steel through that. That big monster guitar tone that Duane Allman and Carlos Santana pioneered had to do with driving a tube amp really hard, but into JBL and Altec-Lansing PA speakers taken out of PA's and used without horns or tweeters. Slabs of maple and ash and aluminum and steel put out a VERY full spectrum of frequencies, so "great tone" is subtractive. |
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Bud Angelotti
From:
Larryville, NJ, USA
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Posted 29 Aug 2016 7:36 am
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Where are the overtones in the spectrum?
Are they UHF ?
_________________
Just 'cause I look stupid, don't mean I'm not. |
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Georg Sørtun
From:
Mandal, Agder, Norway
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Posted 29 Aug 2016 12:55 pm
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| Bud Angelotti wrote: |
Where are the overtones in the spectrum?
Are they UHF ? |
PSG overtones w/chimes typically produce wibrations from one up to three octaves above natural note, and as those overtones are more or less sine-shaped there's hardly any output above 5-6KHz ... nothing ultra about that.
Add that few speakers used by PSG players can reproduce much of anything above 6KHz anyway, so more chance of getting supersonic sounds directly out of the amp-circuit itself - digital amps and supplies for instance. |
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b0b
From:
Cloverdale, CA, USA
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Bud Angelotti
From:
Larryville, NJ, USA
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Posted 29 Aug 2016 4:35 pm
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Woof ! Woof ! 
_________________
Just 'cause I look stupid, don't mean I'm not. |
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Barry Blackwood
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Posted 30 Aug 2016 7:45 am
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Dave Grafe
From:
Hudson River Valley NY
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Posted 30 Aug 2016 1:11 pm
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| The very best full-range instrument speakers top out below 8kHz, so in terms of the sound being put out through our amps there is nothing. In any case, my dogs love to lay beside the guitar and listen whenever I play, amplified or not, and show no signs of discomfort or pain at all other than when I take my steel out to play without them. |
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