Can pickups affect sustain?

[MDV]

No they dont.

Edit: to clarify: the coil doesnt increase the magnetic field strength unless a current is being driven through it by an additional PD.

Were this the case they would have a positve feedback loop between mag field strength and current and they would be a source of infinte energy.

Edit 2: PD, potential difference. An electromagnet, which a pickup isnt.

[Pale Rider]

I was expecting you would think about that. But remember that to keep a vibration infinite you need a very specific and controlled force according to the vibration. Doing it randomly like in this case most likely will have the opposite effect.

Hey it's always current in a coil, it does affect the field and they interact to each other but randomly. ;)

also consider that there are losses that's the main reason of not having infinite sources of energy and not the fact that phenomena don't interact to each other. phew it's too late for that...

[MDV]

Snot random at all. Its faradays law, but for alternating current.

"EMF in a closed loop is proportional to rate of change of magnetic flux', or something, iirc. The change in flux is caused by the motion of a ferromagnetic object within the field lines (the string), and as the flux changes it induces a current in the coils. The coils, simply sitting there doing nothing, do not change the magnetic field and the change in the magnetic field is not caused in this case by the current in the coils, its caused by the motion in the string. The same reason that the current in the coils cant increase the fields strength (the current us generated by the changes in the field).

In the case where your driving current through a wire thats perpendicular to a magnetic field, the field will increase in strength. Thats not happening in a pickup. They arent electromagnets.

Conservation of energy is the main...no, only reason for not having infinite sources of energy. Not efficiency.

[Philly Q]

MDV in a physics debate.  It's just like the old days. 

[MDV]

I surely have no idea what you mean.

[Philly Q]

 :lol:

[_tom_]

I have no idea whats going on in this thread any more - the physics stuff means nothing to me :lol:

Just realised I could wire it up so I'm always using the tapped part of the Pig 90.. surely this way I would be able to tell whether the problem is having too much output on the pickup, saving me the hassle of buying a MQ to try out? :)

[darkbluemurder]

A pickup cannot by itself affect sustain in the way that it can make the string vibrate longer. What it can do is

- shift the frequency response of the instrument so that the perceived sustain is longer by subdueing frequencies which have a shorter natural sustain (i.e. highs) and accentuating frequencies that have a longer natural sustain (i.e. mids)
- by higher output drive the amp harder into overdrive, thus adding more of the perceived sustain
- by higher output and/or accentuating the right frequencies make it easier to obtain string feedback.

If a pickup is too close to the strings it will decrease natural sustain of the guitar by magnetic pull.

Cheers Stephan

[ev1ltwin]

A pickup cannot by itself affect sustain in the way that it can make the string vibrate longer. What it can do is

- shift the frequency response of the instrument so that the perceived sustain is longer by subdueing frequencies which have a shorter natural sustain (i.e. highs) and accentuating frequencies that have a longer natural sustain (i.e. mids)
- by higher output drive the amp harder into overdrive, thus adding more of the perceived sustain
- by higher output and/or accentuating the right frequencies make it easier to obtain string feedback.

If a pickup is too close to the strings it will decrease natural sustain of the guitar by magnetic pull.

Cheers Stephan

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