Piano Tone

Harry · May 18, 2006, 12:57:43 AM

Any advice on how to sound like a piano. I've tried stuffing tissue near the bridge to mute the strings and hammering with a pencil, but still isn't quite right.

auraboros · May 18, 2006, 01:35:55 AM

What I would recomend is using natural harmonics with a pick. Harmonics normally sound like a bell, but mess around with effects and a percussive attack with the pick, maybe on the lower strings, and you should be somewhere close. Harmonics are not that difficult if your exact and gentile. There should be plenty of information on the internet for guitar harmonics. If not, there's a lot for bass, and the nodes are located in the same spots so it will work for both.

trevize · May 18, 2006, 04:38:50 AM

regarding harmonics:

http://home.swipnet.se/freakguitar/licks.html

look on the right of the page!

MartyMart · May 18, 2006, 05:16:18 AM

Dont forget that apart from the "bass" strings, pianos have Three strings per note, tuned
to be as pure as poss, try tuning two "pairs" of strings to the same pitch and give that a go
along with the other suggestions .... you'll be surprized

MM.

trevize · May 18, 2006, 05:38:58 AM

I also forgot to say: look at how Tuck Andress "hammers" chords with the right hand's palm instead of strumming them.
That really gives the piano attack.

Dave Eason · May 18, 2006, 06:50:29 PM

piano's are complex beasts. You've gotta think physical models; the excitation, the strings, which are groups of 3's or 2's to give that dynamic phasey timbral change, the body, sound board etc. It'd be pretty impossible to get a guitar to sound exactly like a piano. Adding loads of mass to an acoustic 12 strings body, tuning the strings the same octaves, maybe very slightly out, and using hard percussion mallets and muting might do it.

Natural harmonics just sound awesome.. think eric johnson..

rockgardenlove · May 18, 2006, 08:50:45 PM

I find a volume pedal can help too to give the illusion that the note is sustaining longer. Start with the pedal at 50%, and then press down slowly to make it seem as if its lasting ages at a louder volume.

Harry · May 18, 2006, 10:45:13 PM

Great ideas, thanks. Maybe something like Dave mentioned with something like actual piano hammers and keys behind the bridge, with a jaquar-esque bridge mute. Wouldn't that be cool! If I were rich I'd make something like that...

The harmonics charts are interesting, never seen that before. Thank, trevize! Any Tuck Andress songs stick out in your mind that are a good example of this technique?

jonathan perez · May 18, 2006, 11:44:21 PM

"Maybe something like Dave mentioned with something like actual piano hammers and keys behind the bridge, with a jaquar-esque bridge mute."

wait a second...

6 hammers, all sit snuggly on a "pole", and evenly spaced from string to string, and on the side of the bridge would be where to push down to raise the hammer, and hit the string where the note is desired. there would be a cavity, similiar to a floyd rose, but where the pickups would be. one pickup, a neck pickup.

it would sound beautiful with a 12 string.

i think i could build it. with actual piano hammers.

but im far tooooo busy!!!!!!!! I WISH i had the time to build it.

rockgardenlove · May 19, 2006, 12:35:45 AM

^OT, but is that one of the purple Crybabys? I have one of those too

The hammer idea is cool, but it would be hard to install...

jonathan perez · May 19, 2006, 03:14:55 AM

way hard to install. i got done drawing it out, and it looks like a sail boat...

i think i did something wrong.

yes, RGL, thats a purple crybaby. i dropped in an AREA51 wah in there, which of course was tweaked to my perfect likings.

purple crybaby+gold logo+awesome wah=HOLY HELL!

well, thats what i hear from people when i play with it.

d95err · May 19, 2006, 03:35:39 AM

All you need is a home-made guitar, a home-made treble booster and that junk amp your bass player built out of a broken car stereo...

(Just listen to "Good Company" by Queen)

Dave Eason · May 19, 2006, 05:38:31 AM

Quote6 hammers, all sit snuggly on a "pole", and evenly spaced from string to string, and on the side of the bridge would be where to push down to raise the hammer, and hit the string where the note is desired. there would be a cavity, similiar to a floyd rose, but where the pickups would be. one pickup, a neck pickup.

it would sound beautiful with a 12 string.

i think i could build it. with actual piano hammers.

but im far tooooo busy!!!!!!!! I WISH i had the time to build it.

woah, that would be awesome, if a little cumbersome! make that pickup a P90 or P100

Mark Hammer · May 19, 2006, 09:06:29 AM

1) Tuck Andress

(pretty much anything)

2) Piano strings are VERY stiff, and guitar strings are meant to be bendable by human fingers. Consequently, smacking a piano string with an object results in very little audible pitch deviation. Whacking a set of 10-thru-46's or even 12-thru-60's is still likely to yield some pitch deviation at the onset of the note.

3) The closest thing I can identify that approximates piano tone is thumb-popping bass. Here, the string is struck in the middle (rather than plucked) against a hard surface (fingerboard). Note that, as in #2, this is a big stiff string, and not an unwound floppy string. At least part of what gives pianos their sound is the fact that stiff strings "give up" harmonics in a more differentiated way. By that, I mean that the harmonic content is almost immediately damped by virtue of the stiffness and the string goes from tons of harmonics in the first 100msec to very few.

trevize · May 19, 2006, 10:22:58 AM

I use often the Tuck Andress hammering technique on the electric guitar, and
i usually have my oragne squeezer on when i do it.
The strings are really important: I use 12-46 on my telecaster and 13-52 on my strato. Probably my tele with neck humbucker
would perform even better in imitating the piano sound using 13-52 FLAT wound strings.

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Piano Tone