"Ask Bud!"

Question:

I play a D-10. I am having trouble getting a good sound when I play harmonics on the bottom neck. Basically, the strings die without ringing. Is there something I can do to improve the harmonics on my bottom neck?

Answer:

The most likely reason that you are not getting a "good (or sustained) sound" when you play harmonics ("chimes ") is that the pickup is too close to the strings.

(Please note that this can happen on either neck and can occur on nearly any brand of pedal steel guitar or pickup.)

When the magnets in the pickups are too close to the strings, they pull on the strings and prevent them from vibrating (moving) freely.

When you play harmonics, there is a smaller amount of string vibration (movement) than during regular playing. Therefore, the magnetic attraction has a greater effect on the ability of the string to vibrate freely.

I suggest you try this: move the pickup slightly farther away from the string. Do this by screwing it down farther into the neck. This should weaken the magnetic attraction and allow the string to move more freely; thereby enhancing the sustain of the harmonics.

Note that there is a "happy medium " beyond which you will lose volume and power by lowering the pickup too far. This will also hurt the "sustain" of your harmonics.

If lowering the pickup does not help, there may be other reasons this is happening, such as: the fret markers are not correct, the fretboard is out of position, or your strings could be "dead". Any of these would cause you to attempt to create a harmonic in a position, which is not a node of the frequency.

By the way, due to the larger gauge of C6th strings, the sustain of harmonics on the C6th neck will generally be less than that on the E9th neck.

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