Electric Guitar Explorer (3D)
About this app
An electric guitar with two humbuckers on a stand, with cable and amplifier, sound computed in real time from a string model. The pickup measures the steel string only at its own position: neck warm, bridge bright, nylon strings stay silent. X-ray view of coils, magnets and field lines, gain up to distortion. Plays a shuffle, Greensleeves and a riff.
With explain mode: an AI tutor walks you through the app, points out what matters in the scene and answers your questions.
How the pickup hears the string
An electric guitar has no resonating cavity; unplugged it is almost silent. Under the strings sit pickups: a magnet magnetises the steel string, and when it vibrates above the coil the magnetic flux changes. By the law of induction a small voltage appears in the roughly 5000 turns. Nylon strings are not magnetic and stay silent although they vibrate just the same.
What the app shows
An electric guitar with two humbuckers, cable and amplifier in 3D whose sound is computed in real time from a waveguide string model, with no recordings. The coil measures the string only at its own position: partials with a node there are missing. That is why the neck pickup sounds warm and the bridge pickup bright. The X-ray view shows coils, magnets, field lines and wiring; the waveform shows how the amplifier clips the wave.
Things to try
Swipe across the strings over the body and fret chords on the fretboard. Switch between neck, both and bridge and tap the partial bars to see where a node lies under the coil. Fit nylon strings, switch off one coil and hear the hum, turn up the gain. The guitar plays a shuffle, Greensleeves and a riff.
Frequently asked questions
- How does an electric guitar pickup work?
- A magnet magnetises the steel string above it. When the string vibrates, the magnetic flux through the coil of thousands of turns of copper wire changes and a voltage is induced. It follows the velocity of the string above the pole pieces.
- Why does the neck pickup sound different from the bridge pickup?
- Each coil hears the string only at its own position. Near the bridge the low partials are small and the high ones relatively strong, so the sound is bright. At the neck the coil sits closer to the antinodes of the low partials, so the sound is warm. Partials with a node under the coil are missing entirely.
- What does a humbucker do?
- It has two coils wound in opposite directions with opposite magnetic polarity. The string signal adds up, while mains hum is picked up equally by both coils and cancels. The name comes from “hum” and “buck”.
- What can I try in the Electric Guitar Explorer?
- You strum yourself, fret notes and chords, choose neck or bridge pickup, see the partials and their nodes, fit nylon strings, switch off one coil, turn gain and tone and look inside with the X-ray view. Three pieces play with fretting fingers and pick.
Subject: Music (Gymnasium)
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