The influence of plectrum thickness on the radiated sound of the guitar
Sandra Carral, Martin Paset · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 2008
It is generally thought that the human ear is very sensitive to subtle changes in sounds. In the context of musical instruments, one important aspect to study is how much the physical attributes of any given instrument have to differ so that a human can perceive a difference in the produced sound. In the case of the guitar, it is unquestionable that when the string is plucked at a particular position, some of the differences on the produced sound of the instrument are introduced by changes in how the player plucks the string (playing technique). However, given the wide variety of plectrum types, materials and thicknesses, it is hypothesised that the player is not the only parameter that influences the sound, but that the plectrum itself plays a significant role in the sound production. This paper presents a study whereby a guitar is played with three plectra of different thicknesses with an artificial plucking machine. The radiated sound is recorded, and subsequently analysed using the program SNDAN. Physical and psychoacoustical attributes of the sound are calculated from the resulting analysis. A thorough comparison of these results obtained for the three different plectra is presented and discussed.