1

Matthew Edwards, Student Member, IEEE

An Introduction to the Use of Electromagnetics

in Musical Instruments: Basic Analytical and
Practical Approaches

Abstract Electromagnetics are used in many ways to amplify II. BASIC ELECTROMAGNETIC PICKUPS FOR
and alter sound for the purpose of making music. The main ELECTRIC GUITAR
focus of this paper is on the electric guitar, as this has been the
most notable benefactor of electromagnetic technology. It A. Beginnings
describes in detail the operation of a basic electromagnetic
pickup. Equations are included that can be used to model the
Electromagnetic pickups began to take shape in the 1920s.
principles that are at work. Great attention was given to Lloyd Loar, an employee at the Gibson Guitar company, was
experiments which explore the effects that different variables believed to be the first person to design an electric guitar
have on the sound that the pickups create. pickup1. In response to guitarists complaints that they could
In addition, a device called the EBow that can be used with not be heard over other instruments he invented a detected
electric guitars is examined. This handheld device works by vibrations in the soundboard of stringed instruments and
creating a magnetic field which can be used to vibrate the converted them into electrical impulses. His design was not
strings of the guitar, resulting in sounds that could not be initially appreciated and although he continued to build
created by physically plucking the strings. It also plays a very electric guitars, the idea did not take off. In the late 1930s
significant role in the experiments. Adolph Rickenbacker and George Beauchamp patented an
electromagnetic pickup that was more like todays models. It
Index TermsGuitar, electromagnetic pickups, humbucker,
was around this time that electric guitars began to be used
single-coil pickup
more in popular music and interest in them rose from there.
I. INTRODUCTION
B. Construction of a Basic Single-Coil Pickup
I n the twentieth century radical new styles of music were
developed. Like in ages past, new inventions have
encouraged different kinds of music, but never has the effect
The simplest pickups utilize only one coil of wire wrapped
around the magnet. These are called single-coil pickups.
Their behavior will be examined in detail with the
been so dramatic as it was when the electronics world began
modifications of more complex pickups explained in a
to intersect with the music world. The invention of the different section.
electric guitar made rock and roll what it is, and popular A pickup is usually a fairly simple device, composed of a coil
music has never been the same. Whether thats good is not of wire, often made of copper coated in enamel, wrapped
for this paper to decide. around an insulating bobbin, which is often made of plastic.
The driving force behind the electric guitar is the A bar magnet is mounted on the bottom of the bobbin, or in
electromagnetic pickup. Speakers can create sound from a some cases inside of the bobbin. Typically cylindrical pole
changing voltage and amplifiers can process that voltage. pieces rise off of the magnet, up through the coil and are
The pickups are where the voltage originates, in response to positioned underneath each of the guitar strings. The
the vibration of steel strings. The process by which this distance of these pole pieces from the strings is a determining
happens is known as electromagnetic induction. It is what factor in the strength of the signal produced by the pickup.
makes the operation possible, opening the door for musical Other factors include the strength of the bar magnet and the
creativity. This paper will examine what makes number of turns in the coil. The most common material for
these pole pieces is alnico, an alloy of aluminum, nickel, and
electromagnetic pickups able to convert vibrations into
cobalt. There are several variations of this material in use in
electrical signals by explaining the principles, modeling them
guitar production currently. A section view of a fairly typical
with equations, and demonstrating them through single-coil pickup can be seen in Figure 1 on the following
experimentation. page.

M. Edwards is graduate of Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI with a
Bachelor of Science of Engineering with a concentration in electrical/computer
engineering.
e-mail: medwards@ieee.org
 2

Figure 2B. Regions of ferromagnetic strings with application of external

magnetic field.

The oscillation of the strings causes a disturbance in the

magnetic field of the permanent magnet of the pickup. As the
field changes so does the flux in the coil surrounding the
magnet. This induces an alternating current with a voltage
described by Faradays Law:
Fig 1. A section view of a single-coil pickup as seen from a view perpendicular
to the strings with all of them lined up. This pickup is slightly more elaborate d
than a basic model in that there is an insulating material between the pole piece emf
and the bar magnets. Also, there is usually only one bar magnet. This image is dt
borrowed from U.S. patent number 5,399,802 2.

C. Electromagnetic Induction
To understand how the vibration of the strings can be used to
This equation states that the electromotive force generated in
generate a current, it is first necessary to understand some of
the coil is equal to the negative of the rate of change of the
the properties of these strings. Stringed instruments in
magnetic flux through the coil. It is this voltage that is sent
general use strings of different thickness and strung at
to the amplifier, processed, and used to drive the speakers. A
different levels of tension to produce different pitches. The
detailed mathematical explanation of the principles will be
strings that produce lower pitches are thicker. Melodies are
presented later on under the heading: Simulations and
played by sounding different strings or just by changing the
Calculations to Model Pickup Behavior.
length of the string by pressing it down to the neck at certain
points.
Most strings for solid-body electric guitars are made of either D. Variations in electric guitar pickups
steel, nickel or an alloy of the two metals. These materials A serious problem with single coil pickups is that they also
are classified as ferromagnetic 3. A dipole moment is created tend to pick up the background hum that is present in the
in every atom of such a material by unbalanced electron spin surrounding environment. The most common way to deal
moments. In sections of the material with many atoms close with this problem is with a second coil and additional pole
together the moments line up in the same direction, leading to pieces added to the pickup, wired in a different direction such
a dipole of more significant strength. These sections are that the outside noise will be canceled out. The extra six pole
called domains, and the reason that ferromagnetic materials pieces are usually placed with an opposite direction of their
have no magnetic moment as a whole is because the dipoles polarity compared to the other six. The result is what is
of the various domains oppose each other. The strings have known as a humbucker pickup. It is essentially two single-
no magnetic field then, until the field due to the magnets of coil pickups set close together that always work in
the pickup is brought near to them. At that point the size of cooperation. One exception to this cooperation is in guitars
the domains with a magnetic field in the same direction as the which are equipped with a coil tap, allowing just one of the
applied field increase and their internal magnetic fields coils to be selected. When a switch is flipped the other coil is
become greater than those of the domains that were shorted out, and the pickup would then function as a basic
previously canceling them out. The magnetic field of the single-coil. This is another way for luthiers (guitar makers)
ferromagnetic strings can now take affect. A rough to increase the versatility of the instrument. A top view of a
illustration of this can be seen in Figure 2 below. humbucker pickup is shown in Figure 3 on the following
page.
Another key benefit of a humbucking pickup is that since
there are two coils responding to flux changes, a much
greater length of the strings is read, and the resulting sound
seems thicker and more robust. To observe this
Figure 2A. Regions of ferromagnetic strings before an external magnetic field is phenomenon, the output of an electric guitar was probed with
applied.
an oscilloscope. No vibrations were induced in the strings.
The results can be seen in Figure 4 on the following page.
 3

that is too strong can alter the vibration of the string, making
the output sound unnatural. Failure to fully magnetize the
permanent magnet can result in it losing strength fairly
quickly and needing to be replaced 5.
Other common variations of basic pickups have a cover over
the pole pieces to reduce the effects of outside noise. Some
pickups dont even have pole pieces and just use one solid
magnet.

E. Supporting On-Board Circuitry

It is very important for a guitar player to be able change some
Fig 3. A diagram of a humbucker pickup including a standard mounting bracket. aspects of the sound before the signal reaches the amplifier.
All six strings can also be seen. The pole pieces have hexagonal depressions in
them to allow them to be turned with an Allen wrench. This picture is also For the Nitefly, there are two switches used to determine
borrowed from U.S. Patent No. 5,399,802 4 which pickups are driving the output. A three-way selector
determines whether the output of the piezoelectric pickup,
selected electromagnetic pickup, or output of both is sent out
from the guitar. A five-way selector switch allows the
guitarist to select the output of one individual electromagnetic
pickup or a combination of the middle pickup and one other.
It is not possible on most guitars to select more than two
pickups at once, or to select both the neck position pickup and
the bridge position pickup if there are more than two pickups.
There are three potentiometers used to modify the signal.
One acts as a volume knob for the piezoelectric pickup, one
receives the signal from the electromagnetic pickup or
pickups being used (all three are wired to it) and acts as the
volume knob for the those, and a third potentiometer is used
to create a filter to shape the tone of the signal before it is
even sent out from the guitar.
After passing through all of this the signal is sent out by way
Fig 4A. Waveform from oscilloscope with strings motionless using the middle
position single-coil pickup. Oscilloscope settings were at 1.00 mV per division of a output jack. A stereo cable is required to use both the
with a 10x probe and 4.00 ms per division. The wave seems small but can result piezoelectric and electromagnetic pickups. Stereo cables
in audible noise. include an extra sleeve to conduct the two signals and one
ground connection. If a standard cable is used, only the
output of the electromagnetic pickups is transmitted. A photo
of the guitar with the pickguard removed and flipped over is
shown in Figure 5 below.

Fig 4B. Waveform from oscilloscope with same settings but the humbucker
pickup is used. There is a noticeable reduction in the noise.

The humbucking effect can also be achieved to a lesser extent

Fig 5. On-board electronics of the Parker Nitefly guitar. Two single-coil pickups
simply by selecting two single-coil pickups at the same time, can be seen, along with a humbucker. All three of these run to the five-way
assuming that they have been wired with an opposite polarity selector (top structure) and then into the potentiometer on the right, which is the
of each other. This proved to be true on the Parker Nitefly, volume control for the electromagnetic pickups. A black wire can be seen
the guitar being used in all experiments featured in this paper, running from the bridge to the potentiometer on the lower left, which acts as the
volume for the piezoelectric pickups. The top potentiometer is the tone knob for
and it could be seen that there was less noise in the signal the electromagnetic pickups. The three way selector is between the tone knob
when both single-coil pickups were used. and piezoelectric pickup volume. The pole pieces can be seen extending through
The pickups used on Parker Guitars have an insulating gap the mounting brackets of the pickups.
between the pole pieces and the bar magnet. This lessens the
strength of the magnetic fields on the strings, while still
having a base magnet with full strength. A magnetic field
 4

III. USE OF ELECTROMAGNETIC PICKUPS IN OTHER motion, giving it a greater sensitivity to the vibrations of the
INSTRUMENTS string in the vertical and horizontal direction.
Another advantage of the Lace Sensor is that the symmetry of
the magnetic flux field patterns create a barrier, protecting the
A. Acoustic 6-String Guitars: An Example Featuring the coil from electromagnetic interference. This allows it to
Lace Sensor accomplish the second desired characteristic of a quality
With acoustic guitars certain difficulties arise that do not acoustic pickup.
present a problem in solid body electrics. Feedback and
outside interference can often be overwhelming in acoustic B. Bass Guitars
guitars due to their resonance. For these reasons and because
of tone preferences, many acoustic-electrics are fitted with Bass guitars differ from 6-string guitars mainly in the fact
piezoelectric pickups or even a microphone. that their strings are tuned to produces lower frequencies,
But there are electromagnetic pickups that are made for their strings are thicker, and typically there are only four
acoustic instruments. The Lace Sensor, made by Actodyne strings, although models with 5 or more can be found. All of
General, can be used with electric guitars, acoustic guitars these factors must be taken into account in designing a pickup
and other stringed instruments 6. The pickup is designed to for an instrument.
combat two major problems, the damping effect exerted on
the strings by traditional pickups and the electromagnetic C. Other Stringed Instruments
interference of the background noise. Electric violins, cellos, and mandolins are also made with
The damping effect refers to the way that traditional pickups to allow the sound to be amplified. While many of
electromagnetic pickups have a tendency to make the these may use a microphone or a piezoelectric pickup, there
vibrations of the strings die out early because of the magnetic are some that employ electromagnetic pickups. One type of
field. This effect tends to be most profound when the greatest pickup used is the Lace Sensor mentioned earlier. It is
amplitude of the string motion occurs right over the pole difficult to find many manufacturers of electromagnetic
piece of the magnet corresponding to that string. The Lace pickups for bowed instruments, but one such company is
Sensor solves this problem by forcing the polarities of the Bowtronics. They produce a single coil pickup that mounts
magnets in a different direction. temporarily on the end of the fingerboard of a violin or viola 7.
Usually the magnetic flux fields are generated by opposing
magnetic poles. The Lace Sensor uses an arrangement of two
identical poles situated side by side. The principles of
IV. THE EBOW
magnetic repulsion are used to shape the magnetic flux fields.
This causes the flux fields of the pickup to be compressed in
the region where the strings align. The difference in these A. What It Is and Why It Is Included
flux fields make the Lace Sensor less prone to altering the
natural string vibrations and it is more sensitive to certain The EBow is an accessory for electric guitars that first came
harmonics than a conventional electromagnetic pickup. about in the late 1960s and developed into roughly what it is
The Lace Sensors construction begins with the cover, which today in the 1970s8. The name is a result of its ability to
consists of a long ferromagnetic channel lined on the inside function somewhat like a violin bow on the strings. It is a
with barium ferrite anisotropic rubber-bonded magnetic hand-held device that generates a magnetic field which is
materials. These magnetic pieces are all lined up so that the able to vibrate a guitar string and create a positive forced
polarity inside of the ferromagnetic channel will be the same feedback loop with the pickups. The circuit behind the
from each piece. The flux fields are generated by a magnet functioning of the EBow is shown in Figure 6 on the next
on each side of the channel and three bonded to the bottom. page.
This alignment causes the flux fields to be in compression The circuit shown comes from the original patent for the
with one another. The repulsion that these fields exert on device. Although this circuit shows a variable gain
each other forces them into flux fields going out from the operational amplifier, the EBow that is sold does not include
edge of the ferromagnetic channel. Inside this channel is a this feature. The purpose of it was to allow the user to control
ferromagnetic bobbin with a copper coil wound around it. The the feedback level with a knob on the outside of the device.
bobbin is shaped with a row of teeth facing outwards. The The circuit contains two coils that include permanent
bobbin causes the flux fields from the bottom magnets to be magnetic cores, one is for input, and the other for output.
concentrated onto the upper edges of the channels, and the The input coil (seen on the left by the word IN) uses
flux density is increased. The teeth of the bobbin exist to electromagnetic induction to produce a current from the
create variations in the flux density from one region to the vibrations of the string. This current is amplified by the
next and this contributes to the shape of the exterior, overall amplifier circuit and sent to the output coil. The output coil
flux field shape. then produces a time-variant magnetic field with the same
The repetition of this layout of areas of varying flux density frequency as the electrical signal from the input coil which
which compress and repel each other induces canceling sustains the vibrations of the string. The device is able to
current flows in a string that oscillates in the flux field. The cause the string to vibrate even from what seems to be a
attractions that typically cause string damping are cancelled resting state because of background noise and a strong
by the effects of these current flows. This results in the Lace positive feedback loop. The flux from the output coil also
Sensors ability to sense all modes of the strings harmonic creates a strong effect on the signal produced by the pickups
of the guitar. The two coils are placed in line with each other
along the length of a string. They are kept in a fairly constant
 5

position by two grooves that the adjacent guitar strings (on If it is easier to find the magnetic field intensity than the flux
both sides of the string being stimulated) settle into. This density, this definition would be useful:
allows the player to easily find a position that will create a
good tone, just by resting the device on the strings. Changes H Wb
7
in the magnitude of the signals produced by the pickups can 0 4 10 B 0 H
be produced by changing the distance between the coils of the m 2
m
EBow and the strings.
The most difficult step may actually be modeling the
changing magnetic field with an equation for either B or H.
Due to the vibrations of the string, the B field will be
changing in a periodic state of decay. The string vibration
occurs in all three dimensions, making the equation of its
motion very complicated. If the string only vibrated up and
down, the equation for B may look something like this:

t
B( t ) A cos 360 f t 1
td

This equation models a periodic wave with a linear rate of
decay. It is doubtful that the rate of decay of the strings
vibrations is actually linear. The constant A refers to the
Fig 6. The EBow circuit, borrowed from U.S. Patent No. 4, 075,921 9. A 9V
amplitude of the magnetic flux density, B. The frequency in
battery serves as the DC source. Hz is defined by f and the phase shift is defined by phi. In the
damping component, td is the time it takes for the strings
A later model of the EBow includes a switch which reverses amplitude to drop from its maximum down to zero at a
the direction of current flow through the output coil. This constant rate. Defining the rate of decay with an inverse time
causes a magnetic field which dampens the fundamental relationship might be more accurate, but the aforementioned
frequency of the string vibrations while accentuating the damping effect of the pickups complicates things further.
harmonic frequencies. Modeling the string vibration accurately could be a lengthy
study in a different branch of physics.

V. CALCULATIONS TO MODEL PICKUP BEHAVIOR

VI. EXPERIMENTS WITH ELECTRIC GUITAR PICKUPS
A. Mathematical Equations
A. Background of the Experiments
The electromagnetic principle that needs to be modeled in Most of the experiments were conducted using a Parker
order to understand the workings of an electric guitar pickup Nitefly solid-body electric guitar. The Nitefly has three
essentially revolve around Faradays Law, which has already electromagnetic pickups and one piezoelectric pickup. Of the
been introduced. When considering the emf generated in a electromagnetic pickups, there is a humbucker near the
coil, the basic equation must be multiplied by a factor N, bridge, a single-coil near the neck, and another single-coil in
representing the number of turns in the coil. between. These can be made to operate one at a time or in
some combinations of two at a time, as mentioned earlier.
The strings on this guitar are extra light gauge nickel-plated
emf( t) N
d
steel.
dt For this experiment only the electromagnetic pickups will be
used, and usually just one of them at a time. This helps to
V keep the experiment simple.
At the input jack of the guitar, leads are attached to the
ground and electromagnetic output wires. The easiest set-up
Working backwards, the flux through the coil can be found was to plug a cable into the guitar, plug that into an input
using the following equation: jack with nothing attached to it, then probe that jack. The
ground and output wires are hooked up to an oscilloscope
using a 10x probe. This can be seen in Figure 7 below.

B dA


This equation states that the magnetic flux through the coil is
equal to the integral of the magnetic flux density over the
area.
 6

The period was measured from the oscilloscope to be

approximately 2.3 ms. This results in a frequency of about
435 Hz, close enough to be considered a match. It is
unfortunate that saving the oscilloscope data points to disk
and creating an Excel plot does not generate the exact same
image as is seen on the screen. On the oscilloscope one of the
peaks was positioned almost perfectly on the dependant axis
and the details of the shape of the wave are somewhat
different. The signal would have been easier to measure if it
were possible to zoom in on just one period without causing
the waveform to move all around, but it did not stay in place
when smaller time divisions were selected.
As another check, the frequency of a signal was measured one
octave up. It was more difficult to get good measurements,
Fig 7. The setup for the experiments. An input jack was connected to the but the frequency was somewhere between 870-910Hz, close
magnetic pickup output lead with two wires soldered to it to allow easy probing enough to the expected 880 Hz. At an octave below the signal
for the oscilloscope. The orange lead (top) is for the output of the piezoelectric
pickup. The PlusEBow can be seen resting on the strings. did in fact have a period close to 220Hz (220-230 Hz
measured), but the signal at that frequency was unusual in
that it had three crests and three troughs within each period.
B. Relationship Between Pitch Frequency and Voltage Signal It could be seen that they were still within the same period
Frequency though because the three crests and troughs were all at
It is important in this experiment to realize what the sort of different heights. This effect may suggest that the harmonics
function to expect when measuring the output of the pickups. play a stronger role in the character of the signal at lower
It may be easy for someone with little experience with sound frequencies, or perhaps just on the thicker strings.
to make the mistake of thinking that if a guitar is playing the For many guitars there is no difference in construction
note A440, that means that the note can be represented by a between the different pickups on one guitar. What makes the
440 Hz sine wave. If it were that simple there would be no differences in the timbre of each pickup is the position of the
distinguishing between the same note played on a piano. The pickup along the length of the string. The strengths of the
reason that a guitar has a different timbre (sonic color) from a harmonics and even whether they exist or not in the voltage
piano or even another guitar is because each note that is signal depends on what part of the string is being monitored
played is composed of not just the fundamental frequency, but by a pickup.
also a number of harmonics. Harmonics are higher frequency On a Fender Stratocaster there are three identical single coil
waves that are generated simultaneously with the pickups (although newer models may have some
fundamental by the vibration of the string. While these waves differences)10. The one positioned closest to the bridge has a
are of a much lesser amplitude, they are what give the sound timbre that is tinnier or brighter sounding, because the
its character. upper harmonics are sounded strongly near the ends of the
One hypothesis to be tested is the idea that the voltage string. The output of the pickup closer to the neck sounds
produced by the fundamental frequency vibrations will have more mellow because the fundamental frequency is a more
the same frequency as that of the pitch that was played. After significant contributor to the sound relative to the harmonics.
carefully dialing in oscilloscope settings that would allow Knowing this, one might hypothesize that the magnitude of
easy reading (more difficult than one might imagine), the the voltage representing the harmonics, especially the higher
high E string was plucked with string depressed just behind order ones, would be less coming from the neck position
the fifth fret to produce A440. The resulting waveform can be single coil than from the bridge position humbucker.
seen in Figure 8 below. Without any filtering or amplification, the signal from even
just one pitch can be very hard to read. What is observed
appears to be many sinusoidal waves occurring at the same
time, as if many notes were being played. A picture of the
waveform can be seen in Figure 9. They are similarly shaped
but that is a rough estimate, because they are constantly
changing and die out in a matter of a few seconds. Initially it
was believed that the number of waves was due to the upper
harmonics generated by the strings.

Fig 8. Waveform of approximate 440 Hz frequency. In this case the idea that the
voltage signal coming from the pickups is the same as the sound wave was
reinforced.
 7

output of the pickups and the distance between the magnets

and vibrating strings.
While originally it was intended for this experiment to be run
without the EBow, it was later determined that using the
EBow was by far the most convenient way to apply a constant
stimulus to the strings. Without that, an accurate comparison
could not be made. By resting the EBow on the strings at the
same place over the pickup each time, it was possible to keep
the string vibrations constant. Any changes in the damping
of the strings due to the proximity of the magnet was
neglected.

D. Effects of the EBow on Output Voltage, Qualitative

A final experiment was included which examines the output
Fig 9. A picture of a waveform produced in the early stages of the experiment. of the pickup when the EBow is applied to it. The device can
Two waves can be seen on the screen at once. drastically increase the volume that can be obtained simply by
plucking the strings. The first part of this experiment was
Two facts suggest otherwise. After enough adjustments on qualitative in nature; it only sought to describe the unusual
the oscilloscope, a view was established that showed just one characteristics of the signal produced using the EBow. As
function that moved sideways on the screen. It started out noted previously, the EBow creates a signal of constant
large and gradually faded. A snapshot illustrating this can be magnitude that is much easier to measure than the signal
seen in Figure 10. Also, when the strings were vibrated with created by a plucked string. With the tone knob turned all of
the EBow, a device capable of sustaining the strings the way down, the volume all of the way up, and the middle
indefinitely at the same level, one solid wave was observed. single-coil pickup selected, the EBow was rested above the A
The conclusion drawn from this is that the oscilloscope string of the guitar, and operating in normal mode. The
sometimes responds to a signal that is rapidly changing by output appeared to be like a sinusoid with a couple lumps in
showing different instances of it at various times all at once. it. These lumps repeated themselves nearly identically within
The harmonics are still present certainly but their effect does each period. The magnitude was constant, remaining at just
not seem to be as pronounced as what was expected. over 100mV (a 10x probe was used). It was therefore much
larger than any signal obtained by merely plucking the string.
The frequency was about 330 Hz. This first observation can
be seen in Figure 11 in the form of an Excel graph created
from the oscilloscope data.
It was demonstrated that use of the EBow does result in a
marked increase in voltage of the output, and therefore
volume. No level of plucking seemed to be able to produce an
output with magnitude greater than 20mV, even for a brief,
passing moment.
A very interesting result was found when the tone knob was
turned up. The shape of the signal gradually lost its
smoothness and very high peaks resulted. To the guitar
player this results in a signal that is often unpleasant to listen
to, but provides an impressive range of sounds. This
transformation is illustrated in Figure 12.

Fig 10. A waveform of the output seen when the same string is plucked, but a
longer time scale is used.

C. Relationship Between Height of Pole Pieces and

Magnitude of Output
The humbucker pickup on the Nitefly is equipped with
adjustable pole pieces. With nothing but an Allen wrench the
distance between each individual pole piece and its
corresponding string can be tweaked. A closer proximity to
the strings will result in a greater change in the magnetic
flux, and in turn, a greater induced current. Also, for more
dramatic changes across the whole pickup, there are
positioning screws for each electromagnetic pickup to raise or
lower the entire pickup. Using this capability, this next
experiment attempted to study the relationship between the
 8

Fig 11. First oscilloscope waveform of pickup output stimulated by the EBow.
EBow is in normal mode, the open A string is vibrated with the tone control
turned all the way down and the middle single-coil pickup in operation.

Fig 13A. Output of pickup with the open A-string stimulated by the EBow at
the pole piece of the middle position pickup. The tone knob is turned all the way
down.
Fig 13B. On the bottom the same output is shown with the tone knob turned all
the way up. Note the extra changes in inflection for each period of the wave.

The lumps that were found when using normal mode are
almost completely smoothed out. The magnitude is slightly
less in harmonic mode than it was in normal mode. What is
really interesting however, was the difference in frequency
between the output in harmonic mode and the output in
normal mode. In harmonic mode, the frequency of the signal
becomes 540 Hz, up from 330 Hz. These readings were both
taken by using the EBow to sound the A-string open, which
should create a pitch two octaves below A440. Even in
normal mode the EBow increases the frequency of the output
signal above the expected 110 Hz.
The extra curves in the waveform produced by using the
Fig 12A. As the tone knob is turned up the lumps in the wave shift and peaks EBow in harmonic mode with the tone knob turned all of the
began to sharpen. way up shows that it really does emphasize the harmonics
Fig 12B. With the tone knob all of the way up the wave becomes quite jagged more in comparison to the fundamental frequency, since they
with very high peaks reaching a magnitude almost twice as great as the wave
output with the tone knob turned all of the way down.
are such a strong contributing factor to the wave.

A feature found on the PlusEbow that was not built into the E. Effects of Distance Between Pole Pieces and Strings on
original model is the harmonic mode. The next experiment Output
was conducted to observe the differences in outputs produced
The other part of this experiment was to measure the
by the EBow in harmonic mode compared to normal mode.
magnitude of the voltage that is produced with different
As can be seen in Figure 13, the EBow produces a smoother
distances between the strings and the magnetic pole pieces.
wave when operated in the harmonic mode with the tone
First the middle position single-coil pickup was tested. By
knob turned all of the way down.
tightening or loosening screws on each side this pickup can
be raised or lowered. It was decided that measuring the small
changes in distance from the strings to the pickup would be
too inaccurate. Since there is a direct relationship between
the number of times the screws are turned and the change in
distance to the strings, a comparison of voltage of the pickup
output against the number of times the screw is turned would
have the same relationship as a graph of the voltage against
the actual distance. It was decided that the height that the
pickup was at before this experiment would be deemed zero,
and negative turns would be turns resulting in the pickup
moving away from the strings. The data shown in Table 1
was collected.

TABLE I

Single-Coil, Whole Pickup

Turns Max. Magnitude (mV)
-5 63
-4 70
 9

-3 75 5 120
-2 81 Data collected in experiment examining the effect of raising only the pole pieces
-1 92 of the pickups on the magnitude of the signal coming from the pickup.
0 100
1 109 Some basic observations were made during the experiment.
2 122 First of all, turning the pole pieces produced a lot of shavings
3 144 of a waxy substance. Many pickups today are wax potted,
4 154
Data of experiment examining effect of changing pickup height relative to the
that is, wax is poured into the holes that the pole pieces are to
strings on the magnitude of the signal produced by the pickup. Turns refers to be fit into to keep the pole pieces from vibrating 11. It is easy
the number of times the screw was turned to raise or lower the pickup from its to see why this could be important since the vibration of
initial position. On the fourth turn in the positive direction the screw was ferromagnetic elements is what induces the current in the first
becoming very difficult to turn and that was chosen as a stopping point for fear of
breaking something place. Unwanted vibration could result in unwanted
distortion. Secondly, when the pole pieces were raised up a
There is a clear reinforcement of the concept that the less lot it could be seen that they are not the same diameter all of
distance there is separating the strings from the pickups, the the way through. The top is a wider sort of head connected to
greater the signal magnitude. A graph of this data is shown a narrower neck. It is unlikely that the pole pieces were
in Figure 14. meant to ever be raised more than a quarter of an inch or so
above the bobbin. It is possible to raise the entire humbucker
pickup so that the magnets can be brought closer to the
strings without such a protusion from the bobbin. Last of all,
when the pole pieces were turned a sixth time, the output that
they created in conjunction with the strings and the EBow
was very unstable. The wave was always shifting and even
the audible sound generated from the vibration of the strings
with the guitar unplugged seemed different. It is possible that
when it was that close to the strings the magnet was having a
stronger effect on their vibration, as in the damping effect
mentioned earlier. A graph was made of this data as well and
it is shown in Figure 15.

Fig 14. Graph illustrating the relationship between distance from pickup to
string and signal magnitude.

Although the trend was fairly weak and inconsistent, there

was a slight pattern of the changes in magnitude becoming
greater for each change in distance the closer the pickup got
to the strings. An attempt was made to fit an exponential
function to the data. An R^2 value of 0.99 suggests a good
fit, but the equation was not that far from being simply linear.
A linear regression was able to produce a function with an
R^2 value of 0.96.
Finally, a similar study was done of the humbucker pickup.
This time only the pole pieces corresponding to the string Fig 15. Graph of relationship between height of pole piece and the signal
magnitude.
being played were moved. Since it is a humbucker pickup
(double-coil), this required moving two pole pieces each time. The results of this experiment were similar to the results of
Each pole piece is threaded with hexagonal indentation on the previous experiment. The magnitude increased as the
top so that they can be easily raised or lowered simply by distance to the magnets decreased, and that effect increased
using an Allen wrench. This experiment was run in a similar slightly as the separation distance became less.
manner to the last. The pole pieces were never dropped
below their starting height since they were nearly flush with
the bobbin to begin with, so each turned exposed more of the VII. CONCLUSION
pole piece and brought it closer to the pickup. The data
collected is contained in Table 2.
The purpose of this paper was to explore the principles of
TABLE II electromagnetics as they apply to musical instruments and see
how they are used to achieve different sounds. It is important
Pole Pieces on Humbucker to know the theory, to understand how something called
Turns Max. Magnitude (mV) electromagnetic flux changes inside a coil and creates a
0 85 current in it. And it is also important to be able to use
1 90 equations to describe such relationships. But until one sees
2 94 these principles in action there are always gaps in the
3 100 knowledge, and that persons idea seems like it is merely an
4 109 abstract vision. To fully comprehend these principles, the
 10

value of witnessing their effects should not be overlooked, and

that was the main goal of this project.

VIII. REFERENCES
1
Anonymous For those about to rock, we salute you
Technology Review. Cambridge: June 2002. Vol. 105, Iss. 5; pg. 104

2
DiMarzio. Electromagnetic Pickup for Stringed Musical Instruments U.S. Patent No. 5,399,802

3
Hayt, William H. Engineering Electromagnetics 6th edition, Tata McGraw-Hill 2001 p. 288-291
4
DiMarzio. Electromagnetic Pickup for Stringed Musical Instruments U.S. Patent No. 5,399,802

5
DiMarzio. Electromagnetic Pickup for Stringed Musical Instruments U.S. Patent No. 5,399,802
6
Lace, Jeff. Magnetic Field Shaping in Acoustic Pickup Assemblies
Sensors 1995. Vol. 12 Iss. 3. pgs. 55-56
7
Bowtronics Web Site,
http://members.aol.com/bowtronics/index.htm

8
Official EBow website
www.ebow.com

9
Heet, Gregory. String Instrument Vibration Initiator and Sustainer, U.S. Patent No. 4,075,921

10
GM Arts Home Page,
http://users.chariot.net.au/~gmarts/index.html
11
Stewart MacDonald Online
http://www.stewmac.com/tradesecrets/electronics/ts26fralin/ts26fralin.html

Works Consulted
Halliday; Resnick; Walker Fundamentals of Physics 5th edition, John Wiley & Sons Inc.

Duncan. Electromagnetic pickup for a stringed musical instrument having ferromagnetic strings and method, U.S. Patent No. 4,524,667

Tumura. Electric stringed instrument having a device for sustaining the vibration of a string and an electromagnetic driver for the device, U.S. Patent No.
5,585,588

Tumura. Electromagnetic pickup for an electric stringed instrument, U.S. Patent No. 5,508,474

Brain, Marshall How Electric Guitars Work,

www.howstuffworks.com

David, John; Widzer, Josh; Rosner, Brad. Basic Workings of a Single-Coil Electric Guitar Pickup, http://wildcat.phys.nwu.edu/classes/2002Fall/Phyx135-
2/Projects/Guitar_pickup/electric_guitar_pickups/basicworkings.html

fact-index.com, http://www.fact-index.com/p/pi/pickup.html

Arnold Magnetics, http://www.arnoldmagnetics.com/products/alnico/

GHS Strings Web Site, http://www.ghsstrings.com/index3.htm

IX. BIOGRAPHY

Matthew R. Edwards is graduating from Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI with a B.S.E. with a concentration in electrical/computer engineering. He is
currently seeking employment. His interests include digital logic and audio systems. This last year he was the president of the Calvin chapter of the IEEE and is
an Engineer-In-Training.