Which is the front pickup?

Strat_a_tat_tat

robgilmo said:

We could end the confusion now by calling things Bill , or Allen, or Kevin, that would work,

Good work... but I think you'd need a DiMarzio Samantha... for Eric Clapton's famous 'woman tone'

ICBM

Strat_a_tat_tat said:

To me... this front and back thing seems like an arbitrary convention that some long-forgotten geezer decided upon waaay back in time... and, for some reason, it stuck.

No, it's because it's completely obvious to almost all of us! I never had to think about it, and it was only when I came across a few awkward people who seem to want to make it the other way round that I ever had to stop and think *why* the neck pickup is the front .

Just look at a picture of Chuck Berry doing his 'duck walk'… which is the front?

Strat_a_tat_tat said:

Why did Leo Fender call it a tremolo arm... when it controls vibrato - not tremolo?

Leo wasn't a musician, and was confused as to the two terms.

Faff

nick_s said:

If you have a single pickup guitar, it is both at the same time 

That's a Quantum Pickup.
(Nerdy physics joke)

Strat_a_tat_tat

ICBM said:

Strat_a_tat_tat said:

Why did Leo Fender call it a tremolo arm... when it controls vibrato - not tremolo?

Leo wasn't a musician, and was confused as to the two terms.

... and we love him all the more for that.  :-)

polotska

To be fair, the OED defines “tremolo” as “[a] tremulous or vibrating effect produced on certain musical instruments or in the human voice in singing, esp. to express intensity of emotion: cf. vibrato.” It also quotes H. C. Deacon from the 1884 Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 4th ed.: “The instrumental tremolo is more nearly allied to the vocal vibrato. Indeed, what is called ‘vibrato’ on bowed instruments is what would be ‘tremolo’ in vocal music.” So any confusion between “tremolo” and “vibrato” is hardly Leo Fender’s alone!

Strat_a_tat_tat

Oxford online dictionary says... Vibrato = A rapid, slight variation in pitch....

Anyway... no matter... we know what Leo meant. So it's all good.

skunkwerx

Haha On the topic of the string confusion.. I'm never fully certain which is the 1st and which is the 6th!! I think the low e is the 6th.. but as I always restring the bass e first, and as its closest to me when playing I sometimes call it the first.. 

Strat_a_tat_tat

skunkwerx said:

Haha On the topic of the string confusion.. I'm never fully certain which is the 1st and which is the 6th!! I think the low e is the 6th.. but as I always restring the bass e first, and as its closest to me when playing I sometimes call it the first.. 

Yep.... I've always regarded 1st E string to be the thin one. I think some string packs are labelled that way as well.

If someone wanted to be a bit obtuse... they could say the lower E is first... as you encounter it first as you're moving up the musical stave.  Man alive... this entire language thing is a total minefield. :-)

SteveRobinson

If you ask me, this whole music thing needs standardising.

Let's start again with a decimal system e.g. 10 notes per octave, which would become a decave of course. 

Xsmnmy

nearside = driver side

SteveRobinson

smnmy said:

nearside = driver side

For LHD cars in the UK

Strat_a_tat_tat

SteveRobinson said:

smnmy said:

nearside = driver side

For LHD cars in the UK

Or if you're driving the wrong way down the motorway.

Strat_a_tat_tat

SteveRobinson said:

If you ask me, this whole music thing needs standardising.

Let's start again with a decimal system e.g. 10 notes per octave, which would become a decave of course. 

Genius idea.

I'll have 10 kg of your finest tunes, please.

professorben

SteveRobinson said:

revsorg said:

Also, which is offside and which is nearside?

Nearside is closest to the kerb. Offside is a little understood rule in football.

Not the way I drive. 

professorben

SteveRobinson said:

If you ask me, this whole music thing needs standardising.

Let's start again with a decimal system e.g. 10 notes per octave, which would become a decave of course. 

But then women would be banned from playing the cello!

Teetonetal

Why on earth would you go for front and back anyway. Neck and Bridge describe them much more accurately.

Sassafras

All I know is you should always wipe front to back.

DLM

professorben said:

SteveRobinson said:

If you ask me, this whole music thing needs standardising.

Let's start again with a decimal system e.g. 10 notes per octave, which would become a decave of course. 

But then women would be banned from playing the cello!

@professorben Why's that?

Jazzers/old dudes often call the neck pickup the bass pickup. The bridge pickup is then the treble pickup. I think PRS still uses this nomenclature. Obviously, one could then be confused with pickups for a bass guitar, but to a good extent I think this naming system makes musical sense.

As does calling the treble E string the "high" or "top" E. Higher in pitch.

Anyway, there have been so many great players whose lowest-pitch string was closest to the floor in playing position.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_musicians_who_play_left-handed#Left-handed_with_strings_backwards

professorben

DLM said:

professorben said:

SteveRobinson said:

If you ask me, this whole music thing needs standardising.

Let's start again with a decimal system e.g. 10 notes per octave, which would become a decave of course. 

But then women would be banned from playing the cello!

@professorben Why's that?

Jazzers/old dudes often call the neck pickup the bass pickup. The bridge pickup is then the treble pickup. I think PRS still uses this nomenclature. Obviously, one could then be confused with pickups for a bass guitar, but to a good extent I think this naming system makes musical sense.

As does calling the treble E string the "high" or "top" E. Higher in pitch.

Anyway, there have been so many great players whose lowest-pitch string was closest to the floor in playing position.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_musicians_who_play_left-handed#Left-handed_with_strings_backwards

It's a very old Red Dwarf joke. 
As you were. 

Holly always speaks in a droll, slightly monotonous, and quiet voice, even when sounding alarms, which consist of himself speaking simply "Ding-dong. There's an emergency going on. (pauses) It's still going on." and repeating as much. He often greets the crew with "All right dudes?"

Among his achievements was the invention of Hol Rock,[4] where he decimalised music (having ten notesinstead of eight — although he admits that this would result in "piano keyboards being the width of a zebra crossing, and women being banned from playing the cello"). He also wrote an A-Z guide of the Universe.

Strat_a_tat_tat

@professorben.... OK... put the Red Dwarf box set down... and slowly walk away from it.... step out into the daylight and take a few deep breaths... feel all that real life coursing through your veins.  Give it time and you'll even learn to love your inner Telecaster.

;-)