| Alright, ready for some bogus physics everyone?
The reason this problem occurs might be that the heavier the strings get, the more mass is in motion when they vibrate. If you imagine the string at the point of maximum excursion, it is longer than when it is not swinging. Now, when the string is longer, there is more tension, and where there's more tension, the pitch rises.
This is hardly noticable on your low E-string even if you pluck it really hard. And the reason for that is the following:
Ever notice when you're tuning your guitar that the lower strings are a lot more sensitive to adjustments than the higher strings? Same principle. The lower the pitch of the string, the more sensitive it gets towards change of length. Try tuning your high E string to B and see how incredibly sensitive it is towards bending...it's almost unplayable.
The only thing you can do to offset this a little is using higher tension, aka longer scale or thicker strings.
And IMHO the only reason not more people complain about this is because they are not very perceptive to pitch. It is easy to overhear since it happens so quickly. I am not saying that everyone playing a 56 on low B at 25.5" is tonedeaf...but...you know. |