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Comment on Let me just tune up real quick

disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

Yeah, you can’t tune your bass’s A string to a 440 Hz A. Lol

With that being said, the phenomenon the meme is referencing is called sympathetic resonance. It is not limited to matching intervals, but will resonate sympathetically at any frequency in the material’s harmonic scale. Any A will make any well-tuned A string resonate, it just may be very low amplitude.

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ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

As Frozengyro@lemmy.world mentioned, you can have interesting results by using harmonics - tones that are a whole (k) multiple of the base frequency because then the string vibrates in a standing wave forming a series of k+1 nodes (including ends) and k antinodes equally spaced across its length. Such notes are:

Closest note	Freq.	Harmonic	Relation to A
A1	55 Hz	base
A2	110 Hz	2nd	octave above A1
E3 + 2 cents	165 Hz	3rd	perfect fifth from A2
A3	220 Hz	4th	octave above A2
C#4 - 14 cents	275 Hz	5th	major third from A3
E4 + 2 cents	330 Hz	6th	perfect fifth from A3
G4 - 31 cents	385 Hz	7th	far from a note on the chromatic scale
A4	440 Hz	8th	octave above A3
B4 + 4 cents	495 Hz	9th	major second from A4
C#5 - 14 cents	550 Hz	10th	major third from A4
D#5 - 49 cents	605 Hz	11th	very far from a note on the chromatic scale
E5 + 2 cents	660 Hz	12th	perfect fifth from A4
F5 + 41 cents	715 Hz	13th	very far from a note on the chromatic scale
G5 - 31 cents	770 Hz	14th	far from a note on the chromatic scale
G#5 - 12 cents	825 Hz	15th	minor second below A5
A5	880 Hz	16th	octave above A4

You could continue forever but frequencies above that will have a very weak response.

Yes, you will get some resonance on non-integer multiples but way less.

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