Why does low E on guitar sound so different to the same note on bass guitar?

[Saffran]

Could be because we use fingers on (P) bass (with tort guard) and picks on guitar....
Guitar! How low can you go?

We do ?

Doing it the other way round is wrong then ?

[revvy]

Could be because we use fingers on (P) bass (with tort guard) and picks on guitar....
Guitar! How low can you go?

We do ?

Doing it the other way round is wrong then ?

For other basses, do what you will, but a sunburst P with tort? Them's the rules Great tone!

[Hermetech Mastering]

Physics, neck/string length, string composition, harmonics. etc. The same reason the same pitch from different instruments sounds completely different.

[medienhexer]

I agree with physics and electronics combined. Long scale basses usually have 34“ scale, guitars between 24.5 and 25.5“.

Low E string in a guitar is usually between 40 and 52 gauge, the D on a bass between 60 and 70.

If you compare the width of a strat and P-bass, it‘s 42mm in both cases, but four vs six strings on the neck.

So the higher mass and longer dimensions lead to a different harmonic structure. Even a baritone will already sound different from regular scale.

And then, yes, pickup pattern, frequency response, pickup position and resonance frequency of the pickups are very different.

[Weasel-Boy]

medienhexer wrote:

...the higher mass...

There’s the answer. The higher mass of the core and windings.

[Ploki]

the thicker the string, the more it manifests inharmonicity
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inharmonicity
different harmonic content = different timbre.

in essence, when you make a string THICKER to achieve lower tuning, you're moving away from "theoretical string" and towards "theoretical ROD", make it short and fat enough and you get a marimba.

Then different string windings, pickups, scale length, electronics etc..

[Guitarjack]

It's an octave lower. E1 on a bass. On a guitar it's E2 I believe. That means it's vibrating on a different frequency which registers differently on our ears.

If you take your guitar and play an open low E, then fret the low E on the 12th fret and play it. These are the same note, an octave apart but clearly the frequency is different hence the sound is different.

Frequency is literally that, how frequent a wave form goes up and down. The higher up the fretboard the shorter the frequency, the lower down the longer the frequency. These register to us as pitch. As you cycle through the chromatic steps in western music from an E1 to an E2 you would be going up in pitch/frequency 12 times until you come back to the same note an octave higher. Music is circular like that, or more accurately a spiral that repeats the same 12 notes over and over an octave apart each time.

[Ploki]

It's an octave lower. E1 on a bass. On a guitar it's E2 I believe. That means it's vibrating on a different frequency which registers differently on our ears.

If you take your guitar and play an open low E, then fret the low E on the 12th fret and play it. These are the same note, an octave apart but clearly the frequency is different hence the sound is different.

Frequency is literally that, how frequent a wave form goes up and down. The higher up the fretboard the shorter the frequency, the lower down the longer the frequency. These register to us as pitch. As you cycle through the chromatic steps in western music from an E1 to an E2 you would be going up in pitch/frequency 12 times until you come back to the same note an octave higher. Music is circular like that, or more accurately a spiral that repeats the same 12 notes over and over an octave apart each time.

he specifically said same note, not "open E string" on both.

[Guitarjack]

Doh! my bad.

[jens]

I have a question:

The other day I went to a church nearby and coincidentally walked into the organist there - so I asked him if I might play a note on the organ just for giggles. He nodded. I played a high note and it sounded massive and really great. I aked him how the sound was generated and he pointed at metal pipes in the background high up - there were lots of them but he told me for the sound I played just one of them was used.
Then I remembered these Irish flutes, tin whistles they are called, they're basically the same thing (just a lil' smaller, but my wife used to tell me size was overrated when we first met). So I went to the music shop and purchased one of these so that I could get the same sound at home. Bought a book on how to play it too. But when I played the exact same note it didn't sound like the church organ at all - what did I do wrong?

[revvy]

You touched another man's organ inside a church but expected the same experience at home, alone.

[vurt]

I have a question:

The other day I went to a church nearby and coincidentally walked into the organist there - so I asked him if I might play a note on the organ just for giggles. He nodded. I played a high note and it sounded massive and really great. I aked him how the sound was generated and he pointed at metal pipes in the background high up - there were lots of them but he told me for the sound I played just one of them was used.
Then I remembered these Irish flutes, tin whistles they are called, they're basically the same thing (just a lil' smaller, but my wife used to tell me size was overrated when we first met). So I went to the music shop and purchased one of these so that I could get the same sound at home. Bought a book on how to play it too. But when I played the exact same note it didn't sound like the church organ at all - what did I do wrong?

you blew it instead of attaching it to bellows and keys

i think a lot of the sound also comes from location, tin whistle, your ears are next to the sound hole virtually.
in the organ, they are generally, as you say, quite high up, and you hear as much of the reverb as the sound, so it has a different timbre, from the interaction of the reflections.

[jens]

I just spoke to my wife about it - she said she'd lied to me and that size DOES matter after all...

[vurt]

I just spoke to my wife about it - she said she'd lied to me and that size DOES matter after all...

well, yes, but so does the size of the space you use it in...

[vurt]

you could try a doubler of some sort to add more width, or a pitch shifter to make it fatter.
or get a friend with a bigger whistle for an octave lower.