Striking open B & E (high) strings causes newly purchased classical guitar to resonate, flaw?
Just purchased my first classical guitar (Alhambra 10P) and I am learning to play.
I notice that if I strike the top two strings (B & e) then immediately mute them, the guitar's lower strings resonate a matching sound for several seconds. I am wondering whether this is expected behavior or should be considered a flaw?
It is not that it sounds bad, though it is a bit distracting, I just don't know if it is correct behavior from the guitar or not.
Thanks!
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Well, you have just rediscovered sympathy!
When plucking an E, any string which have an E as an harmonic not too far away (the low E and the A strings especially) will also resonate. As you do not mute them, the sound of these strings is lasting…
That is actually normal ans a good sign: it both means that the guitar is well resonating, and that you are tuned properly.
Note that some instruments have strings especially to have this phenomenon: the sympathetic strings.
EWhen the top two strings vibrate, they make certain pitches. Those pitches are 'heard' by anything else around. In this case, other open strings.
The bottom string is another E, so when it hears the top E, it vibrates in sympathy. The B string also makes a second harmonic of that E string, making it vibrate sympathetically. That top string is also a second harmonic - of the A string, so that vibrates as well.
It shows that the guitar is working very well, but that in itself causes a problem, alleviated by you muting various open strings to stop them vibrating sympathetically.
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