Most of us are aware of harmonic nodes. You get the strongest one at the 12th fret, which is exactly halfway along the string length. There’s one at the 5th, which is a quarter length and another at the 7th. If you place your finger lightly on a string at the 5th and slowly move your finger towards the nut while picking, you hear a bunch more harmonics of varying intensity.
A low E string resonates at 82Hz in standard tuning, and that’s the fundamental frequency. The sound we actually hear is a combination of the fundamental frequency, which gives the pitch of the note, combined with all those upper harmonics that provide the timbre or tonal characteristics. The fundamental frequency is always the loudest, and the harmonic overtones get progressively lower in level relative to the fundamental. This is true of acoustic and ‘clean’ electric guitars, but that balance shifts as electronics begin to clip.
When valves or transistors are pushed beyond their amplification limit, the peak of the loudest part of
