Weird echoing - help please

Hi all,

I have a fairly new tenor and I just noticed something strange with it. When I play and try to mute the E string (2nd string) on the third fret, it wouldn't mute at all. Some strange echoing would play, I thought.. I noticed that the G string (4th string) would vibrate every time I tried to play the E string on the third fret. It was the one having a continued sound. It also plays when I pluck my C String on the 8th fret.

Help please!
THANK YOU

Sympathetic resonance. You see the same thing happen in pianos if you depress the damper peddle.

I'm sure an actual physicist could state this better, but... As I remember it, part of what gives a stringed instrument its distinct sound is how it amplifies and resonates the harmonics in a string. When you pluck or strike a string, you not only get the single note; all the possible divisions of that length of string - the harmonics, overtones - are also vibrating in micro-waves along the length of it.

The harmonic resonances in other strings that are closest to the fundamental note that you are playing are going to ring the loudest - same note, and an octave away (first division).

If you strike a low note on the piano and listen closely, you can hear many of those overtones. If you do the opposite of that last video, strike that low note while the damping peddle is depressed, and then manually dampen that single set of strings, you will hear notes all up the harp vibrating in a sympathetic resonance to the harmonics of that one note.

Very informative. I always thought it was a problem. Thank you for clearing it up for me!