I put Helium in my Guitar and now it’s a Ukulele?

Liberty 3 Pro:

Soundcore Frames:
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Want to learn more about these cool instrument theories? Dr.Martí Ruiz is your guy!

Listen to the original guitar full recording:

Thank you Martí!

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I also used two songs from Blue Wednesday find him here he’s awesome:

[RayMak]

The string breaking anxiety is so real was sweating

[xara-eiloo]

Hi! I'm a physicist-turned-engineer who has studied the physical acoustics of guitars somewhat extensively (it was the subject of my undergraduate thesis). Unfortunately, I don't think anything particularly interesting can result from using helium with a guitar. The PITCH of the guitar is strictly a property of the stiffness, length, density, and tension of the strings themselves--they won't turn into ukelele pitch unless you change one of those things. This will be true with any stringed instrument. But, the pitch is not the only property of a guitar that can be altered. The thing that miiiight be possible with helium is messing with the impedance of the body of the guitar, thereby altering the coupling of the strings with the air. This is what's happening with the balloon piano, I think (though I'd need a better look to be certain): the soundboard of the piano is FULLY enclosed in helium, or at least enough to be a significant impact, and because helium is much lower density than air, it couples poorly with the air, causing the sound energy to be retained inside the balloon--resulting in the quiet, long-sustaining sound we heard. There may have also been some resonance of the balloon itself happening there, but that's only going to be a filtering effect on the sound of the strings, rather than pitch-shifting them. That said, a guitar doesn't really use the air inside its body for coupling with the air--most frequencies travel directly from string to bridge to wood to (exterior) air. The bass frequencies ARE affected by the interior, as the whole body flexes together when the wavelength is long enough. The hole is present to allow pressure equalization. This does provide some (helmholtz) resonance but I expect that a change in this resonance will not dramatically affect the guitar's sound. What might be cool is if you (somehow) put a balloon around the ENTIRE guitar. I think, because of increased mismatch of impedance, you'd have an increased sustain on your notes and an overall quieter tone. Depending on the shape of the balloon you may also see some high-pitched resonance filtering on your tone. But the pitch, coming from the strings, will be largely unaffected.

[ThePraash]

Helium does have a big effect on how the balloon resonates.

6:17 Without Helium
6:53 With Helium

[lautarobenavides]

Psychologist: "The guitar with cake cannot hurt you it's not real"
*The guitar with cake:* 5:36

[kaipixlab]

(The Helium has to be around the strings, this results in less “air” friction, and the strings can swing faster.)* So if you play a guitar in a room filled with helium it should have a higher pitch, than in a room with air. They did this experiment in a German TV Show, but the video is currently not available on the web.
*edit: this is physically not correct, I was wrong!

[latifoljic]

This would actually work if you fed a set of bagpipes or an organ with a supply of helium, or played a clarinet or a flute filled with helium with your lungs also full of helium. It doesn't work with a guitar because the characteristics of the strings themselves determine the frequency, whereas with woodwinds and reed instruments, the characteristics of the the air column inside the instruments determine the frequency.

[burkhardstackelberg]

Essentially, if you couple your guitar to a helium balloon instead of air, the actual pitch will be no higher (the same as with singing) - you shifted only the resonance frequencies, i. e. the formants of your resonator. This makes it sounding "smaller" and somehow higher, though the pitch essentially is the same.

[HuttyTheKid]

I graduated a mechanical engineer and have really struggled to combine my love for music with my degree. You show it’s possible! Subscribed

[caseydubois]

So I did some research, and apparently it's the distinctive drum-like body, rather than the strings, that give the banjo it's distinctive sound.

So you could make a piano with a giant drum for a soundboard, and in theory it'd sound something like a banjo. A pianjo, if you will.

Yeah, this is probably one of my dumbest ideas yet.

[JacksHQ]

Here's an idea: a piano that always plays the song you want, regardless of what keys your press.
My thinking was that you could have a raspberry pi to do the logic, have all the keys trigger something that checks what the next note in the song is and then plays that note by either hitting one of several preconfigured strings OR hitting a single string that gets adjusted to the right tune dynamically (by servos, motors, or something).

[milokojjones]

I wonder if the baloon body could be used on other string musical instruments, like violin and how it would sound - I mean, it works on guitar, so it could work on other instruments too :/>

[BordelloBabe]

You have tried using steel, right? Mattias' quivering smile had me howling. Comedy gold!

[cineblazer]

This is what science is all about! Kudos to you for doing the experiment even though it wasn't guaranteed to work out. Personally i really enjoyed watching the build process and learning about the history of the question, and even though the guitar wasn't higher-pitched, i still walked away from this video feeling like you didn't waste my time. Excellent work dude!

[alexrobarge]

Physics major here: Because the helium is the amplifying medium and not the producing medium, there is not as much of a shift in pitch. The actual guitar strings themselves would need to be encased in helium in order for the pitch to change.

[SmartAlec]

It's impressive how good a balloon guitar sounds. I think it uses the same principles as an acoustic guitar. The soundwaves reverberate inside the balloon the same way it would in an acoustic guitar. But the flexibility probably allows for some neet effects.

[luuuk]

It is so much fun watching you building this guitar😂😂😂😂
Good job!

[NukeNuclearstrike]

5:13
“You don’t need safety glasses when you can… almost f*ck”

-Mattias Krantz 2021

[seenspeed]

I have an idea for a piano build that I always thought would be interesting: A bowed piano. Essentially whenever you press a key, it wouldn't use a hammer to strike the string but a bow to vibrate the string, similar to a violin or cello. I think the way it could work is you build something to a giant belt sander perpendicular to the plane the strings are on, and then pressing a key for a note would, instead of hitting a hammer to strike the string, would push the string up into the belt sander. And obviously instead of sandpaper it would be like bow material that is waxed up with rosin. You could get the sound of an entire string orchestra through a piano!

[harryemmott]

I think you've actually found the perfect formula for anxiety right here... Between the guitar strings and balloons I don't think I've ever felt so tense in my life

[Micharus]

I was impressed by the build quality of the balloon guitar, despite you having said that you don't really have good skills for that sort of thing. The end result sounded pretty nice, especially with the blow up suitcase!