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

The string breaking anxiety is so real bro.....I was sweating

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.

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

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

Helium does have a big effect on how the balloon resonates. 6:17 Without Helium 6:53 With Helium

(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!

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

First video I've REALLY ENJOYED for ages. Brilliant. Nice to know that I am not alone in my woodworking skills. Have a few uke projects in mind (one started but on way back to drawing board cos I buggered it up). Now inspired to get going again. Keep up the good work. Subscribed.

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.

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.

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!

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

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.

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.

I really enjoy your videos. There are so many great projects, and music-related which makes them especially interesting to me! Some of them have amazing results, while others, although they don't work as planned, are just fun to watch. I never know what I am going to see next!

Happy New Year, please keep up with your amazing work. Love the off the wall inventiveness.

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 :/>

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).

love that u still posted even though it didnt work

thank you for making a dummy thicc guitar

As an electronic music producer: You haven't changed the pitch, however you affected the tone of the guitar. What putting a helium vs normal air baloon does is similar to using an effect like an eq/filter/saturation. You essentially just change the harmonic content of the sound, not the pitch itself :P

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!

5:57 thats what she said

You know he's getting serious when he pulls out the Mark Rober music

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.

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

one thing u may have missed is the sound quality with the large blue balloon and the bloon suitcase were FAR better then the acoustic panel of the wooden box diaphram. you discovered a HUGE leap in sound quality for guitars, make a 111 percent pressurized perfectly sealed pvc diaphram and nestle it like u did with the baloon. youll make at leasta couple million.

5:13 “You don’t need safety glasses when you can… almost f*ck” -Mattias Krantz 2021

The pitch is determined by the vibrational frequency of the strings - this *is* presumably affected by which gas they are vibrating in, so you'd have to put the strings themselves inside helium, which sounds pretty difficult :P

He's anxious that the strings will break but I am anxious about how he puts those balloons. I feel like they'll pop anytime.

You are a very interesting human and I am amazed of the way you think. You bring human ideas to the next level . I do the same to Multi-rotors and created my ideas to the next level and pushing the envelope until they fail but, I am retired now and trying to do some other ideas on whatever. Thanks for sharing ! Sub !

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!

Hey Mattias what if you made a piano that has piano strings and guitar strings so you can switch instruments. (Like on an electric piano)

I think The only way to get the actual fundamental pitch higher would be to fill the entire room with helium, otherwise it’s only the overtones that go up in pitch because the string is still vibrating against regular air

Thank you for trying it out

The reason this doesn't work is because the pitch comes from the vibration of the strings. Having a lighter gas on the interior wouldn't change that. However if you had lighter strings you would, hence lighter gauge strings have higher resonant frequencies. Interestingly the helium guitar idea could work in theory if you had helium strings instead. Imagine a straw-like string that you could fill with gases to create different variables in the pitch. That in theory would work - but I'm also not sure how you'd actually thread something like that.

I love that this actually worked, but very sad helium didn't make it super high pitched.

That construction stuff is really cool. :) Thank you.

from italy ..i like kind of experiment and who take the best of his creative potenzial,so nice job!!

The thing is that when waves change medium their frequency doesn't change. However the frequency of your vocal chords in helium changes which is a totally different effect.

6:28 that sounds good, more of that please !!

I subed already lon ago. Your work deserves some support!

The reason the balloon works, I think, is because you're basically vibrating the whole balloon once you connect it to the vibrating strings (transfer of vibration). You send sound waves out into the air with the balloon instead of the wood.

what i love from his videos is the fact that he solved all of his “ impossible ” & “ nonsense ” problems .

the resonance frequency comes from a standing wave in the string, not the medium (meaning a standing wave in air or helium in your case) So the helium trick only works on instrucments based on that principle such as flutes or a helium powered air organ would be cool, but completely usesless of course lol) you could also use more dense gasses to lower tones. have fun and stay safe all

I subscribed! Thanx for your funny ideas! Keep it up!

7:32 dude... the guitar has a dump truck

As a cello player I want to see a piano with strings from various string instruments that way they will have various lengths and a bigger range. Love your videos Mattias

luv the mark robber music

On that first attempt, it ended up making the tone brighter though. That's an interesting effect. Wondering if a heavier noble gas would give it a darker tone.

If you put sulfur hexafluoride in your guitar, would it be a bass????

That's actually a really cool build Mattias :)) I'm glad you're getting more sponsors and recognition so you can do more stuff like this

Liked and subscribed for your outstanding contribution to the art and science of fefe construction. Cleaving a balloon down the middle to emulate buttocks is revolutionary. Total game changer.

Congratulations on reinventing the banjo

Well I think your guitar with the handle is just lovely. And you can always tune all the strings to HEHEHE (German note names!), inhale a bunch of Helium and then just have fun anyway!!! And mad respect for posting the results despite it not going to plan. That puts you in like the top 10% of all researchers, since many just keep very quiet if their hunch doesn't play out...

I've broke so many guitar strings before. Here's my tip: New strings are brittle, older strings are more malleable. So the trick is you tighten it just a little bit (maybe instead of E you tune it to a B), the string would stretch itself out and get out of tune in a few minutes. Then you tighten it again. The string needs to ease in to the tension.

Beautiful design my guy, I love the design of it

Great that you show a long experiment with a negative result! Great to read the comments!

Lol I get some Mark Rober vibes due to the combination of music choice and engineering :p keep it up!

I just want to say congratulations for getting outside your comfort zone. I am proud of you. You gave me a new definition of air guitar. Thank you, my mind is officially blown.

Hey Mattias, thank you for uploading funny and entertaining content! In love it when RU-vid tells me that you uploaded a new Video! Keep up the good work! Greetings from Luxemburg!

Amazing 🔥

Always nice to see DADGAD out in the wild!!

0:54 is this a song Mark Rober used also? I like this song and my mind say wow there is a engenier if i hear the song

5:13 "You dont need safety glasses" *String:* "And i took that personally"

The balloon guitar is cool, but I knew from the beginning it wasn't going to alter the pitch at all (though maybe a small difference in the resonance from the balloon). I mean to say you shouldn't be disappointed it didn't change the pitch; you made a cool guitar that's exceedingly unusual, and that all by itself is cool.

So intriguing that your intro music sounds so much like Mark Rover’s theme music.

Oh my, this video is going to BALLOON in exposure!

Put an electric guitar into a vacuum chamber. In theory it should be possible to adjust pitch by changing the air pressure (thus changing the density) inside. Or put an accoustic guirar into a helium chamber. Your voice becomes high pitched in helium because your vocal chords vibrate faster in a gas of lower density.

Looks comfortable 😁

yes easy to notice i can tell the green one gave it nice tone

I think it’s because the guitar isn’t actually interacting with the helium gas, because the suitcase thingy has too thick plastic. You’d have to play it in a room full if helium for it to change the sound because the soundwaves would travel faster through the helium, but that would be pretty dangerous to be in. You could try putting a small balloon inside your guitar, popping it and then quickly strumming it, but I don’t think it’s entirely possible to experiment with this idea.

I learned as a bassist that I can practice without an amp by playing while leaning against the wall. If you find the sweet spot it resonates pretty well.

PItch is related to string length, tension, and mass, and air density. The reason your voice changes pitch, is because the vocal folds can move more quickly in a less dense medium which has less mass to move. So since the strings are still in air, nothing will change relating to pitch.

For anyone interested in why this doesn't work: Strings are in air to begin with and its the change in speed of sound that changes the vibrations of the molecules. The wavelength of the sound is what we pick up as difference in pitch. When sound travels between different mediums the soundwave will shift by the ratio between what the speed of sound has in those medias. What we have here is: Speed of sound in air (where the strings are) --> Speed of sound in helium (Where the baloon is) --> Speed of sound in air (on the way to your ear) -->Ear The starting condition and the end condition is the same, so it will be the same. When you speak with helium in your lungs your vocal cords will be covered in that medium when you speak. Then it will transform to a different wavelength when it shifts to the normal air outside. Helium --> Air --> Ear

Wow it's really nice to see guitar prototypes that never really sold be put in to practice like this. You are great man

Mark robber 😂 🤣 0:58

Bro the mark rober music made me feel the vibes

The pitch of a guitar (or any string instrument) is determined by the frequency of vibration of the strings. This frequency is influenced by factors such as the tension and length of the string, in addition to the resistance of the surrounding medium. To alter this property using helium, you would need to surround the string with helium. Since helium is less dense than air, the string will experience reduced resistance, causing it to vibrate faster and produce a higher pitch. You could try placing (and playing) a guitar inside a vacuum chamber filled with helium; it should work.

The frequency (pitch) is determined by the strings moving up and down. In order for the strings to change frequency to a higher pitch they would need to move faster either by increasing tension or reducing the atmosphere resistance(drag). Volume of the sound would affect how much vibration is transmitted from the strings to the air, this is where the body (balloon or wood etc.) would make a big difference. The body and resonance also determines where/how the sound is reflected and how the decay of the sound is shaped.

5:46 that chord reminds me of the beginning of “A hard Days Night”

Oh my God! 6:29 Andy McKee reference!! You rock dude. 😂

That was freaking COOL

I'm a music person, this is the third video of yours I have watched and to be honest, you are very unique and oddly enough, I have had all the questions that you test in your vids. Thank you for answering them Mattias!

7:39 😳😳

The fucking first balloon guitar you made was so cool. I really liked the sound of it

Extra points for being comedic 👍

Ok but that balloon got me acting strange 😩 Also here’s an idea: can you make a guitar that has piano keys that cause hammers to come down and smack the strings?

Everytime I see you posted a new video (because the little bell of my subscription tells me so :D), I know my day is fixed :) In terms of ideas, the only thing I can think of is making each hammer head on a piano be a tiny bow so it would strike the string as if it were a violin. I don't think it's possible, but if ever a person taught me ingenuity and perseverance can overcome any obstacle, it's you! I do think your videos are very encouraging and wholesome, and I wish you the best in whatever endeavor you decide to tackle next :D Greetings from Colombia!

That 1 second shot of you shooting an arrow from your home made air balloon guitar. 10/10, this is what i come here for.

The frequency of the vibration is controlled by the tension, length and the mass of the string. The resonance box is a way for mechanical energy of the string to dissipate more efficiently into the air as a pressure wave rather than the damping provided by the string end holders or fret. The bridge itself conducts the mechanical energy from the string end to the box. The box should have a large surface to move the air next to it. THe same principle applies to a piano. There is a soundboard in a piano. What gas is in the guitar box makes no difference to the frequency defined by the string.

Very professional with the briefcase guitar

Try playing Harmonica on Helium. Should be very simple and successful.

loving this mark rober music

Don't feel bad 'bout it we're not subscribed to many people we have watched one or two videos. You have 1 mil subscribers. That are people that wanna look at your content frequently. The rest of us only found you once. Keep up the good work!.

A piano engineer trying to engineer a guitar... What could go wrong 🤣🤣 Needing safety glasses made me laugh haha

Hey Mattias, I think it would be rad to put bass pickups on the low notes, then guitar pickups on the higher notes of a piano. You could then wire it all up and push it through a guitar amp, maybe even a cranked Marshall or through some cool guitar effects pedals or something. I don’t imagine it would be too hard if you could mount all the pickups on a board or something that could be inserted under the strings

its the length of the strings and the tension in the string that changes the pitch. the air in the wood is for the acoustics only

Cool experiment 🧪🎸

Interesting. I think that as the strings are what produces the tone, changing the resonating body won't do much. Helium going through your vocal chords actually affects the speed at which they vibrate, but in this case it's like speaking regular air into a room of helium