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→Effect on Tone
The best way to analyze the impact of overtones on the tone of a sound is to look at synthesized waveforms. A synthesized wave adds or subtracts overtones to alter the waveform. Since the overtones are part of the harmonic series and are divisible by the fundamental without a remainder, adding them produces a new periodic waveform at the fundamental frequency. In other words, looking at the wave on an oscilliscope will change shape as overtones are increased or lessened.
* '''Sine wave ''' - The sine wave is just the fundamental without overtones. It sounds very dark and dull, like using the guitar's neck pickup and reducing the tone knob to 0. Vocally, it is similar to humming.* '''Triangle wave ''' - A triangle wave has progressively diminishing overtones, so the waveform is most impacted by the those closest to the fundamental. It sounds brighter and more interesting than a pure sine wave. Vocally it sounds like "aaaaaa".* '''Square wave ''' - A square wave has perfect overtones extending out to infinity with the same volume as the fundamental. As expected it sounds bright, but it doesn't sound shrill. Actually it sounds quite pleasing. Vocally it sounds like "ooooo".
== Applied to Guitar ==