Guitar strings often go “dead”?

Question

here is a paragraph

Guitar strings often go “dead”—become less responsive and bright in tone—after a few weeks of intense use. A researcher whose son is a classical guitarist hypothesized that dirt and oil, rather than changes in the material properties of the string, were responsible.

i don't understand the following

whats the meaning of "bright in tone—after" ?

whats the meaning of "hypothesized" ?

Answer 1

I think you can rewrite this sentence like this:
Guitar strings often go "dead" after a few weeks...

- become less responsive and bright in tone - is the explanation given for the term "dead" in this context, meaning that the sound goes dull.

To hypothesize is a verb which means to
1. to form a hypothesis.
2. to assume by hypothesis.
A hypothesis is
a proposition, or set of propositions, set forth as an explanation for the occurrence of some specified group of phenomena, either asserted merely as a provisional conjecture to guide investigation (working hypothesis) or accepted as highly probable in the light of established facts.

Answer 2

"become less responsive and bright in tone" is defining how they use the term "dead" here, which is why it's separated by those dashes, and they become dead after a few weeks of intesne use. Hypothesized means guessed based on evidence.

Bright in tone refers to the quality the sound of the string has when it's plucked as opposed to being muted and subdued, it's kind of bright and bouncy, the tone of the pluck itself. It's hard to describe without illustrating it, but think about it you pluck a string that's pulled really really tight or one that's a little loose with some give. There's more "ping" int he tighter string.

Hope this was helpful

Answer 3

A 'bright' tone is one that has a lot of harmonics - these are multiples of the fundamental note and change the timbre of the sound. When the string is getting older and much used, the intensity of these harmonics reduces and the notes played sound duller than when the string was new.