Who first popularised artificial harmonics?

[unknownguitarplayer]

Earl Klugh played the hell out of artificial harmonics.

[RJVB]

fernando sor describes it in detail in his method for the spanish guitar, first published in 1830.

francisco tarrega wrote pieces with extensive use of the technique in the late 19th C.

And you'll probably find examples of it in violin literature from even earlier.

So the answer is "it depends" - on whether you have a specific instrument in mind, and exactly what you mean by popularisation...

If "making popular among the population (audience)" then it could well be Paganini who IIRC wrote whole passages using the technique (and basically only wrote crowd-pleasers IMHO)

[Doctor Jeff]

I sorta understand the physics behind harmonics. Sorta.

But why are they "artificial"? You're changing the nodal points by changing the string length, i.e., more or less moving the nut up the neck. Harmonics are harmonics.

[AndyV]

why are they "artificial"?

My best guess is that a string, attached on each end (bridge & nut) has fixed nodal points ... 4th, 5th, 7th frets being the loudest. Placing nodes on the strings at different points along the string with the note pressed to the fingerboard would then be artificial as they are in different places than the "natural" nodes and require this extra step on pressing the string down..

[KRosser]

I don't want to hijack this thread, but where would one find recordings of Wes unaccompanied?

There are two:

"Mi Cosa", from Guitar On The Go, and "While We're Young" from So Much Guitar, both from the Riverside/Fantasy years

[GuyBoden]

fernando sor describes it in detail in his method for the spanish guitar, first published in 1830.

francisco tarrega wrote pieces with extensive use of the technique in the late 19th C.

Yes, I saw Julian Bream playing these classical guitar pieces with artificial harmonics on TV in the 1970's.

[reventlov]

It's been mentioned a few times on the thread already so - here it is -

[jaco1]

...seems to be the tricky part of the question. I first heard this style outside of classical playing on Larry Coryell's recordings, and he remains one of the few players using AH tastefully (imho). Larry freely admits copping it from old Lenny Breau albums, specifically his first official album produced by Chet: "Guitar Sounds from Lenny Breau", which is still my favorite.

In fact there is an interesting documentary up on the 'tube which was done during the recording of that disc:

FYI

Whyn I studied with Larry and asked about his use of artificial harmonics he replied "I'm going to show you what Lenny Brea showed me. They were friends and had gigged together in Nashville.