Sustain question

SHsu516815 · #1 03-21-2002, 10:39 PM

as some of you know, I've been trying to setup my guitar myself lately.. Jem. *

My question is.. how many seconds sustain can you get at 24th fret high E? *Low E? *What about 19th fret on G? *Just curious, caues I can't even get 4 seconds without it stopping... *

trouble311 · #2 03-22-2002, 12:03 AM

It's been said many times.....

Compression.
Vibrato.
Pickup height.

Etc etc etc.....hope that helps....experiment with any and all of the above.

SHsu516815 · #3 03-22-2002, 12:10 AM

I have experimented and that's the thing... *Vibrato maybe, but considering straight raw sound, pickup height, I think that's pretty much down pat.. * Compression,, but I want raw sound,

can anyone provide any reference numbers for me? in seconds?

thanks

kennydoe · #4 03-22-2002, 10:19 AM

Don't forget Gain, Volume, Proximity/angle of guitar in realation to the speaker, the wood your guitar & fretboard are made from, whether the string goes thru the body of the guitar or is just mounted in the bridge (like a Jem). *Also, you're more likely to get better sustain on the 5th fret than you are on the 15th, simply because there's more string there to vibrate.

Sometimes if i'm going for a 'forever' note, i'll kick open my wah and put on the bridge pickup - that helps.

Some people also have better sustain in their fingers than others - there's definitely body mechanics if you're going for natural sustain. *

Compression can only do so much and has "side-effects", such as amplifying picknoise, etc.

good luck
~K

(Edited by kennydoe at 9:22 am on Mar. 22, 2002)

nuno · #5 03-22-2002, 07:29 PM

4 secs at 24th? not bad... not bad...
well, i got about 3 secs on all of my Ibys, if this is what you want to know.

do you need endless sustain? get a Sustainer!

SHsu516815 · #6 03-22-2002, 11:23 PM

Hmm and I'm wondering something about pickups.. as I raise them they seem to tilt more... *I mean from a profile, it is more like * / *rather than __ *ya know? *Is that normal? *Why is it designed like that?

JESTER700 · #7 03-23-2002, 09:16 AM

Because they're cheap. ;-) *IMO HB pups should have 4 screws. *It's a bit more of a pain to adjust, but how often does it happen? *And you can adjust the angle then. *Schaller used to use a 4 screw design. * I dunno if they still do.

SHsu516815 · #8 03-23-2002, 05:16 PM

but.. would the angle affect the sound? *How can you adjust the angle?

JESTER700 · #9 03-23-2002, 10:36 PM

You'd use the screws to make one side higher than the other, just on the other axis. *Honestly, this isn't really a big deal, I was somewhat "just poppin' off at the mouth". *The effect has to be small, since the pickup edge will touch the string if you tilt it too much. *I think they did this as much for stability as adjustability.