low sustain on high frets

[Orochimaru]

I have played a Xiphos recentley and the sustain on high frets is very bad.

In this thread I want to know one thing.

Might this be because of the D Activator pickups?

SO, I want to be clear.
1. This is about the low sustain on high frets.
2. The question is whether the pickups might be the cause for losing sustain on high frets or not.

I don't want off topic comments and replies. The experiences with other guitars might be considered.

Thank you.

[Foulacy]

the answer is NO. how many threads do you need man?

[fookgub]

There's a simple way to find out if it's the pickups. Take them out and play the guitar with no pickups. See if the sustain increases. My guess is it won't.

Sustain will naturally decrease the higher up you go on the fretboard. It's just the nature of the beast. If you think the sustain is abnormally bad, look at the setup of the instrument. Make sure the frets are level and properly crowned, check the truss rod, the saddle height, and make sure the bridge doesn't have any loose or improperly seated parts. If it's a Floyd, you can try blocking the trem. That made a huge difference in one of my guitars by improving the overall feel and the sustain, but these effects were much more noticable on the lower end of the fretboard.

If all that stuff doesn't help, then you're probably SOL. Either the guitar is a design that doesn't sustain very well, or that particular instrument is just a dog. I suppose you could look at scalloping the last few frets. I don't have any direct experience with that, but my feeling is that it won't help much.

[Orochimaru]

Originally Posted by Foulacy

the answer is NO. how many threads do you need man?

Sorry man I am a bit upseting you.

I decided to make more threads to discuss every aspect in a separate thread.

This thread was about the pickups. I wanted to know if they have anything to do with the low sustain on high frets.

The first one was closed.

There is another one about other aspects in guitar that might influence that. There we discuss if scalloping and finger technique can help that.

If you have a better idea let me know I am ready to listn to you. I agree sometimes I do the wrong choice and sometimes I need help to fing the right way to speak my mind.

Thank You.

[Foulacy]

alright i'm sorry. it's probably not the pickups. if you want to test it, you don't even have to remove them, just screw them all the way down and see. i have never heard of pickups reducing sustain, only of them causing weird vibrations in the string which can definitely happen.

[Orochimaru]

Originally Posted by Foulacy

alright i'm sorry. it's probably not the pickups. if you want to test it, you don't even have to remove them, just screw them all the way down and see. i have never heard of pickups reducing sustain, only of them causing weird vibrations in the string which can definitely happen.

I adjusted the pups a bit and it seemed to me like the sustain improved a bit. Maybe it's just my impression. Anyway the sound changes a bit when you screw the pups up or down and this was interesting to me.

Thanks man.

[socratys]

You can easily hear when pickups kill sustain. Load the sound up with heavy distortion and whatever. If its the pickups the sustain should decay slowly and then die suddenly due to the pull of the pickup having more influence over the string vibration.

If thats not happening, thens its just natural decay.

Low frequency waves decay slowly, high frequency waves lose their energy much quicker. I believe this is all you are experiencing.

If you want to improve the sustain? simple, get a sustainer. Thats what they're for.

[Orochimaru]

Originally Posted by socratys

You can easily hear when pickups kill sustain. Load the sound up with heavy distortion and whatever. If its the pickups the sustain should decay slowly and then die suddenly due to the pull of the pickup having more influence over the string vibration.

If thats not happening, thens its just natural decay.

Low frequency waves decay slowly, high frequency waves lose their energy much quicker. I believe this is all you are experiencing.

If you want to improve the sustain? simple, get a sustainer. Thats what they're for.

You posted a very usefull reply. The experiment you proposed was really useful to me.

Thank you.

P.S. I don't like sustainers like Fernandes or stuff like that. I want some kind of a natural sustain.