Question about sustain

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cellardweller

cellardweller

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How do you get a chord, once beaten, to sustain?

I'm trying to get a very simple 2 chord rhythm to sustain while the "lead" rhythm plays out. and inevitably it dies before I want it to....

Any tricks to gain sustain? Is it a matter of compression? Do I need new pickups? Crank the shit out of the amp (in which case compression may come into play)?

Guitar in question is an Ibanez RG series, with stock "V7" and "V8" at neck and bridge, respectively.
 
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some guitars sustain better than others. You can get sustain by adding more distortion or just cranking the amp. But it is most likely the guitar, assuming you aren't trying to sustain a chord for 3 minutes or something.
 
Funny you should mention..

I finallly found a sound I really liked by cutting the hell out of the distortion...

You may have missed the edit above, the guitar is an Ibanez RG series, with V7 and V8 stock pickups. New pickups, or more volume?

My guesstamation on expected/needed sustain is probably more like 3-5 seconds of usable volume.
 
As much as I dig their guitars, a lot of Ibanez stuff is a little cruddy with sustain, probably because their guitars tend to be light as hell. I blocked off my tremolo with some metal plates to throw a little more weight in the bridge and to make it stay in tune better. (who in the hell thought it was a good idea to give a 7 string a floating bridge?!) That did seem to help with the sustain a little, but yeah you're probably going to have to mess with the effects a little. You can also do a bit with your hands too--firm grib on the chord, a little vibrato, etc. Try throwing some "shake" on that chord, and see if lasts a little longer.
 
Crank the amp and get the guitar down near the cab. The sound coming from the cab will vibrate the strings (sort of like an ebow) giving you added sustain. Unfortunately this will produce alot of feedback as well from certain amp/guitar combos.
 
I had considered the "close to the cab" approach to sustain, but hadn't had opportunity yet to experiment. Also need to get my cab off of the floor, which would make this a bit more ergonomical.

What about string gauge/brand/etc.? How much does this play into sustain?
 
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What Wireneck said...

3-5 seconds shouldn't really be a problem for any guitar with a decent natural sustain. Other thing to check is to see if you can play the chords in an open position, if that fits in with the song (and if you're not already) - open strings will ring longer than fretted ones. You could even retune the guitar if you're talking a recording situation rather than a playing one.

Lots of options.
 
cellardweller said:
Also need to get my cab off of the floor, which would make this a bit more ergonomical.
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If you'r recording, your cab should be off the floor anyways (don't want direct relfections from the floor coming back at the mic....)
 
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get an older and beat up Les Paul Studio ... :D


... and a support for your lower back area ;)


they sustain like hell but weigh a ton



speaking more seriously: getting closer to the cab sounds like a good idea - just dont point the pickups directly to the cab ... so you might get better sustain w/out too much feedback

cheers
 
Doesn't having your pickups too close to the strings kill the sustain as well? I've heard this but never really tried testing it.
 
In theory

HangDawg said:
Doesn't having your pickups too close to the strings kill the sustain as well? I've heard this but never really tried testing it.
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The magnetic pull on the strings would kill it if they are too close....
 
Oh, c'mon you guys.... 12 replies and no one has mentioned a compression?

OK... I will:

Use a compressor.

Oh... here's another trick that's as old as the hills: add mass to the headstock. Clip something heavy to it, like a brass plate. You can sometimes accomplish the same thing by touching the headstock to a solid structure while you strum... a door or a desk, or your speaker cabinet.

A
 
I have an Ibanez with Floyd Rose bridge. I never use the tremolo and got sick of the detuning and the lack of sustain, so I locked the bridge with an ivory block. This did give me more sustain.

Can anyone tell me why I had to use ivory for that? My local guitarshop told me so, but they couldn't really tell why.
 
Aaron Cheney said:
Oh... here's another trick that's as old as the hills: add mass to the headstock. Clip something heavy to it, like a brass plate. You can sometimes accomplish the same thing by touching the headstock to a solid structure while you strum... a door or a desk, or your speaker cabinet.

A
Click to expand...



Myth



Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
barthoque said:
I have an Ibanez with Floyd Rose bridge. I never use the tremolo and got sick of the detuning and the lack of sustain, so I locked the bridge with an ivory block. This did give me more sustain.

Can anyone tell me why I had to use ivory for that? My local guitarshop told me so, but they couldn't really tell why.
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You did not, and in fact it is a total waste.

We use blocks of wood, usually scraps from mahogany neck blanks (we have cords of the stuff), when we are blocking trems. I mean, a block of ivory that size could be resold as nut and saddle blanks for $1000-1500, if you have a provenance for it.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
I also have the crappy floyd tremolo, fine tuners are stiff as a board which always causes me to spend forever tuning, so I took off the string locks. It doesn't stay in tune any better, but it's much easier to tune.

I also need to have my floyd blocked.

Thanks for all the replies.
 
Well it only cost me $50, maybe it's not real ivory. I guess the density of the material is important, so maybe it's just some hard plastic stuff. They told me it's ivory, but I'm easy to fool.
 
Aaron Cheney said:
Use a compressor.

A
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right on.

The guitar makes a difference, of course. As others have mentioned, driving your amp/effect over the distortion point will prolong the sustain. You just have to make sure that's the sound you want.
 
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