sustain

  • Thread starter Thread starter tc4b
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tc4b

tc4b

Yeah I been drinkin, SO!?
I'm having sustain problems on my high E string. The rest of the guitar is awesome, I love it (Guild S70A-D). It works for everything I want to do, which covers a WIDE rantge of styles. I never cared too much about this problem (notes on the high e string die out quickly), because I was never enough of a guitar player to lose sleep over it. Now I'm better at guitar and play it more, and I'm trying to solve the problem. So far, I have raised the action and bought heavier strings (d'addario exl110w with a wound 3rd). I like playing it better now but I still have the sustain problem, only with that one string. I hate to replace the guitar, I love it, is there anything else I can do to it? Thanks for any help.
 
Not familiar with that model...tried to google it, no pics. If it's an electric, if you can adjust the pole pieces on your pickups it might help. What types of saddles are the strings sitting on? Something made of more dense material under that one string might help as well.
 
tc4b said:
I'm having sustain problems on my high E string. The rest of the guitar is awesome, I love it (Guild S70A-D). It works for everything I want to do, which covers a WIDE rantge of styles. I never cared too much about this problem (notes on the high e string die out quickly), because I was never enough of a guitar player to lose sleep over it. Now I'm better at guitar and play it more, and I'm trying to solve the problem. So far, I have raised the action and bought heavier strings (d'addario exl110w with a wound 3rd). I like playing it better now but I still have the sustain problem, only with that one string. I hate to replace the guitar, I love it, is there anything else I can do to it? Thanks for any help.
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If you listen carefully, do you hear a little "warbling" overtone on the string as it decays? If so, your pickup(s) is/are too close to the strings. That can kill sustain, and the high E string will be the most affected, especially if you use light guage strings. Another thing that can cause this is if the slot in the nut is cut too wide for the string; if the string has "wiggle room", that can suck the energy out of its vibration.
 
If it buzzes acoustically, it could very well be a problem with the way the nut is cut. Might be its cut too deeply towards the fretboard, or too wide...if so a new nut may solve it easily. Check with a good tech, bet it'll get straightened out.
 
Pretty hard to diagnose this problem without seeing the guitar but two common problems with that guitar are pickups that are too high or poorly slotted saddles. A poorly slotted nut could cause problems with the note choking off but only on open strings.

Single coil pickups have a much stronger magnetic pull than humbuckers and if set too high will cause 'wolftones' and/or lack of sustain. Fret the string at the last fret and measure the distance between the top of the pole piece an the bottom of the string. Should be about 3/32" for the high E and about 1/8" for the low E. Good luck.
 
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