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How to get a very long sustain


grom68
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The amount of gain will always be a factor, and a compressor can add some sustain too, but much of it boils down to the guitar... some ring forever, some don't, and other gear can only do so much. Exactly where you play the note on the fretboard will factor in as well. If possible, try playing that note on a lower string, farther up on the neck. Strings with more mass will vibrate longer. 

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If you're at the limits of your technique, guitar, boosted gain, etc., one trick that might work for you is adding the auto volume echo legacy effect. Put it before the amp, with time, feedback, and depth all at minimum. Swell controls the amount of time it takes for the volume increase to occur. Mix at 100%. This can allow you to continuously strike a note while hiding the initial attack quite well, creating a mostly seamless, continuous note with potentially infinite sustain.

 

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31 minutes ago, cruisinon2 said:

The amount of gain will always be a factor, and a compressor can add some sustain too, but much of it boils down to the guitar... some ring forever, some don't, and other gear can only do so much. Exactly where you play the note on the fretboard will factor in as well. If possible, try playing that note on a lower string, farther up on the neck. Strings with more mass will vibrate longer. 

 

 

This, neck-thru, or set-necks have more sustain (generally speaking) than bolt on.

 

Check your pick up height as well. Closer to the strings can lend more vol on attack, but moving them a little further away from the strings can increase sustain. This is due to the magnetic pull from the pickups on the metal strings.

 

You can also get things like E-bow or other electronic "picks" to do something similar. Then there are the sustainiac pickup systems.

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Want sustain? Check out David Gilmours stuff, and Google write-ups on his setup. On an Island has some great solos too. A lot boils down to compression, guitar setup, where in the fret space is your finger, very slight vibrato, etc... He gets fantastic sustain without being over the top on his gain. And with bolt on necks btw ;)

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I came across this not too long ago.

 

https://www.sweetwater.com/insync/secrets-sustain-pickup-position-matters/

 

Figure it would be some interesting reading for the OP.

 

Also yeah David Gilmour is a great example. I have always loved the tone, and sustain of the guitar in the solo of Another Brick in the Wall pt2. (studio album version)

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6 hours ago, datacommando said:

All of the above suggestions are worth a shot, but for that solo, Steve Hackett actually used a Fernandes sustainer system.

Uhhh - gonna need some documentation on that one.  "Selling England" was released in 1973, and Feranades' own website implies that the Sustainer was developed in the '90's, which jibes with my memory of first seeing it on the market.  Heck, Fernandes didn't start until '69. Quite willing to be wrong, but in '73 the tech on the Sustainer board (I have a Ravel w/Sustainer) pretty much didn't exist, at least in such a compact form.  That's not to say Hackett isn't using one now, in one of his current projects.

 

To the OP - the one thing I haven't seen anyone mention above is good old fashioned feedback - speaker-to-string excitation.  It's not necessarily all about volume alone, placement of yourself in relationship to the speakers can allow reliable feedback at quite realistic levels.  Personally I run a couple Altos on the floor in front of me, monitor style - and I knew I'd made the right choice in Helix the first time I bashed out a clean chord (Matchless clean) at fairly modest volume and notes started to bloom.  Joygasm!

 

Before all the tech advances - I was setting up at a gig back in the... late 70's, I think (been doing this for awhile) and someone from another band noticed me on stage, measuring distances from my speaker and placing little tape marks on the floor.  He kinda chuckled at me - but quit laughing when, time after time, I'd hit a given note and have it hold forever.  It's not magic or mojo - its physics.  Find where the nodes for a given note are, and be there.  I'm only so-so as a player, but I can make a note hold purt' near forever...

 

 

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2 hours ago, ricstudioc said:

Uhhh - gonna need some documentation on that one.  "Selling England" was released in 1973, and Feranades' own website implies that the Sustainer was developed in the '90's, which jibes with my memory of first seeing it on the market.  Heck, Fernandes didn't start until '69. Quite willing to be wrong, but in '73 the tech on the Sustainer board (I have a Ravel w/Sustainer) pretty much didn't exist, at least in such a compact form.  That's not to say Hackett isn't using one now, in one of his current projects.

 

Oops!

Retract that!

My mistake - Steve Hackett currently uses Fernandes.

I was lead to believe the wrong information that I repeated here in my earlier post!

Steve Hackett’s official web site clearly states that the guitar on that album was a 1957 Les Paul Goldtop.

 

Thanks for pointing out my error.

It’s only Tuesday - but it’s already been “one of those weeks”.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I didn't see it mentioned, so I thought I'd throw this out there, the Helix has a dedicated sustainer. It's the Boss CS-1 (compressor/sustainer), it's in the legacy effects under the name Blue Comp. It's easy to use as it only has two knobs (sustain and level). I used to utilize this effect from time to time when I recorded with my Pod XT. It will increase sustain whether the tone is clean or dirty.

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