How to Improve Sustain in SG?

[JohnnyGuitar]

Re: How to Improve Sustain in SG?

^^ Yeah, putting in heavier tuners on an SG does run a risk of compounding a balance problem that may or may not already exist.

Just thinking out loud here - if heavier tuners increase sustain - wouldn't a heavier tailpiece do the same? like the Vibrola for example? you don't have to use the vibrato though...


BTW,
I've done a few changes to my Strat when I've changed the pickups so I'm not sure what is exactly responsible for the increased sustain but it sustains A LOT right now. I don't even care what was the change that's responsible for it...
I took it to a good tech who made a setup, raised the string gauge to 10's (it had skinny 9s on it), and change the nut to the Allparts grphite nut (it's not even 100% graphite IMO).


The result amazes me every time I plug in...

 

[Mark Cearlock]

Re: How to Improve Sustain in SG?

Wear a schoolboy outfit.



(sorry)

+1 :lmao:

 

[sosomething]

Re: How to Improve Sustain in SG?

Just thinking out loud here - if heavier tuners increase sustain - wouldn't a heavier tailpiece do the same? like the Vibrola for example? you don't have to use the vibrato though...


BTW,
I've done a few changes to my Strat when I've changed the pickups so I'm not sure what is exactly responsible for the increased sustain but it sustains A LOT right now. I don't even care what was the change that's responsible for it...
I took it to a good tech who made a setup, raised the string gauge to 10's (it had skinny 9s on it), and change the nut to the Allparts grphite nut (it's not even 100% graphite IMO).


The result amazes me every time I plug in...

Quoted from post #2:

Well, outside of the obvious maintenance-type things you can do like ensuring that the string isn't fretting out during note decay, and that your saddle and nut grooves are cut smoothly, I'd say your answer is mass.

Adding the Bigsby/Vibramate rig to my Classic did more for the tone of the guitar than even the added utility of vibrato.

 

[uOpt]

Re: How to Improve Sustain in SG?

Just thinking out loud here - if heavier tuners increase sustain - wouldn't a heavier tailpiece do the same? like the Vibrola for example? you don't have to use the vibrato though...

I don't think so. I have A/Bed different weight tuners and there is a small difference in sound. Since the heavier tuners make the guitar sound more muffled they appear to cause longer sustain since the brighter overtones decay faster. Of course that makes it not real.

Same goes for that Dunlop sustainer thing.

A lighter tailpiece makes the guitar brighter (much larger difference than with the tuners). I felt that it makes the neck pickup of a LP sound more pleasing, lifting it out of the mud, but that it generally "un-les-paulish" and I couldn't get it out fast enough. I haven't tried it in my SG because I felt that the SG is already bright enough on the neck pickup and that I would probably create a hole in the bridge pickup's sound.

Either way, both of these things can be used to try to fix "dead spots", which are tones that hit resonance frequencies of the guitar and get eaten. But it isn't entirely trivial to find out whether what is going on here is dead spot syndrome or something else.

I would start with different strings and a more forceful angle on the nut like Jeremy described (just put on a lot of winds on the tuner to get the string way down).

Also, trying a different TOM, or just turning the old one around, is a quick thing to try to isolate the problem.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: How to Improve Sustain in SG?

I dunno if I agree with that or not.

Lighter tuners (like Klusons) and an aluminum stop tailpiece give my electric guitars a more acoustic quality with more "breath" to the tone.

But heavier tuners (like Grover Roto-Matics) seem to give the guitar a little more focus and increase the sustain slightly.

Locking bridges and locking non-aluminum tailpieces, like the TonePros stuff, do seem to give the guitar a thicker, more solid and deeper tone with slightly more sustain but the downside is less of the acoustic quality I love and less "breath".

That's my impression. It's impossible to A/B such a thing on the same guitar in real time though. By the time you make the changes, to much time has passed to remember exactly what it sounded like before making the change.

I guess recording the same guitar before and after both would be possible, but I'm not sure that would really give the answer.

For me, it's a feel thing. Does the guitar feel better or not? Does it make me want to play it more and does it inspire me more or not?

That's what's most important to me: do the changes result in a guitar that makes me pick it up more often and play? Does the guitar now inspire me more or inspire me less?

 

[Bludave]

Re: How to Improve Sustain in SG?

Raise the action up a bit.

 

[Christopher Caruana]

Re: How to Improve Sustain in SG?

Raise the action up a bit.

+1
give those strings room to vibrate!

 

[blueman335]

Re: How to Improve Sustain in SG?

+1
give those strings room to vibrate!

+1. Don't let those vibrating strings be too close to the frets.