Need Some Advice for sustain ideas and some questions bout P.A. Systems

[rockinangus]

Hello everyone, hope everyone had a good weekend, I was wondering if anyone has an Idea of what to get to get some good sustain for screaming leads, I used to play with to much distortion and now am not used to the cleaner sound of my Marshall TSL 100 full stack...what would you reccomend, to have some sustain, A pedal? I'm using a Digi-Tech Screamin Blues distortion pedal that gives a kick and some power but it hums and squeals when I just want sustain

Gear:
Marshall TSL 100 (fullstack at the moment)
Gibson Les Paul studio (94)
Rhandy Rhoads Jackson RR3 (what would be good pickups to use for this??, the detnators are too muddy sounding)
Fender Stratocaster

2nd question, I have a berhinger ep2500 power amp for my berhinger ep3000 mixer, which would be louder to play through? mono or stereo? the power amp is 2400 watts but still seems weird to run the power amp wide open and use the mixer and turn the volume up pretty good to get it loud? I'm running mono right now? But Would like to know which is louder?

Thanks, RockinAngus

 

[Pierre]

Re: Need Some Advice for sustain ideas and some questions bout P.A. Systems

Sustain to me comes with a decent pickup.

Action not too low, good coupling with hardware/wood, thicker strings usually help a bit. A stronger attack maybe too.
My basswood, bolt on, Floyded Strat with loads of routing done to it sustains forever.

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: Need Some Advice for sustain ideas and some questions bout P.A. Systems

Sustain = volume, and finding the right place to stand.

 

[rockinangus]

Re: Need Some Advice for sustain ideas and some questions bout P.A. Systems

What pickups would you reccomned? and whats routing?

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: Need Some Advice for sustain ideas and some questions bout P.A. Systems

By "tons of routing" he means lots of wood is removed from the guitar.

As long as it's a quality pickup, the particular model isn't all that important. The quality of the instrument itself (wood, hardware, etc) is way more improtant.

 

[Pierre]

Re: Need Some Advice for sustain ideas and some questions bout P.A. Systems

Exactly. The pickup will only transduce sound to the amp as long as the strings vibrate. THAT is sustain.

 

[rockinangus]

Re: Need Some Advice for sustain ideas and some questions bout P.A. Systems

So thicker strings? im using 10s right now for blues and rock(classic)

 

[rockinangus]

Re: Need Some Advice for sustain ideas and some questions bout P.A. Systems

My gibson seems to be fine, alot better than my strat and my jackson, and lowered the action just a bit and raised the pickup just a hair...any other suggestions for the jackson and strat( strat has 11 gauge for strings) are those compressor sustain pedals any good? and where would the be the right place to stand?

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: Need Some Advice for sustain ideas and some questions bout P.A. Systems

Compressors will help sustain, but they squash your dynamics, and increase noise. Lots of people love compressors, but I'm not one of them. It wouldn't hurt to give one a shot, though.

 

[That90'sGuy]

Re: Need Some Advice for sustain ideas and some questions bout P.A. Systems

IMO, sustain is a mix of many things. You need plenty of volume, a good guitar with the right pickups, the right positioning, the right attack on the notes, etc. When I want sustain and I want light feedback, I really try to dig into the note and some trem helps to coax it into feedback. Compressors help, but like JB_From_Hell mentioned, they can squash dynamics.

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: Need Some Advice for sustain ideas and some questions bout P.A. Systems

....and some trem helps to coax it into feedback.

Oh yeah, don't be afraid to really shake a note. Move around as well, as the "sweet spot" for every note isn't gonna be the same.

Watch some old Hendrix videos, too. If anybody can school you on getting sustain via controlled feedback, it's that guy

 

[rockinangus]

Re: Need Some Advice for sustain ideas and some questions bout P.A. Systems

Thanks Guys

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: Need Some Advice for sustain ideas and some questions bout P.A. Systems

This is probably out of the question, but hollowbody guitars are sustain monsters.

 

[rockinangus]

Re: Need Some Advice for sustain ideas and some questions bout P.A. Systems

Are you serious? haha

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: Need Some Advice for sustain ideas and some questions bout P.A. Systems

Are you serious? haha

Yeah dude, it's super easy to keep a hollow body ringing. The original reason for solid body guitars was to deaden vibration, to eliminate feedback problems.

 

[rockinangus]

Re: Need Some Advice for sustain ideas and some questions bout P.A. Systems

Wow I didnt know that

 

[rockinangus]

Re: Need Some Advice for sustain ideas and some questions bout P.A. Systems

ITs just a lil weird trying to figure out what you need to do some massive shredding, but cant do it as well sicne i got rid of my old amp and used distortion pedals while in the distortion channel to get nasty on the fretboard and just shred, Tubes seem a lil cleaner but are loud and sound great

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: Need Some Advice for sustain ideas and some questions bout P.A. Systems

Neck pickups sustain better, too.

 

[Metalman_666]

Re: Need Some Advice for sustain ideas and some questions bout P.A. Systems

Yeah dude, it's super easy to keep a hollow body ringing. The original reason for solid body guitars was to deaden vibration, to eliminate feedback problems.

I had no idea about that either, but I suppose it makes good sense. However obviously we know that there are always solid bodies that sustain for days... I think the key is having a guitar that sounds good unplugged because if it sounds good and sustains that way, you'll know that it will sustain when it's plugged into a loud amp with some gain pulsing through it.

 

[gordon_39422]

Re: Need Some Advice for sustain ideas and some questions bout P.A. Systems

For your PA questions.... it's best to get the mixer dialed in for 0 db of gain then turn you power amps up to the volume required for the setting... this offers you appropriate headroom, and room to balance each channel for the right mix..... As far as Stereo versus Mono, there are alot of factors involved in that.... We have ALWAYS preferred Stereo for the full sound effect, but we played at a club in Hattiesburg, MS and the place was laid out VERY weird... we kept getting natural reverb and delays from the building, so we dropped to MONO and that solved most of that problem.... As far as power goes, you might notice a SMALL amount of volume increase when you go mono, but not much.... You are still running 2 channels, the signals are just bridged.... When you step on the CHorus, Phaser, Delay, or any other time-based effects, Stereo just enhances that effect!

Hope this helped some...
Allen