sustain / resonance problem

ganzosrevenge

ganzosrevenge

New member
Ok, so maybe I overdid the mods on my stratocaster....

I was playing my stratocaster acoustically and after setup and intonation and tuning, I could hold a note acoustically for about 15 seconds and it would ring audibly. Yesterday I get my amp (a vox ac4tv), and set it up so that it's right where one gets a "Heavy blues" sound. Anyway, I was sitting and playing and I wanted to hold a chord out, and it just kept ringing, and ringing, and ringing. Figuring something was up with the amp, I hit the strings to stop the vibration, and the amp went quiet... (no strings vibrating = no sound). However now I have sort of a natural "sustainiac" effect where notes when they bloom just keep going, and going, and electrically can hold for over a minute.

What should I do to reduce the sustain so it's controllable? (It's not making pinch harmonics, it's just holding the initial note for an insanely long time)

Jason
 
Re: sustain / resonance problem

Ganzosrevenge's "Creature" is modded like this: (To give an idea what's living in it)
Body and neck: Stock Fender American Special FSR Mahogany Stratocaster HSS with a "A" flame maple neck with a Deepish C shape, rosewood board, 22 medium-jumbo frets, contoured heel and a 9.5" radius.

Mods:

  • Pickups: Seymour Duncan
    • Neck: Seymour Duncan SSL-1 rwrp
    • Middle: Seymour Duncan SSL-1
    • Bridge: Seymour Duncan Brobucker overwound to 11k
  • Potentiometers: RSGuitarworks Custom Kit
    • Volume: 280k RSGuitarworks / CTS superpot (readout: 300k)
    • Tone 1: 250k RSGuitarworks / CTS pot (wired to neck and middle SSL-1s)
    • Tone 2: 500k RSGuitarworks / CTS pot (wired to brobucker)
  • Capacitors: LuxeRadio Vintage Reissues
    • Tone 1: Luxe 1957-1958 Phonebook .1uf/150v capacitor wired to tone control #1, controls neck and middle SSL-1
    • Tone 2: Luxe 1956 – 1960 “Bumblebee” .022uf / 400v PIO capacitor wired to tone control #2, controls Brobucker in bridge position
  • Switching: 5-way Lonestar Switching with AutoSplit in position 4
    • Position 1: Neck SSL-1rwrp (wired to tone control #1)
    • Position 2: Neck SSL-1rwrp in parallel with middle SSL-1 (wired to tone control #1)
    • Position 3: Middle SSL-1 (wired to tone control #1)
    • Position 4: Middle SSL-1 wired in parallel to inside coil of Brobucker in bridge (SSL-1 wired to tone control #1, Brobucker wired to tone control #2)
    • Position 5: Full Brobucker in bridge position in Series (wired to tone control #2)
    • Switch: Fender / CRL 5-way superswitch
  • Bridge:
    • Block: Premium Callaham American Series Block made from Cold-Rolled UNS 1018 to match 1950s Stratocaster Specifications
    • Saddles: Callaham Hardened Steel saddles for American Series / American Deluxe Stratocaster with elongated string openings for reduced breakover angle
    • 5 American Series Springs to Stratocaster Claw, with claw clamped down
  • Neck: Screw upgrade Kit by Onyx Forge Guitars
    • 4x 10-32 thread, 18-8 stainless steel machine screws
    • 4x Stainless steel inserts for 10-32 thread machine screws
  • Miscellany:
    • AcmeGuitarWorks Solderless connector kit for hot wire, output wire, and ground wire, soldered to Volume Pot
    • Grounding wire connecting all 3 potentiometers together for further hum-reduction
(ya think I overdid it? :scratchch)
 
Last edited:
Re: sustain / resonance problem

holy crap dude. thats a lot of upgrades. what kind of strat did you start with in the 1st place?
 
Re: sustain / resonance problem

interesting. sounds like you have one real gem of a guitar on your hands now.
 
Re: sustain / resonance problem

scottish said:
interesting. sounds like you have one real gem of a guitar on your hands now.
Click to expand...

So I should just learn to better control the volume and palming too? The entire guitar vibrates in unison when you play a note and hold it, and notes have the tendency after the initial pluck to bloom, become full, and just ring. I'm going to hope it's just everything is super-tight and there isn't any structural damage to the guitar. I wanted to have gobs of sustain and tone by not having super high gain everything, but by minimizing the loss of vibrations and by minimizing the loss of signal that the pups, caps, and pots combine to make. I think I overdid it.

(The 11k bro does give that nice "angus in a box" sound though)
 
Re: sustain / resonance problem

there is something seriously wrong with your guitar. you should sell it to me at cost to recoup your losses. :fingersx:
 
Last edited:
Re: sustain / resonance problem

YOu know I had a similar thing where I had finished played an set my guitar next to the amp leaning slightly on it (small home practice one) and all of the sudden the A starts rumbling and makes this huge A sound that doesn't stop until I unplug it.
 
Re: sustain / resonance problem

You're complaining about this? Dang! Why don't you just mail me the guitar and forget this ever happened... I like sustain, bloom, and resonance. A lot. I think you should refine your right hand damping/palm muting technique so you can control open notes, then rock that thing.

In my experience, structural issues if anything result in reduced sustain due to them robbing or not transmitting vibration. I would speculate it's the combination of good neck and body wood, the thicker neck, tighter neck joint, callaham block, action, strings, and the sensitivity of the brobucker through high quality components. I would also guess the guitar is somewhat lightweight -- I played a Warmoth hollowed strat and it did much the same thing due to the body responding to the amp even at conversation levels.

I think you went about right for the upgrades... all you did was put some decent pickups in, replace the electronics with good stuff, swap the trem to it should have come with, and tighten up the neck joint. I personally would have replaced the tuners with lighter vintage style units as well, not sure how that would affect your sustain but I think it would reduce it a little unless you're standing in front of an amp -- I've found headstock weight is a serious factor in amp-based sustain as it hangs out on the end of a flexible neck and picks up vibrations in the air.
 
Re: sustain / resonance problem

El CHupacabra said:
YOu know I had a similar thing where I had finished played an set my guitar next to the amp leaning slightly on it (small home practice one) and all of the sudden the A starts rumbling and makes this huge A sound that doesn't stop until I unplug it.
Click to expand...

It's about 8 to 10 feet away from the amplifier... unless there's a monster magnet i don't know of.

ParameterMan said:
You're complaining about this? Dang! Why don't you just mail me the guitar and forget this ever happened... I like sustain, bloom, and resonance. A lot. I think you should refine your right hand damping/palm muting technique so you can control open notes, then rock that thing.

In my experience, structural issues if anything result in reduced sustain due to them robbing or not transmitting vibration. I would speculate it's the combination of good neck and body wood, the thicker neck, tighter neck joint, callaham block, action, strings, and the sensitivity of the brobucker through high quality components. I would also guess the guitar is somewhat lightweight -- I played a Warmoth hollowed strat and it did much the same thing due to the body responding to the amp even at conversation levels.

I think you went about right for the upgrades... all you did was put some decent pickups in, replace the electronics with good stuff, swap the trem to it should have come with, and tighten up the neck joint. I personally would have replaced the tuners with lighter vintage style units as well, not sure how that would affect your sustain but I think it would reduce it a little unless you're standing in front of an amp -- I've found headstock weight is a serious factor in amp-based sustain as it hangs out on the end of a flexible neck and picks up vibrations in the air.
Click to expand...

Specs:

  • Guitar weighs 10 lbs 5 oz (So it's a heavy strat)
  • Aforementioned mods
  • 2 piece, centerseamed mahogany body (FSR Fender, bookmatched too)
  • The Ping / Fender Locking Tuners (Garbage, will replace with schallers at some point)
  • Neck Thickness: 0.86" at the nut, 0.95" at the heel, with LSR nut
Upcoming Ideas:

I set out to try and correct as many of the places that tone and sustain would un-necessarily get sucked out and use that to help others. Ultimately I think I overdid it, but this is version 1.0: the idea to get a crudish electric guitar with rudimentary materials to play and sound better. (which with my luck will result in me finding a passive sustainiac effect...)

But back on topic, rolling down the volume below "5" on the guitar and 12 o'clock on the amp seems to help a bit, but nonetheless there's less that can be done about a guitar's natural resonant tendency. I will say that a few days ago the neck finally settled into the guitar and playability has MUCH improved. (I guess this is the beginning of where the wood starts realizing its no longer a tree.)

So by and large I did the project of taking the weakspots out more or less correct, and just wasn't prepared for the results / improvement?

Jason
 
Re: sustain / resonance problem

i try and make all my guitars do what you are worried about trying to "fix" sounds like a good guitar to me.
 
Re: sustain / resonance problem

Well, I personally think you're on the right track and didn't overdo it at all. I'm actually in the process of trying to assemble a strat that's very similar to what you ended up with. I'll probably end up with lighter Kluson style tuners and 3 singles, but I'd take this guitar any day you choose to give it to me.(hint, hint) I was even considering going with a mahogany body and every time you post pics of this thing it makes me more inclined.
 
Re: sustain / resonance problem

ParameterMan said:
Well, I personally think you're on the right track and didn't overdo it at all. I'm actually in the process of trying to assemble a strat that's very similar to what you ended up with. I'll probably end up with lighter Kluson style tuners and 3 singles, but I'd take this guitar any day you choose to give it to me.(hint, hint) I was even considering going with a mahogany body and every time you post pics of this thing it makes me more inclined.
Click to expand...

Thanks! Mahogany is nice because you don't get as much "highs", so you can get away with slightly brighter pickups... however as it doesn't have as many highs, you can't have as heavy a capacitor to cut further highs, or use pickups that have a LOT of low-end. What I find works best is just using quality parts that are designed to maximize the flow of current, and are designed as robustly as is affordable. What compelled me to work on this strat was it was a gift, so even though realistically speaking a squier or MIM strat would have been smarter financially, if someone says "congrats on being employee of the year, here's a new american deluxe strat"... free american deluxe / american special is better than a $200 squier or used MIM strat... better starting architecture in woods, shielding, neck to body tightness, etc. One oddball quirk about Fender is when they make an FSR (such as the mahogany American Special Pictured), it tends to be a piece of near-custom shop to custom shop quality, or at the very least 1 to 2 steps higher than the more "mainstream" variants... the mahogany one is FSR.

I've noticed turning the volume down helps, but when I have the volume on the amp past 12:00 and the gain past 10:00, or even 9:30... welcome to sustain city, I'll work on palm mutes, but otherwise I'm going to stick it out and try and find even better parts as I can source, (and afford) them.

FSR = Factory Special Run... usually of at least 250 of a certain model for a store or group of stores that cooperate.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Artie
The Dick Dale guitar.
Replies
8
Views
155
Artie
Artie
D
Question about shielding
Replies
11
Views
592
bluesky636
B
D
Do you prefer locked or standard tuners?
2
Replies
28
Views
1K
Mincer
Mincer
idsnowdog
Mustang Coming Soon
Replies
3
Views
473
Artie
Artie
FuseG4
Npd: two in one ambient reverb
Replies
3
Views
299
Sam SG
S
Back
Top