The Lie We All Believe About Sustain
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- Опубликовано: 10 мар 2022
- When it comes to the never ending debate about tone wood, and its effect on a guitar's sound, sustain is almost always brought up as a sign of a great guitar. But in my mind I don't think a guitar's natural sustain is all that important, heres why.
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Видеоклипы
![Six Secrets Of Sustain For Electric Guitar [And Quite A Bit On Feedback Too] - That Pedal Show](/img/1.gif)
Rhett: "Sustain doesn't matter."
Also Rhett: Sustains a successful career in music, a healthy and vibrant youtube community, multiple adult friendships and a loving marriage at the same time.
😁 I see what you did there.
Hahah your username rings true, and it sustains for days.
heckin hypnocrite
Some sort of philosophical mathematics you just did there
Somewhere out there, Davie504 just uttered, "CHECKMATE!"
Don’t forget volume. Playing in front of a full stack up loud, even if clean will resonate the body and add tons of sustain. Add gain and it can be like sustainer pickup. The more the body resonates, the stronger the sustain gets and the more harmonic it gets as well.
I like it when it resonates not just the guitar body but MY whole body as well, but... now I'm older and the tinnitus is there in the background, plus stages are getting super quiet these days (except for drummers who are never quiet) I can't enjoy stupidly wonderful loud amps the way I could way back in my youth. Kinda miss that but also need my ears to keep working - sucks.
@@martin-1965 Thankfully many clubs that have metal bands play still let you get away with a full stack. I’m 48 and thankfully I learned early on to get the largest practice space possible and never set up near the drummer those cymbals are what kill your hearing and my ears are pretty decent still.
@@louderthangod Yeah it was the hihats and cymbals that took out the frequencies in the right ear in my case, which was the side facing the drummer. But back in the 80s and 90s we didn't know or more to the point, didn't care. Sadly my singer from back then was a maniac and he's ended up almost completely deaf so I'll consider a light whistling noise in my ears as a warning shot in comparison. Still miss playing that loud though :)
that is feedback, not sustain
Feedback is when a systems input picks up it's own out output. Ie the guitars pickup picks up the speaker. He is talking about the strings, wood, etc actually vibrating in response to the volume. That is a separate thing and a definite contributing factor to actual sustain.
There's a video interview with Stephen Stills & Neil Young from ages ago in which the interviewer expressed astonishment at their learning curve relative to their second album differing so greatly from their first. What would you say was the most important thing you had learned, he asked? They answered simultaneously with one word: "Compression!"
Want to see this!
That's awesome. I love what compression and EQ alone (and reverb of course) do to a clean guitar sound, it's like it makes the guitar sound "more natural" than natural, if that's possible.
I actually recently had to do some work to get *less* sustain on my 335. Every note was just too bright and long lived--I wanted to get more of a woodier, thuddier sound with a faster decay and, with flatwound 11s, I got it. And I love how it sounds. I could see myself even switching to a wooden bridge, but I've got everything dialed in so tight with intonation and everything, it's pretty much perfect for me right now.
Hey Rhett, your videos are the best! There's no fancy video editing, no bullshit. Relevant issues, great information for guitarists of all levels, and I can tell you are a real humble guy. You want to give back. I've learned so much from you. Thank you. Vin
Rhett, I found a partscaster that blew my mind the way it vibrated and sounded. That feeling hasn't worn off & I play it as often as I can.
I was thinking for sure when that sound started, “oh, this is the plus pedal.” Was right. Very nice
Wow, phenomenal summation of guitar construction and how it effects the player. I really appreciate your pragmatic approach.
Rhett, this is such a good video. The guitar is a conduit for the player to get “their sound” across to the listener. This is why so many different players love so many different types of guitars, amps, pedals, pickups etc. the true value of a guitar is in how it makes the player feel. As you say, “if you think it sounds good, then it is good”.
Haha, that intro!! I love that you are always able to keep an open mind Rhett. We guitar players all need to try to do that! I think also as an audience member at a live show the appearance of a guitar makes a big difference in how you hear it.
Everytime you re making your point very well. You can use the words very well and giving lots of good information as well. Thats why im clicking on your videos even if the topic is not always what i search for . Congrats
Oh I loved your explanation of "resonance". Thats exactly what I am thinking about my '68 SG Special.
Thanks Rhett, you’ve made me feel better in the knowledge that my guitar is merely an extension of the music that is inside of me and with all the components needed to give the electric guitar my voice through my fingers! 🤘🏻
Sustain is very cool for compositions I like to play and think up, so this is quite an interesting analysis as always man. Cheers!
Great points made, Rhett!! Since I build electrics, I would say that all the elements that go into a guitar make the guitar what it is. I also agree with the points you made and the use of true science to back up your points. Thank you for this!!
"Instruments are not just tools for making sound. They are more so designed for the instrumentalist to interactive with." Fantastic way to define the purpose of an instrument. I'm primarily a bass player and my custom shop Fender P bass sounds and looks fantastic, but feels terrible. The feel is opposite of what I hear and therefore uninspiring. Meanwhile my Fender American Elite Jazz sounds amazing, but also feels great and is a match between what I feel and what I hear. Great topic of discussion!
watch mojo shop guitar ,and learn how to fix that bass
Amen! It all has an impact, but it’s the player.
How you feel playing a tone will only inspire as long as you don’t start comparing yourself to others.
Thanks for this video. I ran one of your SG videos thru my sound system, that thing SINGS. I am sure youtube compresses the signal , even so .....magic. Big up.
My favorite guitars have also been the relatively lightweight, resonant, and loud when unplugged types. My Gibson Gothic Flying V, Billy Corgan Signature Strat, and my newly acquired Squier Classic Vibe 50s Telecaster come to mind.
This was a great video Rhett. Definitely one of my favorites
Man... you Nailed it... what a video... your take on this conondrum syndrom where nothing really is important about how we feel about what we play... man... spot on... thanks for keeping the inspiration coming... 😎😎👏👏🔊🔊🎸🎸🎸🤟🤟😃😃🙏🙏
Love this video! Don't fantasize and debate about dream gear's sustain, start playing what you have and figure it out for yourself!
A thing worth mentioning is how the current aggressive use of noise gates is a sure fire sustain killer. I find this to be the case on most modelers... a majority of the stock patches have such aggressive noise gating on them that it kills off the beautiful tails of most notes. Turning those blocks off and doing nothing else will give you miles of sustain! Or at least turn down the sensitivity so you can hold a longer note. After that... every guitar has a volume knob, btw... just sayin.
This is exactly what people need to hear! Great job.
You make great points here. Cheers from another 65 sg junior owner.
That intro got me. Well done.
Really enjoyable and informative. Thank you Rhett.
You make a great point about the way a guitar vibrates and feels while playing being important, I had a guitar that really resonated and I found it so distracting I had to get rid of it even though I loved the way it sounded. I took it back down to the shop I got it from and traded it back in for another identical guitar that didn't resonate the same way while being played.
Both guitars were 1997 BC rich Warlocks, both were brand new, and both were set up by the same man to my specifications, Both sounded identical, but one had a tactile resonance that I found distracting and the other didn't.
Amazing video as always!
Nice exploration on the question of what makes a guitar good.
Rhett great video and I totally get what your saying about the vintage guitar being reflective. I recently had that same experience. Picked up a 335 Jim James and was a little upset that it didn’t give me that reflective feeling. It was almost too compressed. However a pickup height adjustment fixed that for me. Not I feel like it’s giving me back what I put in it
Really good vid Rhett and early P90 SGs are brilliant at bringing out the best in the player in my experience for the reasons you explain.
Love the look of your SG Junior, especially its perfectly formed pickguard
When this video first started who else was ready to cancel their subscription to this channel when he was trying to claim that was natural sustain!! Lol then he showed that pedal & i thought thank god, Rhett hasn't lost his mind!
I love your sneaky sense of humor man I cracked up in the first 10 seconds of this vid🤣
You said that so well. Oh, and that jnr looks fantastic !
In my opinion a good electric guitar needs to have some decent sustain. I like when I (and not the guitar) get to decide when to end a note. Adding drive or compression can be limiting, because it raises the noise floor and decreases dynamics.
Great video Rhett. Your point about resonance is spot on. Some guitars, for lack of a better term, actually feel alive when they are played. The same model sitting next to may not. The same goes for tube amplifiers. The comfortability factor is also huge and an element people often overlook and should be the primary consideration for new guitarists. A $3000.00 Les Paul that hangs on the wall because it's 12 lbs of back ache is not a great guitar. It's wall art. These factors often manifest subliminally. I have a collection of guitars to pick off the wall to play including Strats, Jaguar, Surfcasters, Les Paul copy, Schecter, Jacksons etc but one day I noticed that the guitar I always picked off the wall to play, especially during free time creative noodling, was a custom 3/4 size semi acoustic Surfcaster. When I analyzed why it became clear it was because it was the most comfortable to play in any position. It also sang under the fingers, but so did most of the rest also.
Excellent wisdom is growing through new thought experience
One of the pitfalls of lots of criticisms/videos is crapping all over an idea and leaving it at that. I love that most of your videos present an alternative concept to latch onto versus the misconception you're discussing. It reminds me of the "consider the following" segment from the Bill Nye videos I watched in school as a kid. Thanks for keeping up with the great content.
Regarding resonance, I had an eye opening experience years ago with Bass. I had a cheap 70's Epiphone Newport for my first bass (the ET-288N, an entry level import, not one of the sought after 60's Newports), and I never really thought about resonance since it was my first bass. I just thought mine was typical of how basses are in general. But then I bought a modern Schecter thinking it would be a big upgrade. It arrived and one of the first things I noticed about it was if I played it unplugged, I couldn't hear anything. I literally had to stick my ear right over the strings to hear them and there was barely a whisper of sound coming off them. Then plugged in, I found it didn't have nearly the the amount of rich, deep bass and mids as my other one, even though it had an *active EQ*! That was what really got me - active EQ, and even cranking the bass knob, it couldn't compete with my old passive Epiphone. I played a couple of shows with it because it was pretty, but then sold it to a co-worker without a second thought or any regrets.
Good stuff, brother… very well done 👍🏻
I agree with your thoughts. To me an important part of why I pick a guitar is the kinesthetic experience when striking the strings. My favorite is a Fender Mahogany Blacktop Stratocaster HHH. The body resonates when I play it and I feel the Mahogany vibrate against me. As you say that feedback loop.
I always enjoy your thoughtful dialogue.
Hey love your videos! I would say that a lot of folks use "lack of sustain" as a way of communicating not so well made instruments. I remember the first electric guitar I ever had. It had a dead spot at the 11th fret - no sustain. Literally like half a second. I have no clue why. It didn't matter if I put on compression or cranked the gain. To me and my fellow guitarists, that guitar had a "sustain issue".
Sounds like it had a fret sticking up slightly that was deadening the sound.
Well said 👏 I’m shopping for a new main guitar now that I’m playing out every weekend, and the guitar I was gonna get had a huge price hike recently (heritage H535). But this video has inspired me to just go out and try a bunch of different ones, maybe even styles I never considered and just go with whatever feels right
Take your amp to play through and make a lot of noise
@@cnking27 Agreed, totally. When buying an electric guitar, hopefully your amp is small enough to go with you unless they have an exact Marshall stack there (lol)...If your hunting for an amp, ALWAYS use your guitar, not one from the store.
Don't buy a guitar. Buy your guitar.
@@mojacarflamenco6314 Dat's rite!
@@john564holloway I'm kind of going backwards with it, I've been playing through a crappy practice amp with a crappy Squier from 1998 for almost a year. I live in a super rural area so I'm planning to get a Katana delivered, without playing through it first, because I figure I can't go wrong with that and I get to mess around with a ton of tones that way...and then I'll drag it with me to find the right guitar. I can't imagine getting a guitar without playing it first.
Fantastic video. The subject matter is one thing, but how you were able to rip through the majority of it without a prompter or a million takes speaks volumes on how far you've come in this YT game. Intelligent, well-articulated content motivates the viewer's intellect and , I believe, has longer lasting beneficial impact on the channel than regurgitating trending content ad nuseaum. Wurdz is hard. Well done, Rhett, loved this one!
Rhett has tremendous on-camera presence and a radio DJ voice.
love this explanation about a player's affinity to the instrument. it's human. a lot of people saying that video proves tone is only on the pickups don't understand.
This is a really important point. There are so many sounds and vibrations the player is aware of that the listener is not, but that does not mean those sounds and vibrations aren’t important. They are important because they inform the player’s playing and facilitate inspiration.
Love that you use the SG for this video. They have that ring to them like no other guitar. At least any that I’ve played. If you want to see a crazy level of ‘the ring’ on a SG try using the elixir nanoweb extra long life strings in 10-46. They are pricey but whatever it’s the cost of a few cups of coffee and the difference is 👍. I started using them a few months back on a Std 61 and they just sound fantastic. I play that guitar a lot and they still look brand new. Same strings too.
Good deep dive man...that 65 SG Jr is my favorite guitar of yours already...❤️🤘😜🎸🎶🔥
Great analysis! The “how it feels in your hand” is a real thing! Though it may have nothing to do with what’s coming out of the amp. I was talking with a professional mechanical re: hand tools and why someone would spend $350 on a simple set of wrenches that could be purchased for about $20. He explained that the premium tools just felt so much better in your hands. He then went on to explain that he was being paid by the bench rate, how many hours of labor a customer is paying for the job. With superior designed tools this meant he’s less likely to drop them and his hands were not as fatigued so he could conceivably get paid a 20 hour bench rate inside an 8 hour day. A great mechanic and great tools makes for a great performance!
I've had a few pickups wound for me recently that inadvertently had greater sustain than any previous ones. That part was an extra happy surprise that i didn't expect. They stand out as far as the finger vibrato aspect is concerned, but I enjoy the other pickups that I own just as much because I choose pickups that impart a distinct tone that sets them apart from the others; tones that change my day and expand my tone arsenal, giving me a variety of choice from the wide palate of guitar sounds that we all know and love. I like the extra aspect of sustain, but I chose all my pickups first and foremost because of their tone. Tone is king. Make well researched choices and you'll enjoy your guitars and amps every day for years.
Thank you, Rhett! I've been a believer that the whole sustain thing doesn't matter for years now, but somehow guitar players are still debating this very thing. I've never played a single guitar in my life, cheap or expensive, that didn't sustain enough for me to do my thing while playing it.
I have a 1979 Ibanez Iceman ps10. Paul Stanley from KISS sold these even back then. It sustains forever before I ever plug it in. When I plug it in I don’t need alot of help from pedals at all. It sounds great!
So..one of the things that show that a guitar body, neck, etc does indeed make a difference in tone.
Models of Gibson's L5's, es175's, es 335's (& variants), Les Paul models, and MANY other guitars (although these may have similar aftermarket fru-fru pickups) use '57 Classic & '57 Classic Plus in Neck & Bridge respectively. (MAYBE different tone caps, but that doesn't matter wide open). They sound vastly different, which clearly demonstrates that the construction & woods DO in fact make a difference in tone.
And yes, I do agree that the feel of vibrations definitely give a positive feedback to the player.
Thanks for the great videos, Rhett!!
Rhett, this is a very good video and I share the same thoughts. As a player I can say the link I have with each gear makes me feel and play different and this have a huge impact on the music we are playing. There is no need to anyone keep experimenting to prove that only strings and pickups matter, because it is subjective to each player and music and art are subjective. I am eletronic engineer and I love messup with my rig but I never forget the final motive is music, art and everthing is subjective.
I like what you said at the end; there is too many people bashing others for buying certain brands, because they cannot afford the big names. Others bashing people for buying branded guitars and not fully 100% hand made and buying a useless piece of plastic made by a machine, according to them. Just spreading hate instead doing what they supposedly love, that is playing the guitar. Good video as always.
Honestly that guitar is so cool man, first time I saw you playing it in a vid I went right to their website but couldn’t find it :,( lol love the vids man
This is a great video/overall point. I would have mentioned a 4th type of sustain - when the guitar amp/speaker sound is reintroduced to the guitar's pickup(s).
I think Rhett should do a whole video on feedback through speakers. That Hendrix-style feedback is kind of its own instrument.
I agree with your points of view in this video and would add the following-
One of the original ways to create sustain in an electric guitar is finger vibrato. Get good at it and you'll have sustain and tone for days.
Also, the workbench guitar "experiment" was just a revisit to the century old Southern Diddley Bow- 2 nails on the side of a barn with wire pulled tight between them and a bottle or knife to create sounds.
My sister has two Larivee acoustics from the late 80’s that were built by Jean himself, and had the inlay work (it’s really art, no question) done by his wife. They’re visually stunning, but also great sounding instruments. She has said many times that she is lucky to call him a friend, and humbled that he gave her the opportunity to have guitars she only dreamed of. There is something special about playing what is essentially a tangible part of someone’s life’s work and passion.
Larivee are some of the most vocal acoustics I have ever played. Made the mistake of not getting one in the 1990s but the impression it left on me is obliviously unforgettable.
My wife has given me several guitars over the past decade including 2 for my birthday just recently. We are lucky men!
Agree totally on the "if the guitar makes you happy when you play it's a good guitar" they all have personalities as well. Some days I pick one over all the others. They are like old friends sometimes and you have to pay them a visit.
Agreed. I hate fret buzz on an unplugged guitar. Even if you can’t hear it when it’s plugged in. Does my head in.
There is only one thing I can say about sustain: when is the guitar that has a lot of sustain is better because creating it with compression and overdrive adds noise. My LP has the most sustain out of all my guitars, and I tend to play differently on it because of that feature
and this is why the anology in video is pure stupidity..
The feedback that the instrument gives the performer definitely affects the performance. Also, if you have the choice between instrument derived sustain and electronic sustain, I prefer to start at the beginning. Of course, it depends what you're going for. But it's the same in recording. Move the mic or change the mic before you equalize.
i lol'd at the "sustain demo", great video
video idea: would love to see you take your pick of a fender player series or similar and see if you are able to get it to play in a way you're happy with after a few mods
i did that recently with the player p90 mustang and it was a fun challenge
Interesting take. Definitely food for thought.
Excelente video!
My go to test on a new guitar it to hold the body up to my ear and play an big open E chord and let it ring out.
That’s a quick test that gives a pretty good sign of whether I will like it or not.
PLUS ftw! What a beautiful pedal. Just a note - I love the Big Muff for its sustain control, which does what it says.
Rhett, you ain't preaching...this is like zen and the art of electric guitar, anyone who is lucky enough to explore this instrument as a music making tool has to get you. So the start of the video had me freaking out......great stuff even though you were probably thinking oh just making the point of what wa to come, please tell me what that pedal was? Keep preaching! Thanks for this...........really.
When I graduated High School in 83, all I could afford was a Maya electric guitar, strat copy, but I couldn't afford an amplifier.
Cheap guitars were not good in the early 80s, but i loved that guitar. I played it without an amplifier, at first, because I couldn't afford an amp, but later, because I became accustomed to the sound of the guitar itself. To this day, I still enjoy the sound of a resonant electric guitar without an amplifier to get in the way. I do use amplifiers when necessary, but otherwise, I just love the sound of a good un-amplified electric guitar. I hope that makes sense.
Rhett, this is to the point! an excellent video! :) am I hearing a feedback lood on that prototype distortion??
Well explained rhett !! Back in the "tonewood" days .. i always felt it was the sum of ALL the parts. Even today peaple will STILL argue basswood is crap ... but meanwhile for decades Ibanez has put out high end guitars with bodies totally made of basswood ... and they never sound bad or have bad sustain or resonance.
I see it as: wood does change tone. You can watch an A/B comparison with people swapping out the neck or body but all the same everything else, there is a difference. But it's not a big difference. If you don't have the direct comparison you'd hardly notice. But a bunch of other factors work the same way, this or that part also makes a little bit of a difference, and if you design the whole instrument so all those little differences are all pulling the tone the same way, it'll add up to a difference that matters.
Actually there's many types of basswood and some are expensive, not all basswoods are cheap
People who think basswood is crap simply don't know enough about why basswood is actually a good tonewood-because it is stiff and light, so it is resonant. It's also a nice wood for making objects, because it has very consistent, tight grain and machines smoothly. However, bassword is also relatively soft, so it is easy to damage.
Ibanez? Try John Suhr. Try EVH. Music Man. All use Basswood on expensive instruments, and have for a long time.
Brett..! I’m working on a jobsite only 6 minutes from a Guitar Center.. Not my fave music store.. but now ya got me drooling for some gear… HAHAHA..!
And it’s payday..!!!
I'm with you in the sense of just play it and if you like it well that's that.. Simple... We live unfortunately in a world where it's more about consuming...
Sustain is all about technique. And volume, too. Gary Moore is a good example. Squeeze the life out of the notes.
Squeezing it from an original 59 LP standard through cranked tube amp makes it even better. Gary was one of the best ever though
@Burnt Gerbil: Have you seen the Guitarist magazine interview with GM in which he talks about how to go about choosing a good guitar? He mentions that unplugged, a guitar should be loud and have sustain (i.e. when you hold a note and add vibrato it doesn’t die on you or wilt away too quickly). Yes, the volume that a player like him used live will certainly help with feedback, etc. but I think there is something to be said for a guitar sounding good acoustically. Having to hammer away at it with the picking hand in an attempt to get it to sing isn’t really the way to go.
Two things that define my sound are my pick and how I feel that day!
I agree I make all my guitars and the bodies are Sycamour which is less dense than alder and swamp Ash, and they all ring out very loud and all sound killer with A2 mag pickups
Your description of that Custom Shop SG feeling like a sponge is exactly how I feel about my 2020 Standard 61. USA Standard model, a beautiful guitar, no quality or playability issues whatsoever, but it feels like I have to fight to get sound out of it. My 2014 Firebird I just bought, a model that is not noteworthy at all aside from it's a "120th Anniversary" model is EXTREMELY resonant and every note practically plays itself, just effortless. Completely different guitars, granted. I wanted THAT SG since I was 13 and love the feel of it, plays like butter, but I've tried 4 sets of pickups (the original BB 61s, Bare Knuckle HB sized P90s, Lollartrons, Lollar Gold Foils) and didn't love the sound of any of them. Then I got that Firebird with Lollar Firebird pickups already in it and from the first minute I played it it became my #1. There's nothing it won't do, super underrated and versatile, but the resonance and ease at which the notes just pour out of it makes me even more frustrated with the SG. I lucked out with the Firebird. I'm a little bummed about the SG...
Thank you so much, Rhett, for demystifying some of guitarists' beloved beliefs. As far as I am concerned, something similar holds true for notions like 'Plexi' or 'PAF'. The abuse of these terms for commercial reasons has made them more or less meaningless. Tone, as you say, is the result of many components, which makes the chase for THE ultimate sound frustrating at times.
You nailed this one man 👍
Best video yet on this ongoing debate about what actually matters most when searching for tone. If the guitar doesn't inspire you create and enjoy music, however that may be. Mechanically or astetically, then move on. To tell anyone that "hey, this is the best, and screw the rest". Is non sensical. The best is where your at in the moment. Enjoy what you have and practice more.
I recall a well-known producer saying something like "the best microphone is the one that's closest/already hooked up when you're feeling inspired."
Placebo effect works in medicine, food, and obviously music. It’s amazing what we think leads to what we perceive.
Absolutely agree with you, the best guitar for you is that makes you feel great…
A guitar that has high resonance (that doesn’t absorb sound) will allow the strings to oscillate longer. The longer the stings vibrate, the longer the magnet field in the pickup causes induction by the strings, the longer the natural sustain. So even though the pickup only mimics the acoustic sound of the guitar. The wood’s ability to resonate or absorb sounds has a direct effect on playability and what you hear coming out of the amp.
Hey Rhett: Bass & Guitar player here 44 years experience, with 33 in Electronics and Acoustics. Where Resonance is tricky is that nearly everything about an instrument acts like a complex Filter, drawing energy from the Strings (and to an extent, returning it to them). On a really nice instrument, the Evolving Harmonic Envelopes are somewhat independent, yet "even" enough that no Pitches are made "dead" or "hot" by too much absorption. You can hear it most easily in "the Talk Tones", in the Midrange of the Spectra - they will evolve over time in a complex way (which becomes more inviting to the ear). Ever wonder why Synths (especially older ones with extensive Modulation capabilities) tend to sound boring Spectrally? The answer, IMHO, is less perceivable Harmonic Evolution.
Paul Reed Smith did a ted talk (at least i think it was a ted talk.... it was that sort of thing) Where he said something along the lines of "the electric guitar is a subtractive system" the point he was making is that, every part of a guitar subtracts energy from the vibrating string to a greater or lesser extent. The guitar builder's job is to use materials that subtract the least amount of energy from the string so you get out as close to what you put in.
Very happy to see this video Rhett. Its about what plays good and feels good in the hand. The wood does that for sure. It has almost zero bearing about what comes out the amp, but you combine good pickups/setup with a guitar that feels great in the hand, you've got a winner. It could be that $5,000 Gibson, or that $500 Epiphone with upgraded Gibson pickups. The tone out the amp will be the same, but it also needs to pair with how well it feels to play and vibrates with you. To the point of all this, the term "tone-wood" in this case is really false nomenclature. It should really be called "feel-wood" or "connection-wood" (I know those are stupid though) because the wood is simply the connective tissue between the player and the guitar, not the tone. And that connectivity is big, but is not a tone driver.
Again, very happy to see this video. Good stuff Rhett.
I like the term "feel-wood" -- and love the phrase "the wood is simply the connective tissue between the player and the guitar"
I love compressors I have at least 20 different pedals rack and vintage compressors my favourite for bass is the dbx 118 119 units so squishy like a warm blanket
Nice discussion. I have found recently that The amp is also a big factor in sustain. about 6-10 dB below the "sweet spot" the tubes begin to compress the signal, effectively evening out the notes. The 'sweet spot' can be moved lower by using a Tube Screamer or a Soul Food type pedal. The Soul Food spot is a bit further toward clipping. Another big thing is to follow the lead of the shredders and pick lighter and turn up the amp to compensate. Hard picking gives a big transient at the beginning of the note and if the amp volume is set for that transient, your notes appear disconnected and actually have less sustain. I switched (after 50 years!) from a 1.52 mm pick to a Fender thin and its extended my sustain by not allowing me to overpack the beginning of the note. You never know! Keep up the great discussions and observations, Rhett!
Excellent points. I don't use pedals at all but letting the amp do they work and break up naturally while varying pick dynamics is satisfying and inspiring. You're bang on about picking too hard and killing a note. That frustrated me for years. Switched from .12s with an extra heavy pick in my teen years to .10s with a thin pick in my 40s. If only I had known back then...
We all develop differently. I use to play exclusively light picks for about 40 years but now play a V-pick big Fattie 5mm with a lighter attack strumming and soloing with better control of expression, and yes sustain. I use more compression now because of quieter stage volume requirements, direct to PA modeler use, and because my dynamics grew immensely with the use of thick pick.
"If it sounds good, it is good." I have always said this about music in general. If the music sounds good, The music is good. Love the video, and the SG.
As someone who was classically trained, I really agree on how our perception of the instrument influences the way we play. I have experience how a piano would sound and feel totally different when moved to a different room and how that would make it feel easier or more difficult to play (therefore having a huge impact on my performance). Even when it was just tuned, the feeling of the keyboard would change. I realized that our perception of an instrument is a combination of tactile and auditory input when I experience how the keyboard on my digital piano would feel as a different instrument regarding key weight, depth and response depending on if I was listening through a wedge monitor, built in speakers or headphones, even though mechanically it was the exact same thing.
After watching this video, Rhett, I understand now what ‘sustain’ really means. The original note on the guitar is no different, but it’s VOLUME can be SUSTAINED for a longer duration of the held note (or notes in the case of a held chord)..
But isn’t that sustain having to do with the feedback of the speaker too?
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No.
It's the result of utilising an effect pedal
I know but you can make that with the feed back of the speaker, I’ve done it before with loud volume with minimal gain
If you are not using it for leads that call for sustain it don't matter.
I have the analogman rangemaster clone, beano boost, it will make any guitar sustain forever and it's a lot cheaper than a novo but a novo is very nice
100%, I feel like pleasing feedback is actually what most guitarists think of when they think of great examples of 'sustain' in music
@@jakestewartmusic yea it’s a more “harmonious” feedback since it’s actually feedbacking a higher interval than the “open” strings if you just leave it feedback, they harmonize i think that’s what makes it different
The idea of this positive feedback loop is really an amazing idea !!
Damn Rhett, do a t-shirt with "if it sounds good, it is good" I'd buy a thousand !
Rhett's point towards the end, when he talks about reflectivity, hits the nail on the head. I call it responsiveness, but it's the same thing. When I do a thing, does the thing I'm doing it on respond?
This is true whether it's a guitar, a fly rod, or a car. It's also something that varies from person to person. I've played some great guitars that did nothing in my hands and guitars from unknown builders that were perfect for me. I'm a flamenco and classical guitarist, but the underlying truth about reflectivity/responsiveness holds true.
Enjoyed that Rhett, Robert Fripp is my go to sustain guru.
Just throwing this out there, but sustain does have an important relationship with noise. You can totally add sustain with compression, but you also bring up the noise floor of the signal overall. I have a Gretsch that, when I first got it, required a lot more compression to achieve the same sustain as my other guitars, and it resulted in a higher noise floor. Part of that is the pickups, the Bigsby, etc. All I know is when I changed the pickups out and got a Tru-Arc brass bridge on it, it was like a whole new instrument. Now it rings a good deal longer, which means I don't need as much compression, which means less noise.
Finally an adequate and well balanced take on the matter
Totally agree with the summery : each his own guitar 🎸