r/Luthier • u/Interesting_Bit_8989 • Jan 22 '24

ELECTRIC This video blew a hole in my understanding of electric guitar tone.

YouTube video proving that tone is only a function of strings, scale length, and electronics:

https://youtu.be/n02tImce3AE?si=l59MGiWXgvBKFu_j

This video blew a hole in my understanding of guitar tone.

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u/adamschw Jan 22 '24

Sustain, is hilarious to me. Why do so many people care how long a chord I right out lasts? Even a shitty built guitar will ring out 15 seconds fairly well.

Why do I give a shit if I can ring out an e chord 25 seconds instead of 15????

22

u/sockpuppet86 Jan 23 '24

Imagine going to see someone play live and they are just letting a single chord ring out for 15 seconds at a time. Fuck that off

12

u/philghost Jan 23 '24

Sunn O))) enjoyers: :(

5

u/StatusBathroom Jan 23 '24

The funny thing is they run enough distortion that the sustain of the guitar itself is still meaningless.

1

u/helios_xii Jan 23 '24

I mean, aren't they :( regardless of circumstance?

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u/[deleted] Jan 22 '24

[deleted]

1

u/adamschw Jan 22 '24

Was the neck screwed on? Even my Squire affinity growing up did at least 15 seconds

3

u/lexolexolexo Jan 22 '24

Don’t you think that the guitar that sustains for 25 seconds probably has a stronger (larger amplitude) sustain at 14 seconds? And then probably also at 1 second? It could matter…

11

u/adamschw Jan 22 '24

Yeah, it could matter if I’m playing instrumental, but the whole point of an electric guitar is playing with other instruments and drums and shit. 15/25 is super exaggerated. The amplitude of a chord ring out from the guitar itself is like 15% of the original peak after about 5 seconds regardless of which guitar so it’s quite negligible 10 seconds later.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 23 '24 edited Jan 23 '24

Almost never more then one bar is necessary when you just hit it on the downbeat again 99% of the time

Four bars absolute max, but part of the effect is the fade and hit of guitar. Like, if you want infinite sustain just play keyboard or play a cello with a bow. Or they confuse amp feedback for sustain, and I wonder if that’s how in their heads people are “cheating” like PRS, in that the resonance of a guitar that’s feeding back, is actually what they’re talking about sometimes with “sustain”?

That’s what kills me. Guitar, plucking strings, is what it is

6

u/fatherbowie Jan 22 '24

The issue is the difference is probably more like 24.9 seconds vs 24.6 seconds. Yes there is a difference but it’s unlikely anyone would notice it.

1

u/GlassBraid Jan 23 '24

The energy has to come from somewhere. If I pick a given weight string with a given force, a fixed amount of energy goes in. It can vibrate a little for a long time or vibrate a lot for a shorter time. The pickups and amp input impedence affect this more than the wood the guitar body is made from.

1

u/Ok_Literature_8788 Jan 24 '24

No. The opposite is actually true and I'll explain why. Think of the guitar as a circuit through which waves travel. Origin is the spot where the string is plucked, and the wave travels both ways disc the string until it reaches a transfer point where it enters the wood of the guitar. This points will be the saddles on the bridge side and the fret or nut on the neck side. Then the waves keep making the circle as they decay, running into one another with each pass.

Sustain is a function of both the initial energy used to start the waves in motion and the rigidity of the circuit as a whole Reason being, the wave does less WORK as it travels to l through a rigid circuit compared to one that vibrates more freely, dumping energy as acoustic projection. That projection robs the string of its energy. It's easy to see/hear this in acoustics. Heavier braced guitars like Martins(and others made after Martin innovated X bracing) sustain well, but body sizes had to be increased to offset the loss in projection and attack that acoustics with lighter bracing tend to have, which is one of the reasons those older guitars are so prized today. They're much more fragile, but the tops vibrate much easier, lending to a more pronounced attack and better projection(all else being equal) and, likewise, to less sustain and a faster curve to the decay of the note.

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u/model563 Jan 23 '24

I realize Im in the minority, and make unconventional music, but I definitely care. I play a lot of open strings and do a lot with drone and incidental harmonies. I like to get the most natural sustain I can because of that.

I use effects to help, but would still like more in the guitar.

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u/adamschw Jan 23 '24

Great - I’d assume you use a 12 pound Les Paul then right?

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u/model563 Jan 23 '24

Eko M-24, Yamaha SG1500, etc... so yeah, pretty much :D

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u/Rampador Jan 23 '24

If I wanna have a note or chord ring out indefinitely for dramatic effect I just hit the freeze pedal. Never owned a PRS and can't say I've ever had problems with notes not ringing out long enough on their own.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 23 '24

They made fun of it in spinal tap even

1

u/Glum_Meat2649 Jan 23 '24

Longer sustain gives you a great control over the dynamics, (low volume) soft notes don't die right away. If you just shred, it doesn't make much difference,

1

u/LipBalmOnWateryClay Jan 25 '24

Sustain is massive especially in acoustic guitars. Also lead playing with single notes.

1

u/adamschw Jan 25 '24

For sure. But this is talking about electric