Les Paul sustain

[lineboss58]

It has been mentioned on another thread that heavy wood automatically means more sustain, i would like to lay this myth to rest once and for all. Ok lets get the KM gibsons out of the picture they are a whole other story, lets just focus on the TN gibsons. I have a few heavy wood LPs from the late 70s they dont sustain more than say your average guitar of this type, i have some early LP classics probably chambered and very light in weight. The classics drop jaws with the sustain they produce im not kidding, they go on for ages its crazy what is going on?

[Blues Power]

pup output quality has a lot to do with it also as does the amp.

[Scooter2112]

....and the bridge....and the nut....and the strings....

[LoKi]

There are a lot of factors involved in sustain in electric instruments, the biggest one being construction quality. Weight doesn't always equal sustain. Sustain comes from free movement of the strings. It is often *but not always* the case that a lighter guitar will absorb more of the string movement than one of the same size, but with more density, because the dense wood itself is less likely to vibrate. 90% of the time though, its the actual physical construction that matters.

My 79 KM will out sustain any of my other electric guitars, and yes it is heavy, but it is also a near flawless instrument. I have an 88 TN that used to be a dog to play, but I put some work into it and now it plays and sounds great. Is about 4 lbs lighter than the KM, and is missing some of that mystical sustain.

I can't just blame the weight though. It is a late 80's Standard.... Not exactly known to be the best Gibson had ever made...

What year is your Classic? It wouldn't be chambered unless its a late 06 or 07. All Classics from before '06 have weight relief holes drilled into the body, but no chambering.

[LoKi]

Oh and FYI I used to have a Plexiglas Strat that would out-sustain anything... Why? Because the body material was so hard it couldn't absorb sound *Plexiglas is used as drum shields to separate the drummer from the vocal mics.*

Now this didn't mean that it sounded good... *It didn't sound too bad* but it had immense sustain.

[Lair22]

I've also heard arguments that the more pieces - i.e. laminated pancake body w/ 3 piece top - the less likely you are to get good sustain as the laminate points (especially if imperfect) don't transmit the vibration like solid wood.

[RONM]

By dropping the pick-ups pole pieces can result in an increase of sustain....

[Nicole Rose]

vibrations happen in the strings and produce energy. the faster the energy is absorbed into the guitar, the less sustain one gets. the slower the energy is absorbed into the guitar, the more sustain one gets.

a luthier explained to me that it doesn't matter if a guitar is chambered or weight relieved. a good luthier can cause such a guitar to have more sustain than a standard without chambering. it all depends on how he or she arranges the wood. it can be put together in such a manner that energy is absorbed into the guitar at a slower rate producing more sustain.

[Belzeebub]

IMO, the simple answer to this is the sustain of a Gibson is unique and no matter if its chambered or not, the sustain will always be better than any other guitar out there. I have a "high-end" Ibanez Joe Satriani signature series and from listening to songs like Flying in a Blue Dream, I thought the sustain was fantastic. It was. But when I played a Gibson LP, my definition of sustain changed altogether.

[Blues Power]

hey Lair. theres so many tales on this subject that its amazing

my 80 The Paul has a 3 piece Walnut body and a 5 piece neck and sustains for days with a pair of super D's. With the stock ceramics it couldnt get out of its own way.

The walnut is so soft that you can scratch it with your nail.

go figure how much does the soft wood affect it....who knows

[LoKi]

Walnut is a hardwood. The difference in hardwood and softwood is only viewed microscopically. Build a guitar out of a Douglas Fir and see if it does anything.

As far as the wood itself actually being soft, sure... But its still a tonewood, and a hardwood at that. Whether or not the top felt soft, it still wasn't absorbing the sound like a softwood, or some kind of foam. Maple can be scratched and dented with a fingernail when its unfinished as well. Wood is not exactly the hardest material available, but different tonewoods affect the actual sound of the instrument.

I've been told countless times that the best sustaining electric guitar would be made out of concrete. Would weigh 40klg but would sustain for days.

[dwagar]

and who'd have ever though that balsa would be a tonewood? But Gibson used it in some of the 'light' models, and it works. Supposedly, very close to mahogany as a tone wood I believe.
Of course, they called it something other than balsa.

[LoKi]

Chromite.

They should have figured out what chromite actually was before calling it that.

[drewbertca]

Balsa (Ochroma pyramidale, synonym O. lagopus)...maybe they made the name up from it's Latin name

[LoKi]

Haha probably. They should have looked it up first though. They sue everyone and their dog for copyright infringment... I'm sure you can't sue the Earth for making chromite, but they'd probably try, if somebody was liable.

[drewbertca]

yeah...I'm sure they would

[Liam]

There are plenty of light guitar that sustain well. There's more to it than weight.

My Les Paul with the best sustain is also the lightest - go figure.