amp sustain
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fred_farkel
- Posts: 33
- Joined: Fri Feb 03, 2006 2:37 am
- Location: La Mirada, California
amp sustain
Not being a tech, I wanted to ask if someone could explain to me just what it is that makes an amp sustain. I like the way Carlton, Ford and others can play a note and it will hang there forever. Last night I watched a guy playing a Mesa using a strat and not a lot of overdrive play a note and it too hung forever finally going into a kind of feedback yet this guy was not playing loud or using outboard effects. I'm thinking it has something to do with plate or grid voltages???? maybe some componet values?
Re: amp sustain
It's technique.
You have to mute all the strings but the ones you want to sustain, and you have to stand in just the right place, and you can't accidentally dampen the string you want to sustain. To really get it right you have to err on the side of sensitivity. I love playing my amps with hollow body guitars, right on the brink of feedback - you have to work to keep things under control, but the sustain is always there when you need it, but you don't need so much gain to make it happen. With a Dumble or a Boogie, the lead channel will also clean up well with a softer pick attack, so you can have enough gain to get notes to hang without having too dirty of a tone.
It depends on volume and gain also. More of one means you need less of the other. Freddie King used to get it with a Quad Reverb, Carlton got it with a Boogie or a Dumble. It's also room and speaker dependent how much acoustic feedback you get.
While plate voltages and circuit values may have some effect on the sustain you get, it's really all in the fingers.
You have to mute all the strings but the ones you want to sustain, and you have to stand in just the right place, and you can't accidentally dampen the string you want to sustain. To really get it right you have to err on the side of sensitivity. I love playing my amps with hollow body guitars, right on the brink of feedback - you have to work to keep things under control, but the sustain is always there when you need it, but you don't need so much gain to make it happen. With a Dumble or a Boogie, the lead channel will also clean up well with a softer pick attack, so you can have enough gain to get notes to hang without having too dirty of a tone.
It depends on volume and gain also. More of one means you need less of the other. Freddie King used to get it with a Quad Reverb, Carlton got it with a Boogie or a Dumble. It's also room and speaker dependent how much acoustic feedback you get.
While plate voltages and circuit values may have some effect on the sustain you get, it's really all in the fingers.
Re: amp sustain
A little bit of compression here and there will also help a lot.
Teo
Teo
Re: amp sustain
I think it has to do with the harmonic content of the amp. If you have an amp the allows the notes to bloom with lots of harmonics it sustains much better.