RULE 13
TEST FOR SUSTAIN
You can’t “Play a guitar like a-
ringing a bell,” as Chuck Berry
would say, if your guitar doesn’t
have good sustain.
Different styles of guitar have
different sustaining properties, but
the general rule is: The more string
vibration that is transferred to the
guitar, the less it sustains. A guitar
with greater rigidity and weight,
such as a solidbody, will sustain
longer than one with less rigidity,
such as a hollowbody archtop. To
accurately assess sustain, test
the guitar against an instrument
of similar style: hollowbody vs.
hollowbody, solidbody vs. solidbody.
First listen without plugging in,
playing each string open. If a
guitar has a relatively soft sound
and relatively short sustain
when compared to other similar
instruments, then there may be a
problem with the neck joint or the
string slots in the bridge and nut.
Then plug in. Pickup magnets
exert a dampening force on string
vibration and sustain. A guitar
may be set up with the pickups
extremely close to the strings so
that they sound more powerful, but
that power will come at the expense
of sustain. Again compare to other
instruments of the same type.
RULE 14
LISTEN FOR ELECTRONIC
NOISE
Effects boxes are made for a
reason. Nobody wants to be
surprised by weird sounds coming
out of a guitar.
Plug into an amp, and move the
guitar or bass close to it. That will
bring out hum, buzz and shrieking
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