I "fixed" my tone and sustain when I bought a Peavey Session 500 amp (Peavey's "new" steel amp at the time) and quit using the Fender. I had even put in a 15" JBL K-130 which helped the low end but still had problems in the upper frets with the Fender.

[This message was edited by Jack Stoner on 18 December 2005 at 09:03 AM.]

------------------
Steelin' Greetings
Marco Schouten
Sho-Bud LLG; Guyatone 6 string lap steel; John Pearse bar; Emmons bar; Evans SE200 amp

------------------
Steelin' Greetings
Marco Schouten
Sho-Bud LLG; Guyatone 6 string lap steel; John Pearse bar; Emmons bar; Evans SE200 amp

One highly esteemed west coast picker recently demoed this to me re two of his EMMONS instruments.

The FSA (Frequency Spectrum Analyzer) measurements on 31 PSGs started two weeks ago at Jim Palenscar's steel shop in Oceanside CA. show great differences on "famous" and "not so famous" instruments re the sustain function.

The FSA tests show differences in harmonic content, and harmonic content vs. time, when the pickups are loaded with 10 Meg, 500K, 250K, etc...again, different pickup structures behave differently. All pickups are not created equal.

Then there is the matter of the bar and its motion. I received a phone call from a (the?) top PSG picker after he received his Zirc bar...here is the jist of the conversation:

"I play a lot at home with no amp. When I play with a ___ bar above the 13th fret it seems to sustain more than when I play there with the Zirc bar...why would that be?"

...try this for me and see what happens...use each bar at the chosen fret(s), do not move/vibrate the bars and tell me the results.

"..the difference is gone when I don't move the bars"

The reason is that the Zirc bars, by measurement, are/were 10 or more times as smooth as the metal bar that he was using. Moving the bar in a scrubbing motion (not rolling it) was like a violin bow on the strings...with more or less resin (roughness).

There is a difference in the sound of highs obtained from "unloading" the pickup, and highs obtained from tweaking up the EQ/presence, et al. Some of it shows up in the attack when you excite the string. Some pickers are more sensitive to it than others.

One more of the tone traps is pot pedal related. If you place a 500K pot pedal directly across the pickup, ypu will damp some of the pickups highs. If you then place an amp input across the pot pedal, you will further damp some of the highs, to the extent that the pedal is activated. If the pedal is 500K and the amp input is 500k then if the pedal is all the way on, the pickup load is 250k = not too good for highs. some common amps are even lower input impedance than 500K. Most effects are also a loading problem.

And then, there is the cable capacitance issue...keep them short.

[This message was edited by ed packard on 19 December 2005 at 07:43 AM.]

My dos centavos:

I would try lowering your pickup, especially on the treble side. The closer the magnets are to the strings the more energy they will absorb. If the pickup is angled so it is closer to the treble strings you might want to try leveling it.

1/8"is too close. 3/32 3/16-" is what I've found a little friendlier.

If you have to ask how far into Hugheyland you can safely go, you're already to far into it.

EJL

[This message was edited by Eric West on 24 December 2005 at 10:14 AM.]

Thom

[This message was edited by Thom Ferman on 27 December 2005 at 11:22 AM.]

I have mentioned to several friends that I have needed to relearn how to play above the 13th since I went to a rack mounted Stewart World 1.6 amp. I was talking with John Hughey about that and he confirmed that going to the Stewart (or like amp) will cause that. There is NO difference in how the guitar plays above or below anymore (that I can tell, on my D-12 PP's), and THAT takes some geetting used to.

Even on my Webb amps, it took a different picking technique up high. Last weekend (or 2) ago, I took out my Nashville 112, since it was a small place and I had to haul a ways, and, what a difference.

[This message was edited by Chick Donner on 28 December 2005 at 01:02 PM.]

quote:

---

Amps don't make a string sustain...

---

I think that I will have to slightly disagree.
The amp ofcourse doesn't make up the major part of any instruments sustain, but I think that I'll definetely have more sustain the louder I'm playing (regardless of guitar, bass or steel).

I think that this is due to the "feedback" factor of the strings "hearing" the speaker and therefore keeping up vibrating longer, but it's quite possible that there may be even a "classical" feedback component there, adding to the sustain.

Not to hi-jack the tread and send it in a completely different direction, I'd say that I will have more sustain in the upper frets while rolling the vibrato, than I would have when sliding the vibrato in a more bluesy fashion.

------------------
Klaus Caprani

MCI RangeXpander S-10 3x4
www.klauscaprani.com

[This message was edited by Klaus Caprani on 31 December 2005 at 01:41 AM.]