Guitar Gear Forum

Hi. This is my first post. I’m new here. Admittedly, I don’t yet know much about amps, settings, etc.

I have a question about sustain. I’m using a Fender Mustang I (V.2) 20W amp and a new Charvel DK-24 ProMod with Seymour Duncan HH.

So, I’m working on the solo of Is This Love by Whitesnake. In the original recording, some of the notes are held for long periods of time, but when I play those notes they fade out much earlier. How do I achieve longer sustain? Is it a setting? Ugh.

Thanks in advance!

Welcome to the fold brother! This is the best guitar/amp forum on the interwebznet!!!

I'm not familiar with the song but, the easiest way to increase sustain....

1) Compressor Pedal - squeezes the sound to make a note last longer. Does not add distortion (unless you crank the output volume) so, it's also good for clean tones.
https://www.boss.info/us/products/cs-3/


2) Overdrive / Distortion / Fuzz pedal - these add gain, sustain and compression.
https://www.jimdunlop.com/mxr-super-badass-distortion/

One thing to keep in mind when working on solos is that sustain like that is often a function of volume and speaker to guitar alignment. It's a lot different standing in front of a cranked up stack and playing. You turn a certain way and the strings resonate with the waves coming off the amp giving what's essentially infinite sustain. Turn another way and it screams into feedback.

It's tough, though not impossible, to achieve the same thing with a small combo. Getting the amp around the same height as the guitar and cranking it up might get you there, but sometimes that's not an option. Also, making sure your guitar is set up properly can make a difference.

There are cheats of course, some of which are what ajax said. More gain and compression always helps.

Definitely sounds compressed on the recording, but also a bit of feedback. Check out the Digitech FreqOut, infinite sustain at bedroomn levels.

I'd imagine the Mustang probably has compression and boost/overdrive effects built in to it? Try adding the overdrive for sure, and if that doesn't get you there you can try the compression, though it will make your amp noisy if you add compression to high gain

I would try to avoid compression pedals. They tend to take away from the dynamics of my playing. I have one, but use it sparingly.

As long as you have enough gain to play the solo, it's a matter of playing technique. Use a gentle, narrow vibrato to keep the string moving.

There's also the issue of sympathetic vibration, which only really occurs at endless sustaining levels when you're at loud volumes. Without volume, it's all gain and touch. An overdrive pedal might help a little but mustangs should have some gainy enough settings.

There's always the Ebow...

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oSXlB2Q4us[/youtube]