Sustain???

[thatloser88]

now, im no stranger to gear and effects, and i know some folk may laugh at the example im gonna give ( )  but does anyone know of any great hardware that will help me achieve the kind of sustain Gary Moore is getting in this video? there are moments where it lasts forever..

i know that if i really cranked my amp and overdrives id be able to get a bit more sustain, but i'm looking for something that will work great at lower volumes / gain too... im starting to experiment with holding my notes in chords with the new music im trying out with some friends

[Gilks]

We need a link to the video you're referring to mate.

EDIT: Also, for sustain you can use an overdrive pedal to add a bit, use a compressor pedal, or there's other great options. If you can replace a pickup, then a Sustainiac or Fernandes Sustainer will do the job, but if you want something more specific in pedal form look at the Boss FB-2 Feedbacker/Boost.

[thatloser88]

haha textbook error..... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxFihbQ55Y0

[breakfastime]

There's a difference between sustain and feedback, what you're hearing on the vid is feeedback, likely from high volume and proximity to the speakers.  Gary's monitor mixer or guitar tech could be running guitar signal to the monitor speakers nearest Gary to induce the feedback/sustain.
A common 'studio trick' also used on stage is to have a dedicated amp located so the guitarist can stand directly in front and easily achieve feedback. It doesn't have to be a big amp!  it just has to be aimeed at the guitar body so as to induce feedback...

You can experiment with standing facing your amp to induce feedbaack/sustain, you'll need some volume to get it going though.

Sustain is tha instrument's natural ability to maintain the vibration in a note--unplugged.  yes, this translates into the electric voice of the instrument.

Feedback is where the volume/signal is so high that the vibrations actually 'excite' the strings, inducing longer sustain, usually it appears as a harmonic relative the original note (plucked at :22, turns to feedback at :29).

There are pedals that mimic this feedback phenomenon (BOSS feedbacker) as well as pedals that will induce more gain (fuzz, overdrive, boosts) and of course, a com,pressor wcan be set to squeeze more duration from a note as well.

Pretty sure Gary's mostly using volume to conttrol his sustain here...

[Sven]

You can get a low volume feedback by using a feedback distortion pedal. With a pedal, you can have the guitar/amp volume turned down to nothing, and still get hours of sustain with click of the foot switch.

Here is a demo of the Boss Feedbaker:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-4F6pjX8BM

I have the Behringer clone of this, and it does have some uses (it sounds a lot better when you don't hold it down for that long). Sometimes I set the distortion at minimum, and then just use it to feedback the over driven amp.

[son of gumby]

there are moments where it lasts forever..

i'm just sayin....

[thatloser88]

cheers for the info guys, excellent stuff. i always thought there was too much tone being retained in his notes for it to be feedback, but it makes sense

[breakfastime]

cheers for the info guys, excellent stuff. i always thought there was too much tone being retained in his notes for it to be feedback, but it makes sense

There's different kinds of feedback--harmonically rich sounds from a guitar/amp is what you want, not the high pitched squeal of an open mic pointed at a PA speaker.  If your guitar is squealing instead of the more pleasant toneful sound, try rolling back the treble on the amp some.

If you have a big amp and a small practice amp...hook 'em both up and set the small amp up on a barstool so it's level with the guitar.
Adjust the gain and tone on the little amp so that it wants to feed back nicely every time you get the guitar too close to it.

Then, when you want feedback, face the guitar towards the small amp--when it feeds back, so will your big amp... 

PS welcome to the forum!

[Dr_Pwn]

If you just want infinite sustain you might want to look into Fernandes Sustainer pickups. Matt Bellamy of Muse uses them quite extensively and I have one myself. They are quite good and even feature a 5th harmonic sustain mode.

[AnotherBobDylan]

Most of the tone he's getting is from a natural amp distortion and feedback of the amp.

You can get all the sustain you want with modern distortion and compressor or feedback pedals, and a decent guitar. But the problem with those pedals is when you crank up the distortion, you get a lot of scratchy tone (and pick sounds) to go with it. If you turn down the treble, you can get a nice sickly sustain, but it won't have all the tone that Moore is getting. Moore is getting clean to super distortion just by cranking up the vollume and attack. That's where you get all the rich tone he is getting with just holding the note. And because he is on stage with loud vollume, when the tone decays, you don't hear the annoying buzz that can go along with distortion (although he might).

I recommend sacrificing a bit of distortion and playing more clean in lower volume settings. I find the guitar sounds much better that way.

I have also tried overdriving low wattage amps, but this is a bit impractical and often not as nice as you might think.

There are musicians who actually put their amps in sound proof boxes and drop a mic in it and get natural amp sounds that way.   I think the guitarist for ZZ top does that.