Is sustain such a many splendored thing?

[Guitalia]

Every electric bass I've ever played has been capable of more than enough sustain. When I want maximum sustain, I just turn the amp's volume up and pluck the string with a soft touch. For staccato, I turn the amp down and hit the string hard.

 

[swink]

Which is of course nonsense. The sustain and decay are part of the same exponential loss curve which begins the instant the peak amplitude is reached as part of the pluck/pick or whatever the initial stimulus is. Energy in the vibrating string is absorbed by and dissipated through the immediate environment, which does not wait around for a while to start absorbing and dissipating.

And if you consider the following:
Attack: the time required to obtain a stable wave pattern.
Sustain: stable wave pattern
I still don't understand the 4sec. he uses.
“Sustain” Myth and Science – Cycfi Research

 

[pepj]

I want it and can deal with it when I don't

 

[scott sinner]

I near never need to hold a note as long as a bass can sustain.

But I find there is a correlation between how long a note can sustain and me subjectively liking the sound of a bass. I don't know why that is. I have a neck through 84 Ibanez that was my first serious bass and you can hit an open string, go make coffee, and it will still be going. And I spent this long period after I got out of college with a budget wanting another nice bass, and long failing to find one that I thought sounded decent in comparison. So I started testing different aspects, to try to figure out, subjectively, what I liked and didn’t like. (Ultimately got a Warwick Thumb)

So most all of my basses can sustain a note exponentially longer than I ever need them to, but it is just that correlation. I don't care too much about the sustain alone.

 

[InkCow]

which sets up the final conflict at the end where the priests "assume control" and our hero, with his staccato notes, pleas, polite hammer-ons, runs against a world without "this beauty" and commits suicide,

Sheesh, spoiler alert. I still haven’t gotten to the end of the album and now it’s ruined.

 

[dougjwray]

I just wrote and recorded a bass part for someone. It's medium tempo, and there's a place where a note is held for four full measures. I would never own a bass where I wouldn't be able to do that on any note on the neck.
But if I want to play staccato notes, I mute with my hands (not foam).
Why not have all options open to you?

 

[JimmyM]

I just wrote and recorded a bass part for someone. It's medium tempo, and there's a place where a note is held for four full measures. I would never own a bass where I wouldn't be able to do that on any note on the neck.
But if I want to play staccato notes, I mute with my hands (not foam).
Why not have all options open to you?

Don't care

 

[dougjwray]

Don't care

Alrighty then...