Sustain - Is it Overrated?

[okabass]

What about that one time, when you want a note to sound exactly the same for 16 measures, without touching the string again?

Yeah. And what about if you want the note sound exactly the same one year?

 

[cnltb]

Sustain - Is it Overrated?
No.
For some people it'S more important than for others. There's not more to it.

 

[Stumbo]

Yeah. And what about if you want the note sound exactly the same one year?

A good looper would work.

 

[Basvarken]

Yes, I think sustain is overrated when it comes to judging bass guitars.
It is marketing talk that is borrowed from guitar advertisements.
With a bass guitar you really don't need endless sustain.
You want to be heard in the mix, you want decent tone, you want an articulate sound, you want it to stay in tune and intonate properly. But you do not need truckloads of sustain.

 

[Vinny_G]

I remember a time when sustain was something very sought after. It was the time when we saw this kind of things appear:

 

[SteveCS]

Yes, I think sustain is overrated when it comes to judging bass guitars.
It is marketing talk that is borrowed from guitar advertisements.
With a bass guitar you really don't need endless sustain.
You want to be heard in the mix, you want decent tone, you want an articulate sound, you want it to stay in tune and intonate properly. But you do not need truckloads of sustain.

Thanks for clarifying my requirements... Now I know where I've been going wrong these last 37 years.

 

[Jazz Ad]

I play a big lot of ambient music. It relies heavily on drones, harmonics and sympathetic resonances.
Sustain is essential to play this way, so much that I frequently use an EHX Freeze to keep drones going.
Meanwhile, I take all the natural sustain I can get.
It doesn't prevent me from using mutes and short notes when I need to.

 

[Gianni "Orlandez" Orlati]

... find an isolated spot in a tune where your E or A strings can vibrate freely for a while and you will let your guitarist know what a bass is all about .. any bass can do this no?
Now the new holy grail moved on to ... flatwound strings !!!!

 

[Vinny_G]

In fact, all the things I'm not interested in are overrated, and all the things I'm interested in are underrated. That's pretty simple if you think about it.

 

[buldog5151bass]

Rickenbacker's still have mutes.

I guess you missed the "caution"...

 

[drumvsbass]

For playing 'Bass', a dull thud fundamental whomp tub.
For playing 'Bass Guitar', a chimey ringy sustainy piano.

 

[zubrycky]

The great and late Peter Steele had a bass sustainer installed on his custom Fernandes to give it infinite sustain.

 

[zubrycky]

Regardless of sustain, I believe that is important to always pay attention to every note length. Each one must be played correctly. Always.

 

[David Jayne]

Regardless of sustain, I believe that is important to always pay attention to every note length. Each one must be played correctly. Always.

I actually replaced an otherwise very good player and the reasons given were 1) he was frequently too loud and 2) he played too many long tones. True story!

 

[Ross W. Lovell]

So I’ve been playing for around 10 or 11 years now and have been a TalkBass junkie for pretty much the entire time. I’ve had around 20-25 different basses during this timeframe from $300-$400 models all the up to ones in the $2,500 range. With all those basses I’m not sure I’ve ever had one that truly (by definition) didn’t have at least one dead spot. Obviously some were more pronounced than others. That said one of thing I’ve learned with playing is the importance of your technique especially in the sense of muting strings so you don’t get the sympathetic vibration string noise (I.e. playing cleanly). I play primarily with my fingers so it’s usually some variation of the floating thumb technique. My point and question is this, it seems like controlling the dynamics and/or unwanted sustain/ringing of the wrong notes is more important than sustain and yet it seems we fixate on finding the unicorn bass where each note rings out perfectly on every fret on every string. I get the importance of sustain from a guitars perspective, but do we overrate sustain when it comes to bass? For example, so many of or 60’s and 70’s bass heroes used flats and stuck sponges under the strings close to the bridge. That seems to suggest sustain wasn’t at all important to them. Why then has it become so important to us?

Always wanted a Sustainiac on a bass.

 

[Eddie LeBlanc]

My only bass right now is a neck-through '83 24 fret Ibanez Musician with no dead spots. Even with dead ground wounds it gets enough stain that I use foam and palm mute (a lot) when needed.

Seems to me that sustain became more important when piano bass tone emulation became popular.

Neck through isn't a guarantee of good sustain. My first bass (a Rick 4001) had the least sustain of any bass I've ever owned. Most sustain was from a couple bolt on Kramers (the aluminum helped). Nowadays, I detest heavy instruments and neck dive, so I work with roasted maple graphite reinforced Warmoth necks. Works pretty well on the sustain front.

True, but USA Spectors are a cut above with construction that is top notch. Carbon fiber in the neck, quality construction, bridge system that works. All of mine have no dead spots, have sustain from hell, and no neck dive -- period.

Many folks try a neck through only to find the bass was not a great design. I have had some before. Sorry they had bad experiences. And I have owned neck through Ibanez too and even Tobys. Bolt Kramers and even Travis Beans had intonation issues due to aluminum. So all I can say is, I started playing Spectors some time ago (2.5 decades) and have fallen in love with feel, shape, playability, and sound. That original Ned Steinberger arched body is the best feeling bass I have ever played. And even the weight of the neck thru is not an issue.
Just saying.

 

[zubrycky]

Sometimes sustain is necessary for certain basslines.

Here's one of my own, for example.

 

[JeezyMcNuggles]

Yeah. And what about if you want the note sound exactly the same one year?

TC Spectracomp

 

[micguy]

Bolt Kramers and even Travis Beans had intonation issues due to aluminum.

i owned 3 aluminum neck Kramers, always intonated just fine. Granted, one was a fretless, but the other 2 never had these intonation issues you speak of.

I'm glad you like your Spectors - yes, those are well made basses.

 

[Auspuff]

So I’ve been playing for around 10 or 11 years now and have been a TalkBass junkie for pretty much the entire time. I’ve had around 20-25 different basses during this timeframe from $300-$400 models all the up to ones in the $2,500 range. With all those basses I’m not sure I’ve ever had one that truly (by definition) didn’t have at least one dead spot. Obviously some were more pronounced than others. That said one of thing I’ve learned with playing is the importance of your technique especially in the sense of muting strings so you don’t get the sympathetic vibration string noise (I.e. playing cleanly). I play primarily with my fingers so it’s usually some variation of the floating thumb technique. My point and question is this, it seems like controlling the dynamics and/or unwanted sustain/ringing of the wrong notes is more important than sustain and yet it seems we fixate on finding the unicorn bass where each note rings out perfectly on every fret on every string. I get the importance of sustain from a guitars perspective, but do we overrate sustain when it comes to bass? For example, so many of or 60’s and 70’s bass heroes used flats and stuck sponges under the strings close to the bridge. That seems to suggest sustain wasn’t at all important to them. Why then has it become so important to us?

I have never experienced your issues, all of my basses play just fine, and I love sustain.

Were you sober when you posted this?