The Steel Guitar Forum

A question for the steel guitar pro's on the forum.

I play a late 60's triple neck and on the middle neck the first three strings lose their sustain going up the neck and sound pretty dead <ping>. I've changed strings, to no avail. Anyone have a similar problem?

I've listened to the guitar unplugged and I don't think it's the pickups that are changing the sound.
I'm wondering if the bridge or nut are interfering in some way.

Discuss....

thanks,
Drew

This is not likely YOUR problem but on one occasion, I experienced a similar loss of sustain and upon closer examination, I found some tiny threads from a bar-towell had gotten hooked beneath my strings in question and they thoroughly deadened their sustain.

Anything BUT, a terry cloth towel or rag is better for drying the moisture off the strings.

Yanno, that Ray Montee is a purty smart feller!!!!

I had similar problem. Suggest to check the floowing:

1. Take off the bridge bar and inspect its bottom (where it touches bumps on the control plate) to see if the particular spots are rusted or chrome plating get blistered, and,
2. tighten the screws which fasten the control plate to the wood body. Of the 10 screws, four screws on the right of the anchor holes and two on the left of the bridge pickup play important role to get good sustain. In my case, I got dead spot on the first and second strings at about 10th and 11th fret. The top two screws on the right of the anchor holes were loose by a quater turn.

If above do not work, another possibility is that there's something gotten caught between the control plate and the body, most likely some wiring. To find this, remove whole 10 screws from the control plate
and see if there's no gap between the plate and the body and if the plate sits snugly and fitly on the body without forcing. If the gap exists and is closed up by tightening screws, you would lose sustain.

I hope you would get sustain back by going through above.Good luck!
Jack Isomura
Yokohama, Japan

Jack,

Thanks a million. I tightened the control plate and that helped the sustain little but I may loosen the strings and remove the plate to get to the bottom of this.

thanks,
Drew

I took the control plate off and found the ground wire soldered to a staple on top of the control cavity. See crappy photo. I'm assuming this is the culprit that keeps the plate from being tightened down, killing sustain. Put it back together cuz I have a gig. Should I move the ground to inside the cavity?

It must touch the metal-plate to serve it's purpose of grounding. Inside the cavity will defeat the purpose. Perhaps you could move the staple closer to a mounting-screw, although I don't think that is the cause of your problem! Another step that might make a more solid connection of plate to wood would be to increase the length of all of the mounting-screws on the guitar by ¼”. I estimate that would mean a total of about 24-screws for a T-8 Fender guitar. For example: If your stock mounting-screws are 5/8” long, change them all to 3/4” length. It might sound illconceived, but; I did that (among a few other adjustments) to my Fender T-8 Custom, and it is the best sounding Custom I've ever heard! Lloyd Green liked my sound!!!

I agree with John. The ground wire and the staple would not be the culprit unless a heavy gauge wire is used. Changing screws to longer ones would be effective to improve sustain from "normal" to "a tad better".

Another approach would be to:
1. put all back on(control plate screwed on, strings put on to the normal pitch etc),
2. pick any strings,
3. while it's ringing, press the conrol plate hard here and there to hear any change on the sustain.
4. when you hear some improvement while pressing a certain place,it would be the point where you start finding something loose.

Normally the nut and the tuning keys are less sensitive to the sustain but they also are worthy of inspection.
Jack Isomura
Yokohama, Japan

Thank you all for your responses, I really appreciate them !!!

Drew Howard wrote:A question for the steel guitar pro's on the forum.

I play a late 60's triple neck and on the middle neck the first three strings lose their sustain going up the neck and sound pretty dead <ping>. I've changed strings, to no avail. Anyone have a similar problem?

I've listened to the guitar unplugged and I don't think it's the pickups that are changing the sound.
I'm wondering if the bridge or nut are interfering in some way.

Discuss....

thanks,
Drew

Hey Drew, I had a Stringmaster that did that, the screws that do the fore aft adjustment to the bridge were a little eccentric (bent!) and they lifted the bridge off the plate just the tiniest amount.
The guitar played/sounded fine in the lower positions, but past the 12th fret it was just dead.
You could slide up and hear it die. No sustain at all.
A quarter turn to the bridge adjustment screws brought the brige back into solid contact with the body, and it was fine after that.

hope that helps.
peace sk

Steve,

Thanks. I think you've nailed it. I can''t find any other source of vibration that I felt in the bridge cover.

Drew

I'd get rid of that staple ground anyway. I'd cut a narrow channel from the control cavity to that screw hole in the upper right of your pic. Run the ground wire through the channel and poke some strands of wire down the hole. That way, when you put that screw back in, it will ground the control plate, and the plate will sit flat on the top of the guitar.

Drew,

I have a D8 from the same era and thought it was a little dead. I went through all of the above to no avail.

Sounds like yours had bent bent bridge screws.

I pulled the "diamonds" off and tightened the bolts that hold the necks together. I was back in business. They didn't seem loose from the outside but I got a turn or so on each bolt, it sure helped.

Rich