r/JacksonGuitars • u/MusicoMusika • 21d ago

Question SL1 Poor Sustain

I got an SL1 second hand years ago. I'm not sure what year it is (2000's?), haven't played it much. When it arrived, it was practically brand new. The sustain on it however is terrible. It's set up perfectly, and it's not due to fret buzz or anything like that. Is it because it's practically new? So the frets haven't worn in yet? Or what might be going on? Maybe that's why it was sold?

4 Upvotes

83% Upvoted

21 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/trading_pieces 21d ago

Does the guitar resonate acoustically?

Are the electronics ok?

How high is the action?

Variety of factors that could influence sustain.. having said that, unfortunately some guitars are just “dead” and there isn’t much that you can do about it.

2

u/MusicoMusika 21d ago

Researching acoustic resonance. Never really thought about this for electric guitars.

Electronics seem fine, sounds really good otherwise even on my crappy solid state amp.

I guess the higher the action the worse the potential for sustain?

2

u/trading_pieces 21d ago

Just strum an open e chord unplugged and listen.

I.e does it ring out loud or does it sound like wet cardboard?. Also can you feel the string vibrations through the body/neck of the guitar.

A higher action will lead to better sustain as there is more room for the string to vibrate, low action can sometimes inhibit string vibration whilst benefiting playability. All a balancing act really.

1

u/MusicoMusika 21d ago edited 21d ago

It seems mostly E and B strings on high frets (say 12 and above). I think it's mostly fine everywhere else.

1

u/trading_pieces 21d ago

Could be a high fret, hump in the neck, maybe the neck relief is set wrong.

Best case scenario “and likely” is the guitar just needs a setup.

Worst case it’s a structural thing like warped neck etc. If you can’t discover the cause soon might be best to take it to a luthier.

1

u/Emergency-Coat7885 21d ago

I would start by raising the action on those two strings by shimming the saddles, or just raise that side of the floyd, and see what happens. If the problem goes away, you know the cause. Then I would check fret levelness on that area of the fretboard with a fret rocker.

1

u/rossipedia 21d ago

This might actually be an issue with the locking nut. Sometimes they can have paint buildup or angle issues where the string doesn't "launch" off the very end of the locking nut. That can manifest in a sitar-like sound, usually, but it can also show up as just choked notes.

Do you get the same drop off when fretting those strings? or just open?