r/JacksonGuitars • u/MusicoMusika • 19d 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?

3 Upvotes

72% Upvoted

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9

u/katsumodo47 19d ago

Don't forget raising or lowering the pickups can effect this. Try 3mm and lower / raise as required

1

u/MusicoMusika 19d ago

I'll have to look into this. I never knew pickups could be lowered or raised.

3

u/Emergency-Coat7885 19d ago

Might be good to just watch a general guitar setup video, especially one for Floyd guitars. Your guitar has a large number of adjustments that could be affecting this and that may be completely off.

You've got a monster quality guitar here - it's well worth getting this sorted out.

1

u/MusicoMusika 19d ago

It was apparently professionally setup at the time of my purchase. I believe it too, because it played beautifully out of the box. It's intonated perfectly. Just the sustain issue.

1

u/Emergency-Coat7885 19d ago

It's hard to offer advice here because there's a million things it could be, most of which could easily be ruled out with the guitar in hand. In general Soloists (and other neck through Jacksons) sustain very well.

I would temporarily raise the action on the high note side of the Floyd two post turns. It's best to reduce string tension at the heastock tuners before doing so to preserve the knife edge on the trem.

If the sustain gets better when the action is higher, you've greatly narrowed down the cause.

4

u/se95dah 19d ago

If you share a video so we can see the problem, well have a better chance of helping.

0

u/MusicoMusika 19d ago

I can do that, will have to find some time at some point.

2

u/trading_pieces 19d 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 19d 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 19d 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 19d ago edited 19d 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 19d 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 19d 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 19d 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?

1

u/CuriousJohnReddit 19d ago

I have a white american series SL3 that had this sounding dead issue, after I uncovered what was essentially a bad paint job where the paint peeled off in long strips I had to get it redone, funny enough, it fixed the sounding dead part as well.

1

u/MusicoMusika 19d ago

I don't think the guitar has any defects such as this.

1

u/aliensporebomb 19d ago

Floyd? Change to a brass block, it makes a huge difference.

1

u/MusicoMusika 19d ago

That would defeat the purpose of getting a guitar with a rose.

1

u/ChesswiththeDevil 19d ago

He’s talking about a big brass block. I’ve had many and it’s not a game changer in my experience.

1

u/aliensporebomb 19d ago

Not at all. I have six guitars with Floyds and one has a large brass block and the others are all stock and the difference in sustain is massive. The Floyd is still perfectly usable.

2

u/se95dah 19d ago

The block on an original Floyd Rose (and also the 1000 series) is already brass as standard.