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45 second sustain "good guitar" test

3255 Views 76 Replies 31 Participants Last post by  xevek90490, 
Grab n Go
In a recent article I came across, Paul Reed Smith says:

"A great electric guitar is harmonically rich and bright on the low strings, thick-sounding on the high strings, and rings about 45 seconds," Smith told Guitarist. "A very poor electric guitar is bassy on the low strings, tinny on the high strings, and rings for about 16 seconds. No pickup is going to fix that!"

I'm guessing he means unplugged? A casual test of a few of my guitars revealed about 16 seconds of sustain when I strum a chord (not an open chord). Open string, sure a bit longer, but not 45 seconds.

I guess my guitars have shitty unamplified sustain. Oh well. It's a good thing I have amps, then. 😁
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Mark Brown
zztomato said:
Ok, all you PRS guys give us the results of your sustain tests please.
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Exactly. PRS had just turned himself into click bait and while it is working wonders, it is particularly shameful.
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Mark Brown
Grab n Go said:
It comes across as cork-sniffing to me
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It is just publicity. I wasn't talking about PRS this morning until this came up. Now we are :)

If we are speaking of simple vibration, my Alder, heavily painted heavy poly strat plus goes for about a minute so there goes that theory.
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Mark Brown
Grab n Go said:
I'll have to test some of my heavier instruments. But I doubt it'll be any better.

Maybe my ears have a hard stop at 16 sec. (I'll use that excuse the next time I'm accused of not listening.)
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Audibly, I think every thing I have here stops around that time. My house is silent right now and if I pretend to hear it, you can almost hear the sound. Vibrations though, well that is easier to gauge.

The whole thing is just silly.
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Mark Brown
isoneedacoffee said:
C’mon, we don’t always need emojis to signal humour. If we do, then the terrorists have won.
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The terrorists did win! Why else do you think we all plucked our guitars then hung our heads in shame at the 18 seconds we could hear it
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