RE: Fretless guitar built - ripped off the frets...

["William Walker" <billwalker@baymoon.com>]

As Elliot Easton put it, "sustain is overrated".
 The quest for sustain via mass is certainly valid, as anyone who has 
played
a mid 70's les Paul custom will attest to. But I think you can also loose
dynamic range, as really heavy guitars, in my experience, seem to have more
natural compression. But I gave up the desire to strap on a guitar that
weighs more than eight pounds a while ago simple because my shoulder 
doesn't
like it. Then there is coupling sustain, the kind you get from  the
interaction between a resonate instrument, and the amplifier's sound waves
hitting it, which I place more value in as an electric guitarist, as that 
is
where the magic happens with feedback. It's also harder to control and
requires a certain amount of volume and proximity to the amplifier to make
it work.  A guitar I used to own and wish I still did was a PRS hollow 
body,
one of the most comfortable and best sounding guitars I've ever owned, and
it fed back beautifully, though because the pickups weren't potted, it had 
a
tendency to be microphonic if moved too close to a loud amp. But for lower
volume work and studio stuff it was phenomenal. I had the same problem with
a pair of Duncan antiquity mini humbuckers I installed in my mahogany
thineline tele, until I had them partially potted. Now they are still 
really
lively sounding but less microphonic, when using overdrive. I actually love
microphonic pickups, particularly in a semi hollow guitar because they seem
to pick up more of the bodies resonance, even though they are more like to
squeal. Some of those old supro and teisco  pickups some fantastic, and you
can talk in to them and announce your next tune!!! One of the instruments I
will be using to demo at the looperlative Booth (booth 1653 Hall E) at 
NAMM,
is a Cruztone Lap steel made here in Santa Cruz. It is amazing sounding 
with
a Rick Turner made Rickenbacker style  horseshoe pickup, and a Lollar P-90.
It sustains like a pedal steel guitar.  Its also a beast at about 14 pounds
due to the combination of mahogany and aluminum construction, even on my
knees it feels heavy. But the sustain, it's positively Nigel Tufnellian!!! 

Bill