My 08 Am Std Strat seems to have uneven sustain, on the first frets the sustain is awesome but starting in the 12 fret there seems to be a dramatic drop with the sustain, especially in the first three strings, what could be the cause of this??

Treble side of the pickups too high maybe.

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No no and no

I aggree too Nick

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Blues Ya?

I agree, pickup height.

If your pickups are too high as you play up the neck the strings become too close to the pickups and the magnets in the pickups stop the string vibration. Thus killing your sustain.

Do a search for "Nickel Method" for pickup adjustments.

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Chet Feathers

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I didn't Lose my mind, I traded it for this guitar.

But if I lower the treble side too much would I get weak sounding high strings?

yeah if you lower it too much. But you can go to about 1/4" below the string without doing any damage to your sound. And it wont be as bad as what i suspect its doing now. You could balance it by lowering the bass side too and turning the amp up a notch.

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No no and no

I lowered the treble side and balanced out a little bit the bass side. Sustain has improved, volume output decreased, but that's not really a problem. The only nuisance is that now it seems harder to get artificial harmonics, is this normal?

Which as Chet often points out will improve your tone and sustain as well.

Pickups close to the strings is a very mixed blessing, even without the wolf notes.

Cheers - C

What's a wolf note? Sorry for my ignorance.

Hi imc_1121: sorry, didn't mean to be obscure. Wolf notes are when the string is too close to the pickup, so that it's oscillation is interfered with by the magnets: nasty sounding notes result.

Mind you, violin and other string players talk about wolf notes too. No electrics involved there, so I don't quite know what that's about...

Cheers - C

The artifical harmonics problem your experiencing could be down to your technique having developed to accomodate high pickups I can get AH's on a unplugged guitar, they occur on the string not the pickup.

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No no and no

Wow you guys have been really great help! Thanks a lot Ceri and nikininja.

Yeah, Thanks Ceri and nikininja!

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Chet Feathers

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I didn't Lose my mind, I traded it for this guitar.

Srry CAFeathers, you too

Erm, I should point out that Mr Chet Feathers' advice is some of the best around on this particular subject.

...And most others, for that matter!

Cheers - C