My friend has a Gibson Les Paul classic and I have an American made Fender Strat. One day we were comparing the two and it turns out that the Les Paul has a longer sustain. I figured it was because the Strat has Single Coil Pickups and the Les Paul has Humbuckers. What do you think?

Any Ideas on how to increase the sustain on the Strat?

The pickups are part of it yes, but there is a lot more that goes into it than that.

Body Construction: Les Paul Classic bodies are made from Mahogany and Maple whereas Strat bodies are usually either Alder or Ash (for the transparent or natural finishes).

A big part of it too is the way the neck joins the body. On the Les Paul, the neck is glued in with a dovetail joint style construction. On a strat it's obviously bolted on.

There are some things you can do like changing the inertia block in your tremolo, but since you have an American model already, this might be pointless to try. Groove Tubes distributes a tool that connects to the headstock called Fat Fingers, wherein it adds mass to the headstock, aiding in better sustain.

I used to work in a music store and tried one of those Fat Fingers on one of our strats and barely noticed a difference however. At least not much of a difference to warrant paying the price for one.

You can always replace the pickups for different ones as well. Several companies make stacked humbuckers that look just like single coils and fit into their respective places without altering the look of the guitar.

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That's interesting, I've never heard of these Humbuckers! Would there be enough space in the Single Coil Cavity to fit the Humbucker?

Hi bluestratocater: there's many humbucking pickups designed to be the size and shape of singe coil pickups so as to fit into a Strat's pickguard and the cavity beneath. Just for example, look at this page:

http://www.seymourduncan.com/products/e ... atocaster/

The fourth one down, the "Classic Stack Plus" is the kind of stacked humbucker pjtrate3 was talking about.

Beneath that is the "Cool Rails", another single coil sized humbucker. And further down is the "Duckbucker", another take on the theme.

Just some of the many possibilities...

Cheers - C

One of the main reasons that LPs tend to sustain forever is that they are boat anchors. They're made from dense, heavy wood and the neck is, for all intents and purposes, part of the body; on a Strat, the neck is bolted on. Now, I'm not exactly sure how much of a difference the neck makes, but body mass in my opinion is the real determinant. If you want a Strat with better sustain I would recommend doing what my father did years and years ago: make (or buy) a new body for it out of some insanely heavy wood. Like oak. But prepare for a heavy instrument!

Yes.

The Yngwie Malmsteen model has stacked humbuckers made by DiMarzio, the YJM model in the neck and bridge positions and an HS-3 in the middle (the first runs of Malmsteen strats came with the HS-3 in the bridge and middle positions and an American Std pu in the middle.)

Seymour Duncan makes the Hot Stack Plus which looks just like a single coil but has an increased output. You can also go with a Humbucker like a Hot Rails or a Lil '59 or JB Jr. These also fit into a pre-existing single coil spot.

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The mind is like a parachute; it doesn't work unless its open-FZ

Noiseless single coils like Fender Vintage noiseless, and SCN's are stacked humbuckers. Pretty much any noiseless singlecoils, with the exception of Lace Sensors are all stacked humbuckers.

On the point of sustain, A solid steel machined block would be an improvement, even for an American, they use cast blocks, that arent pure steel, so a solid block machined out of steel would give you an improvement, something like a callaham. The comment about the necks on Les Pauls is correct, also the fact that they dont have a tremolo. If you ever try a Tele, they have fantastic sustain.

try this strat lovers high mass trem block, solid bridge saddles (not pressed steel ones i personaly dont think they help sustain one bit if your pickups are quite high try backing them off slightly as the nearer they are to the strings they are the magnets slow the strings down quicker hence less sustain. experiment by backing them all the way back and bringing back up in slight incraments until you get a good ballance of tone and sustain, this method has worked well for me every time. easy now merv

Welcome to the forum merv! I think the block can make a difference but if the pickups are to close on will get unwanted harmonics an fake repeat notes because the string being pulled you would notice that before the effect its having on sustain. Sustain is a cobination of many things working together Block, Bridge, Nut, Neck, Mass, String size, Magnectis force of pickups.
LP sustain is all about body mass and set neck construction hard tail bridge, the length in which humbuckers read the strings.

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A nice steel trem block will make a difference in sustain. Or even better, a hardtail body would increase sustain.

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1994 Standard Strat, Blue
2000 Standard Strat, Black, with GFS block, and GFS Lil Killer pickup.
2004 Standard Telecaster, Black
1971 Gibson SG
1985 Kramer Baretta
1986 Kramer Vangard
Carvin X60B
Marshall 50 watt 2x12 combo

You could get a sustain or compression pedal.

I went with Dimarzio SC's that use Alnico II magnets, they dont have much pull at all, and you can put the pickup allot closer to the strings without stratitis or killing the strings vibration.

I have DiMarzio stacks in an ash bodied "tele" style guitar and there is a very small increase in sustain to my ears. the body as a whole has more to do with sustain than the pickups alone I think. The amp as well is very important.. Plus I have noticed that players like Yngvie and VanHalan can get crazy sustain out of anything they play. So I guess Technique and style probably play a role as well.

+1 Compression pedals are a way to go with strats in my opinion.

I don't know, I have a compression sustainer and it really doesn't do much as far as the length of time I can hold a note. It does however help maintain the sound level when it would normally have tapered off while holding a note.