. It does however help maintain the sound level when it would normally have tapered off while holding a note.[/quote]
Isn't that what sustain is?

[/quote]

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.

[/quote]

Really? They sure don't sound like stacked humbuckers.

Depends on what compressor you have as well as amp settings with it. I have a modified mxr dynacomp that gave me a very decent sustain. There's a few other compressors out there that do their job well and others that I really don't care for.

You can increase the sustain of your strat also by upgrading the bridge block to a better one ... also if you use a higher gauge lets say youre using9's and you use 10's and put 4 srings in the back and set it up with the new bridge block and all and also if the neck is really straight even more than recommended by fender I think you can get a pretty high ammount of sustain and then on top of that you can also use a sustainer pedal I think that would totally sound with a lot of sustain!

Sustain comes naturally form the construction of the guitar... how the wood and strings vibrate. Whatever sustain you hear without the guitar plugged into an amp is the guitar's natural sustain.

A compressor artificially adds sustain by increasing the volume of your guitar's signal as it fades out.

To increase the guitar's actual sustain you want to get the strings to keep ringing longer. The best way to do this is with a Callaham steel trem block.

I am very happy with how much sustain my strat has naturally, but I do add sustain electronically too with an overdrive pedal (the most affordable would be the BOSS SD-1 Super Overdrive) and by using a delay pedal which makes echo and helps with inducing feedback also.

I personally can't stand compressors because they squash your tone and picking dynamics so much and increase noise.

Isn't that what sustain is?[/quote]

thats compression, the note still lasts the same amount of time.

thats compression, the note still lasts the same amount of time.[/quote]

Ok, I will try summarize in a single post.

With a note on a stringed instrument, there are 2 components to the sound(omitting pitch.)

they are attack, and decay. Attack is the percussive sound, made when you strike the string. Decay, is the continued sounding of the note, until the vibration loses enough energy to no longer be heard by the human ear.
With an electric instrument, and amplification, this point can be at or very near the point at which the string actually stops vibrating.

what we refer to as sustain, is the length of time an instrument can support the vibration of the string (at an audible level.) With a natural, unaltered signal, the decay( the sustained pitch that loses energy-loudness,) there is a gradual, and noticeable decline in loudness. with a compressor/sustainer you alter the signal, so that there is less, or no, gradual decrease in loudness. But the note will in fact stop when the signal gets weak enough that the effect no longer registers the what comes from the pick up--when the string is almost finished vibrating.

So the actual length of the note will not be much longer than the unaltered signal, in fact the only difference will be how much more sensitive the effect is than the human ear. we will stop hearing the unaltered signal, before the effect will. So we will in fact hear the signal from the effect pedal as a longer sustain, because it will make up the volume we can't hear.

So in short, no compressor/sustainer, we hear a sharp attack, and a gradual decay, as the note rings out. eventually fading to silence.

With a sustainer/compressor we will hear the attack, but a very reduced amount of decay, resulting in a note that rings out at a steadier amount of loudness, until it stops.

_________________
I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

Ok, I will try summarize in a single post.

With a note on a stringed instrument, there are 2 components to the sound(omitting pitch.)

they are attack, and decay. Attack is the percussive sound, made when you strike the string. Decay, is the continued sounding of the note, until the vibration loses enough energy to no longer be heard by the human ear.
With an electric instrument, and amplification, this point can be at or very near the point at which the string actually stops vibrating.

what we refer to as sustain, is the length of time an instrument can support the vibration of the string (at an audible level.) With a natural, unaltered signal, the decay( the sustained pitch that loses energy-loudness,) there is a gradual, and noticeable decline in loudness. with a compressor/sustainer you alter the signal, so that there is less, or no, gradual decrease in loudness. But the note will in fact stop when the signal gets weak enough that the effect no longer registers the what comes from the pick up--when the string is almost finished vibrating.

So the actual length of the note will not be much longer than the unaltered signal, in fact the only difference will be how much more sensitive the effect is than the human ear. we will stop hearing the unaltered signal, before the effect will. So we will in fact hear the signal from the effect pedal as a longer sustain, because it will make up the volume we can't hear.

So in short, no compressor/sustainer, we hear a sharp attack, and a gradual decay, as the note rings out. eventually fading to silence.

With a sustainer/compressor we will hear the attack, but a very reduced amount of decay, resulting in a note that rings out at a steadier amount of loudness, until it stops.[/quote]

I couldn't have (and didn't) said it better myself.

Just out of curiosity, are you unhappy with the way your strat sounds? I LOVE modding guitars, but I gotta tell you, when I was still figuring things out my teacher was a devout les paul junkie, and being new, I didn't really know enough to understand that a strat and a paul are just two totally different animals. Because of him my first higher end piece of gear was a BEAUTIFUL Les Paul Standard, but after about a year of playing it and not really feeling like I was getting the sound/feeling I was looking for, and through a wierd series of life events finally got my hands on a standard strat, and never looked back. Mind you, I love my Les Paul and its one of those pieces of gear I'll NEVER let go of, but for me, it just doesn't fit as well as a Tele or Strat. So just be careful about trying to compare the two insturments and making your Strat more Paul like, and make sure you're changing the sound to feel better for you and not just to keep up with the Gibson junkies, because both are beautiful for what they are