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Post subject: Blacktop vs strat ultra (lace sensor) sustain
Posted: Tue Jun 18, 2013 1:38 pm
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I have a 1993 Strat ultra HSS, and am intrigued by the idea of prolonged sustain and saturation that a blacktop might produce due to the humbuckers. Any experience or opinions would be appreciated. I know the Strat ultra was a high end strat, but I'd love to hear about if the blacktop strat has much better sustain. I am looking for Les Paul-like sustain and tone in a strat. Thanks in advance.


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Post subject: Re: Blacktop vs strat ultra (lace sensor) sustain
Posted: Tue Jun 18, 2013 8:44 pm
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If you seek more of that Les Paul bark and bite the Blacktop has, drop an Eric Clapton mid boost circuit on your guitar.

With a hot humbucker in the bridge the mid boost not only adds more punch and sustain but also makes things scream like a banshee.

For better results, slap an HHH pickguard with three red/red duallies.


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Post subject: Re: Blacktop vs strat ultra (lace sensor) sustain
Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2013 4:55 am
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Thanks!


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Post subject: Re: Blacktop vs strat ultra (lace sensor) sustain
Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2013 5:06 am
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dkelban wrote:
I have a 1993 Strat ultra HSS, and am intrigued by the idea of prolonged sustain and saturation that a blacktop might produce due to the humbuckers. Any experience or opinions would be appreciated. I know the Strat ultra was a high end strat, but I'd love to hear about if the blacktop strat has much better sustain. I am looking for Les Paul-like sustain and tone in a strat. Thanks in advance.


If you want a Strat that approaches the tone of a Les Paul, then the Black Top or other HH configured Strat would be a good start otherwise just go ahead and get a Les Paul.

With regards to increased sustain: a Les Paul does not necessarily sustain better than a Strat. And how much sustain are you after? Are notes coking or dying prematurely? The best advice is to make sure that your guitar (weather it's a Strat, Les Paul or whatever) is properly set up and that the pickups are not too close to the strings.......especially single-coils. In the case of the Lace Sensors, however, they have an extremely low magnetic pull and actually work best with them set as close to the strings as possible with allowances for string vibration and you playing style.


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Post subject: Re: Blacktop vs strat ultra (lace sensor) sustain
Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2013 5:31 am
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93greenstrat wrote:
With regards to increased sustain: a Les Paul does not necessarily sustain better than a Strat.

That's right. Regardless of popular mythology, sustain has nothing to do with pickups, and is only tangentally related to guitar brands, in as much as the style of construction can influence it.

Sustain is simply how long the string vibrates for. That in turn has to do with the rigidity of the instrument's construction, its mass, the type of wood, the relation of string gauge to scale length - and so on. All of those things have a bearing on how steeply or not the string's vibration decays, and that's where sustain comes from.

It is true that humbuckers can seem to offer better sustain, but that has to do with how they interact with an amplifier. Since they tend to drive it harder the signal is compressed and that creates an illusion of a more even decay and thus sustain. Compressors have a similar effect and that's why they are sometimes also called "sustainers".


93greenstrat wrote:
In the case of the Lace Sensors, however, they have an extremely low magnetic pull and actually work best with them set as close to the strings as possible with allowances for string vibration and you playing style.

Mm. Though actually, with Sensors just like every other type of pickup you get more apparent sustain by dropping the pickup lower, away from the string. That means the attack at the beginning of the plucked note is proportionately less and the decay graph is consequently flatter, giving an illusion of longer sustain. Although the string's vibration hasn't changed.

With all plucked stringed instruments the way to increase actual, real sustain (as opposed to electronic compression of one kind or another) is to do anything you can to improve the rigidity of the system (in the case of Strats that would include decking or even blocking the bridge), and adding mass, especially at the points of contact with the string - the nut, tuners, saddles and trem block.

Of course, more sustain means less traditional Fender "twang". A twangy note is one with a fast decay. You choose where you want to be on a scale between the two.

Cheers - C

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Post subject: Re: Blacktop vs strat ultra (lace sensor) sustain
Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2013 5:45 am
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Thanks, you've all been very helpful. One of my friends just bought a blacktop since I began this thread, and boy, it DOES saturate and sustain like a Les Paul. I'm getting one!! It also can still "quack" like a traditional strat, just a little less so.


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Post subject: Re: Blacktop vs strat ultra (lace sensor) sustain
Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2013 7:15 pm
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Hey Doug...aren't you glad you asked?? Can always count on Ceri for the rest of the story.

While you're at it, pickup a Clapton and play it. Also...run a stock Strat through a TS-9 pedal and see what that does for you.

Warn the neighbors first, though. :wink:

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Post subject: Re: Blacktop vs strat ultra (lace sensor) sustain
Posted: Sun Jun 23, 2013 1:47 pm
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Don't give up the Strat Ultra, though. The red dually in the bridge will give you adequate sustain, without loudness.

I have a Les Paul and the Ultra. I like the Ultra better, due the splitter on the dually. I'm a single coil guy, though and its nice to have a Bucker on the fine platform called Ultra. Sometimes I can't get clarity on the LP, sounds thick as molasses.

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