I was wondering what I can do to maximize the sustain on a fretless CBG I'm building. Whether it be action, scale length, strings, fretboard, or anything else; I would like to know so I don't end up with too short of a sound.
You need to be a member of Cigar Box Nation to add comments!
Replies
Hi, also on a fretless instrument there is not the "hard contact of strings to a fret. The hard contact surface allows the strings to vibrate longer. The energy of the vibrating string is soaked up by the softer wood contact of a fretless board and less so when using more denser materials
That's why there is a lot of attention paid to nut, saddle, fret, and neck materials regarding their density and contribution to tone sustain and volume.
Hope this helps. Taff.
A few videos:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Pc_IcwKKKSw&list=PLQoYJG1ht92f3gc...
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PdFhEOOZ8fU&t=94s
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aZk2b4UHITs&t=111s
Thank you.
Lack of sustain is caused by an incorrect setup, usually somewhere between the bridge and nut, even neck angle can cause issues. String type and scale length aren’t factors, but if the strings are too big or too small for the grooves in the nut/ bridge you will get buzzing & loss of sustain? But it’s fretless, so there’s not much to set up? There are a few videos on YouTube discussing the setup of fretless cbg’s, you might check those out as well?