Sustain

How long a note continues to sound after the string is struck, which is a measure of how little energy the instrument takes out of it.

Everything absorbs string energy to some degree: the body, the hardware, the string's own damping and the electrical load of pickups, where a strong magnetic field can pull on the string and shorten the note. Instruments with heavy bridges and stiff joints tend to sustain longer, which is why sustain is often discussed alongside neck joints and bridge mass. In practice, an amplifier's compression extends the perception of sustain well beyond the string's own decay.

Example: a hardtail guitar with a heavy bridge usually holds a note longer than a floating tremolo version of the same instrument.

Sustain

See also