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Topic: Scale Length ? |
Carl McLaughlin
From:
St.Stephen,New Brunswick,Can
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Posted 17 Feb 2021 8:58 am |
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Does a long scale on a lap steel have better tone when played way up the neck towards the pickup? Is it sweeter? I find that on my 22 3/4 scale the notes are tinny ? in sound.???
Carl 
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I have a Tele plus telecaster, Larrivee acoustic. Also have a Fender resonator guitar with new Quarterman cone and spider, and an Allan tailpiece .Playing through a Fender Super Champ XD, using a little delay on the amp and a Harmonix Holy Grail Echo pedal, set on Hall turned to about 1pm.Just Bought a Yamaha FGX5 Recently and love it. Recently got a Sho-NUFF 6 string pedal steel in open G.Still learning.Just bought back my old SX lap steel that i modified, in open G |
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Bill Hatcher
From:
Atlanta Ga. USA
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Posted 17 Feb 2021 9:13 am
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| The scale will affect the sustain for sure. Your tinny sound.....what kind of pickup is on the guitar? |
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Carl McLaughlin
From:
St.Stephen,New Brunswick,Can
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Posted 17 Feb 2021 9:43 am long scale
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I have two laps,both short scale and different pickups,one is a semour duncan the other is a p90 copy.
I have had other short scale laps and some that were expensive but always found way up the neck looses sustain, i think is a better description than tone.
Carl
_________________
I have a Tele plus telecaster, Larrivee acoustic. Also have a Fender resonator guitar with new Quarterman cone and spider, and an Allan tailpiece .Playing through a Fender Super Champ XD, using a little delay on the amp and a Harmonix Holy Grail Echo pedal, set on Hall turned to about 1pm.Just Bought a Yamaha FGX5 Recently and love it. Recently got a Sho-NUFF 6 string pedal steel in open G.Still learning.Just bought back my old SX lap steel that i modified, in open G |
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Bill Hatcher
From:
Atlanta Ga. USA
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Posted 17 Feb 2021 10:45 am
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ok, so its sustain you are speaking of more than tone.
sustain is dependent on several factors. the mass of the guitar, the bridge, the nut, the wood, the scale etc.
try to find a heavy longer scale guitar to try out and see that makes a difference. if it does, then your quest will be a guitar that will give you what you are looking for sustain wise in higher positions.
when i make lap steels, i have found that even with a shorter scale, the sustain can be compensated for by increasing the body mass and making the bridge and nut so that more string energy is transferred to and from the body. different woods and even bodies with lots of aluminum make a big difference rather than lighter bodies.
does your guitar have a cut out area at the end of the neck where the machine heads are....probably not a good description....is the machine head area thinner than the rest of the neck area? |
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Carl McLaughlin
From:
St.Stephen,New Brunswick,Can
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Posted 17 Feb 2021 11:34 am sustain
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Yeh the head stock is cut away in the center,really don't like this style but price was right.Hard to change strings on this style of head stock as well.
_________________
I have a Tele plus telecaster, Larrivee acoustic. Also have a Fender resonator guitar with new Quarterman cone and spider, and an Allan tailpiece .Playing through a Fender Super Champ XD, using a little delay on the amp and a Harmonix Holy Grail Echo pedal, set on Hall turned to about 1pm.Just Bought a Yamaha FGX5 Recently and love it. Recently got a Sho-NUFF 6 string pedal steel in open G.Still learning.Just bought back my old SX lap steel that i modified, in open G |
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Nic Neufeld
From:
Kansas City, Missouri
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Posted 17 Feb 2021 12:17 pm
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I have the 8 string version...similar headstock. I wouldn't say it has the sustain of my cast aluminum Clinesmith but then again, not many do!  I don't love the adjustable floating tune-o-matic style bridge on the 6 string for a few reasons, but I don't know that sustain would be that strongly effected. I mean, ask Nigel Tufnel, a Les Paul has great sustain! 
One thing I can think of...if you are insufficiently muting behind the bar, and you get up to the 12th fret...that's an easy way to get weird tones and loss of string energy as you have the natural harmonic there and it can kind of choke out your sustain (at least in my limited experience)
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Waikīkī, at night when the shadows are falling
I hear the rolling surf calling
Calling and calling to me |
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