Why does high action cause maximum sustain? I’m not arguing it doesn’t, I’d just be interested in knowing from a technical standpoint why high action increases sustain.
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Just by looking at this thread I notice I repeat myself a lot. I will say something, then a few days later forget I said it, and say it again… I probably post the same things over and over. lmao. Getting old I guess.
Maybe a better term to say would have been “note clarity”? I notice the more I lower my strings, the note quality diminishes. This is caused by the frets interfering with the vibration field of the strings. This of course turns into fret buzz at a certain point, but I can hear the interference way before it gets to a fret buzz state. It’s most noticeable right after the pick attack.
So less interference to the strings vibration field, the clearer the note, more sustain is a by-product.
OK, that’s interesting. Maybe you can answer one more question I have. If you have seen Yngwie’s live version of Black Star from Japan which is on YouTube, he holds a note in the solo for about a whole minute! As a joke he even pretends to look at his watch who holding that one note. The longer he holds the note, the cooler it is! I love it. My question is: How does he get that note to sustain for that long?
Volume, power amp distortion, natural tube compression, feedback and probably his amp being boosted by his DOD 250 overdrive.
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lol, yeah you just play loud. If you have a amp stage volume, you can walk around and find a spot where the notes will feedback through the amp and keep ringing. Yngwie’s amps are wide open. So it’s pretty easy to start a feedback cycle.
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Energy from the vibrating air (caused by the speaker) is keeping the string vibrating. This is a “good” type of feedback loop (from a guitarists point of view). Not to be confused with microphonic feedback, where it is a mic capsule or the innards of a pickup that is feeding off the speaker’s energy.
For what this kind of resonance can look like on a large scale, see below (though this isn’t a feedback loop, but merely an unfortunate harmonic likeness between the local winds and the bridge):
This type of phenomenon is a major issue in large-scale construction. Buildings beyond a certain height typically have an interior “tuned mass damper” near the top to mitigate the risk from high wind events and earthquakes:
Edit: A longer and nerdier video comparing guitar strings to skyscrapers:
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Great videos Frylock. 
Interesting thread, I think most folks don’t even try 8s for some reason. Been practising on my YJM Strat with YJM strings, when I run out of the YJM strings ( not easily available) I end up with 9-46 with a different spread than his.
I’ve found the 8s scream a lot more than 9s, like there’s quite a bit of difference in my setup. I’m also using high action, anywhere form 3 to 4mm between the high E string and the top of the 12th fret. I think this setup is all about the tones, they’re much bigger, clearer and man it just screams, 9’s don’t do that. The 9 top string seems to have a different attack, slower if you will.
Do try the YJM strings at Eflat with high action, the tones are in there.
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I went back to 8s. I have problems with joint pains on my fretting hand and 8s are so much easier to play. I don’t go do a half step though.
Joe and Yngwie must be picking super light to avoid those 8s flopping around.
They actually don’t flop around with a high action, granted some adjustment in technique is required, but it’s only going to make you more efficient, and sounds killer. I’ve come to the conclusion not all nickel strings are the same, the YJM set certainly has a different feel to it, I wish I could get them more easily.
What brand of strings is Joe Stump using @Troy? He looked to be using different picks as well, maybe 2mm Delrin?
Haven’t seen his name mentioned here, but Frank Marino uses/used .008 gauge strings too and may be tuned down a half step.
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I love Marino! I had no idea about his gear, although I know he builds a lot of his own stuff.
Just wondering, does anyone know what the “mixed minor” scale is that Joe plays?
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It’s Joe’s term for Yngwie-style licks where you’ve got the natural seven and the sharp seven in the same scale:
The B string, with four notes on it, suggests harmonic minor, but the G string also has three notes on it which would suggest natural minor. Honestly, I think Yngwie is just doing this to make the picking work out. This way he can do his four notes / escaped upstroke thing on the B string, then his down-up-pulloff thing on the G, and so on.
I’m not aware of anyone really using this as an actual mode within which you’d write tunes. I’m only aware of this term ever being applied to Yngwie’s fingerings. I think Wolf Marshall once called this “harmolean minor” in an instructional product of his, and it was met with some gentle ribbing. Again, because it seems more like something Yngwie just did for mechanical reasons more so than it sounding a certain way. That’s how it always seemed to me, anyway.
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Thanks, Troy. Those licks he plays were going past too quickly for me to figure out the notes. I like the term “harmolean minor”, it has a cool ring to it. Sounds better than “synthetic scale”.
I think of it as Dorian with the flat 5 in.
Moreso because that was something I already used than because that’s how I think Yngwie is thinking.
It’s a handy note to add in as it turns every one of your awkward Major scale positions into 3nps fingerings without having to shift position (if you put it in once per position).
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Last weekend I started practicing the Black Star lick from Volcano seminars. That extra natural seventh made no sense for a long time and when I play it, it sounds terrible. Yngwie makes it sound terrific. It takes special kind of wizardry to make it so fluid you don’t notice that chromatic stepping stone. I now call it the Hermionian scale, because it comes straight from Hogwarts.
When shall we see the full interview of professor Stump?
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Figured this was the best thread for this on account of visibility. Joe really nailed it on the new Alcatrazz album, really tasty playing.
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