SLAT3 Problem with sustain top E from 22 fret

[wolverine090175]

Hi Everyone,

Complete noob to this site, so apologies in advance if i have posted this thread in the wrong place (I suppose it could also go in general, but anyway).

I have a Jackson SLAT3-6, which i bought 4 years ago. It was built in Japan and I've never had anything go wrong with it until now - in fact it is still an absolute killer of a guitar, im just really fussy about it being the best it can be.

The problem is that when I bend a full step from the 22nd fret on the high E string, I am finding that the note chokes out. This is a significant problem for me because i find this used to be a great sweet spot for finishing a solo. I cannot get sustain here now (and the two frets above) and certainly vibrato at the top of the bend is completely impossible/pointless to attempt.

The only mod I've given this guitar is a customised brass block which does not interfere with the FR mechanism and I made sure i put the saddle back in the right configuration. The pickups are not hitting the string and I have recently had my very experienced luthier significantly reduce the heights of frets 23 & 24, because we logically expected it to be a high fret issue that was killing the sustain. We have observed there is now clearance, so we are assuming this original hypothesis can be eliminated.

I can hear this problem without amplification, so it is not a pickup problem. The strings are 10-52 and tuned to D standard. Both myself and my luthier are at a complete loss to figure out why this should have occurred.

The only thing I can think of is that perhaps the saddle could be somehow causing this.....

I would really appreciate a discussion on how to solve this and save my favourite guitar!

Cheers

[Axewielder]

Have you messed with the pickup height recently? Neck pups in particular can drag on the sustain if they are too high. Saddles can also get burrs. You can swap the low E and high E saddles to remove that possibility.

[wolverine090175]

Have you messed with the pickup height recently? Neck pups in particular can drag on the sustain if they are too high. Saddles can also get burrs. You can swap the low E and high E saddles to remove that possibility.

Thanks for the suggestion, i will definitely try swapping the saddles around. It's definitely not the neck pup getting in the way though.....

[Axewielder]

Yeah it's a long shot but you never know. Choking out on bends is almost always fret-related, but you say you investigated that. If you bend that note all the time you probably wore that 22nd fret down in the middle a bit. Try raising the action at the bridge way up to see if it makes a difference. Do a full counter-clockwise turn on the both OFR studs. If it affects it, it's the frets.

[straycat]

Very low action is a major culprit in cases like this.
If you have taken some height off the last two frets that can be a reason too.
Pick up height has a lot to do as well sounds like you need to tweak the pole piece on the offending string.
If your pick up is too close to the strings you lose sustain.
This may sound crazy but you may have a bad string.It could be as simple as that.Put a new E string on first and see if it still does it.
Strings can go south on you overnight I had that happen in between shows a month ago.
Played a show Friday night changed strings at the motel after the show drove to the next gig and during sound check the G had already gone bad, so a quick change of the G and it was good to go.
Not sure what brand of strings you use but Ernie Balls have not been very good to me lately.
Windings coming loose and kinking up and down the strings.

[toejam]

This may sound crazy but you may have a bad string.It could be as simple as that.Put a new E string on first and see if it still does it.

I've had that happen before.