Sustain.

[OSCAR ZOROASTER]

How does the sustain on an Atom with Bigsby compare to a classic with trem? And somewhat unrelated, how balanced are hollow and solid body Atoms? Not that I am contemplating.......Stop this gas please.

[tom]

sustain is an impossible to pinpoint topic.is it how long a note lasts? or is it how long the note stays at a certain volume before decay? i don't feel like there is a big dif between any of our guitars in sustain except things with 3 alnico magneted pickups. the dif is in how fast the attack is and how the decay happens. a classic with a trem has a faster attack while the bigsby atom has a softer more compressed attack. both notes hang a long time, but depending how hard you pick, the length of even decay will vary.
balance on atoms is never a problem.

[guitarzan]

Oscar, if you're talking about that black atom with a bigsby, that one is over-the-top beautiful. I saw it on the gear page last week and now it showed up here at the TAG forum. If it shows up in my dreams, I'm gonna have to ebay one of my kidneys so that it can show up at my doorstep. :)

[OSCAR ZOROASTER]

I need a humbucker based guitar. Wish I could play an Atom (no dealers near here). The Collings talk got me interested, but I love my classic. I'm getting old enough I'd like to get a pretty guitar once. I've seen some stunning Atoms.