I'm putting together a Frankenstrat from some misc parts that I had laying around. I wanted to check wiring so I put two strings on and tuned them up. While tuning, I noticed that I hadn't screwed the bridge all the way down, and it was tilting up in the back, at an angle. I hit the strings a few times and was satisfied with the sound (the Seymour-Duncan Pearly Gates at the neck along with a SD '59 sounds amazing, by the way). Right before I took the strings off to fix the bridge, I noticed something. I plucked a string and the sustain was unbelievable. It would sustain basically forever.
I thought this was a great sign for my new guitar. I screwed the bridge down, put strings back on and... the sustain was back to what I would consider normal. I also noticed slightly less "depth" to the sound. I backed the screws off again to double-check and the "eternal sustain" was back. The bridge is a strat style with the springs in the back. I'm using very heavy springs and I could feel the bridge vibrating. I figured this was a novelty that would likely cause the guitar to detune quickly but nope, it has held tuning just fine after several hours of playing.
So for now, I'm leaving the bridge canted, as ridiculous as it looks, because both the sound and the sustain of the guitar is dramatically better.
It may be useless info but I thought I would share, just for those curious about technical stuff. Anyway, CSB.
Pic (and yes, I am going to replace the silver hardware):
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