Suspended 4ths: Do you play them with or without the 3rd?

[GuitarGuillermo]

When you strum a suspended fourth chord, do you usually include at least one major third in the chord or do you eliminate all the thirds from the chord by muting them or moving up to fourths or fifths? I've got into a long internet discussion on this and am interested in getting more opinions.

[cyberfret]

There will be no 3rd in a sus4 chord. If you have both a major 3rd and the 4th, the chord is called an (add4) chord....Like G(add4). But is very hard to get this to sound correct. In this type of chord is best to put the 4 somewhere below the 3rd, above just sounds bad.

I have seen a lot of people mistakenly play a Gsus4 like this. The 3rd on the 5th string will really clash with the 4th on the 2nd string. This could be called a bad sounding G(add4) chord

E:----3-----------
B:----1-----------
G:----0-----------
D:----0-----------
A:----2-----------
E:----3-----------

If you want Gsus4 you will mute the 5th string...removing the 3rd.

E:----3-----------
B:----1-----------
G:----0-----------
D:----0-----------
A:----x-----------
E:----3-----------


If you have a minor 3rd and the 4th, this is called a m(add11) chord. Or you could also called it m(add4) This will sound good.

But sus = no 3rd


--Shawn