Anyone ever tried Sustainer?

[Sporky McGuffin]

Re: Anyone ever tried Sustainer?

If you want a neck pickup alongside a sustainer you're best with a mini humbucker - according to the Sustainiac people a normal single coil will be badly affected by the magentic field around the Sustainiac driver, even when it's off.

Dunno how/if that affects an EMG.

 

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: Anyone ever tried Sustainer?

My Sustainiac driver came with a metal plate you're supposed to put between it and another pickup if you're doing 2 singles in one slot. It's a non-ferrous (won't stick to magnets) field inhibitor or something - supposed to prevent the driver from killing your regular single.

That's probably what K.K. has on his V.

 

[Diocletian]

Re: Anyone ever tried Sustainer?

I had no idea Kerry King used a sustainer. I've never noticed it on any Slayer songs and don't really see why he'd need one.

Phil Collen is the only guy I listen to that uses a sustainer and I think "Man I'd love to be able to get that sound."

 

[Warheart]

Re: Anyone ever tried Sustainer?

My Sustainiac driver came with a metal plate you're supposed to put between it and another pickup if you're doing 2 singles in one slot. It's a non-ferrous (won't stick to magnets) field inhibitor or something - supposed to prevent the driver from killing your regular single.

That's probably what K.K. has on his V.

That, and EMG's have less magnetic pull anyways. Probably works in his favor.

I'd say he uses it whenever he's doing anything with his kahler trem? seems like no chance of a string going dead!

 

[marvelous_seven]

Re: Anyone ever tried Sustainer?

I had no idea Kerry King used a sustainer. I've never noticed it on any Slayer songs and don't really see why he'd need one.

Phil Collen is the only guy I listen to that uses a sustainer and I think "Man I'd love to be able to get that sound."

As Kerry said in Guitar World interview,"It is a fun toy".
You know he mean it,and it really means nothing to use your toy when you write a serious song..
But for me,it's really fun to add something unique to my playing..

Anyone else who knows?

 

[SirJackdeFuzz]

Re: Anyone ever tried Sustainer?

To add another question (because I'm REALLY REALLY curious about it),have you guys seen Kerry King's B.C. Rich sig V?
It has EMG 81 in the bridge and EMG SA in the neck ALONG WITH Fernandes Sustainer Driver..
Is it really possible to do that?
How do they wired?
And,is there any pickup ring that could hold 2 single coils together (refer to Kerry's neck pickup setup)?

It's usually not an EMG SA but is either a Fernandes copy of the SA or part of the sustainer humbucker neck pickup itself.

Really?
Because I'm sure it has EMG logo on it,so why don't you try take a look a Fernandes poster with Kerry's on it?
You can CLEARLY see EMG logo..

If there's a way to do that kind of setup I'd love to try it you know..

Sounds like the Adrian Belew Signature Fly has the same neck set-up, i think.
Have not yet seen the KK V sig. Not a fan of the man's guitars.

http://www.parkerguitars.com/Signature-Series/

Now give me an Adam Dutkiewics (with SD BlackOuts) anyday : http://www.rockpalace.com/en/gfx_pr...Adam-Dutkiewicz-Signature-Fly-Dusty-Black.jpg

 

[J Moose]

Re: Anyone ever tried Sustainer?

I had no idea Kerry King used a sustainer. I've never noticed it on any Slayer songs and don't really see why he'd need one.

Here he is;

 

[Diocletian]

Re: Anyone ever tried Sustainer?

Cool, thanks, I just assumed "Dead Skin Mask" etc used natural feedback, I can see how that would work well for live stuff though.

 

[marvelous_seven]

Re: Anyone ever tried Sustainer?

Is there anyone elsa?
I hope some of another well-experienced user might give a thought..
Zerberus? Aceman? Would you mind?

 

[marvelous_seven]

Re: Anyone ever tried Sustainer?

^ I might wanna know too,because I've only ever seen one made by Fernandes not the Sustainiac one (in real life)..

 

[JohnnyGuitarCA]

Re: Anyone ever tried Sustainer?

A few years back I was the National Sales manager of Fernandes/Hiwatt.
My opinion? The Fernandes Sustainer is AMAZING. Listen to "Me wise Magic" and "Humans Being" by Van Halen, or "Frank" by Steve Vai. The Sustainer is all over those tracks. We didn't give them (The Sustainer kits) away to ANY artist, so EVH BOUGHT several of them from us. I kid you not.

 

[JohnnyGuitarCA]

Re: Anyone ever tried Sustainer?

Yeah, but you have to drill alot of your guitar just to mount it. Where I can install the Sustainiac and not drill anything. So, I can return it to normal if I need to.

And you run the risk of someone messing your guitar up having to drill it.

Well Josh, have you noticed that a LOT more players use the Fernandes Sustainer than ANY other sustain devices BY FAR? EVH, Kerry King, Steve Vai, etc. can afford any piece of gear they want. They choose the Fernandes units, and let me stress this fact again, those artists have to BUY them, they don't get them for free. PERIOD. That alone speaks volumes.

The Fernandes Sustainer is a far superior device to the alternatives.

Yes, it does require modification of a guitar body...TO A POINT. (READ ON!)

There is an alternative method of installing it: The Sustainer's functions that would normally be controlled by 2 face mounted toggle switches can instead be wired to push/pull pots to achieve the exact same functions, so the front of your guitar won't look any different. And yes, it DOES call for some routing on the back of the guitar, but again, EVH, Kerry King, Vai, etc. use the Fernandes units. Does that tell you something?

No company can guarantee that every tech in the world can do a given job. That's why Fernandes has a list of certified Sustainer installers and can direct you to the nearest one. Don't blame Fernandes if you have a hack try to install it. A certified tech can always call Fernandes with any Sustainer installation questions. They are very helpful people!. I hope this post addresses your concerns. Be well!

 

[JohnnyGuitarCA]

Re: Anyone ever tried Sustainer?

Josh wrote: Though Fernandes really needs to make the board smaller, and have it where you wire up the toggle switches vs. them being mounted on the board. That would allow the kit to be able to go into more guitars without there being the need to route out the guitar.

Reread my post above. I already covered that topic. It can be wired to work with push/pull pots, yep the switches have to be removed, but it is a true alternative.

Josh wrote: Sure though, if I got tons of guitars for free like Vai and Kerry, I wouldn't care to hack it up.

Again, they keep buying the Fernandes units instead of the other brands of sustainers, free guitars or not.

Have a good one, bro!

 

[Diocletian]

Re: Anyone ever tried Sustainer?

EVH, Kerry King, Vai, etc. use the Fernandes units. Does that tell you something?
[/COLOR][/I][/B]

Yeah. That those guys all have the cash to get a pro to install something most players would only use occasionally, and spare guitars to drill holes in!

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

Re: Anyone ever tried Sustainer?

I think they're great if you're playing on stages where the backline is offstage, as I do alot, and if you're using "in ears" monitors. They're also nice if you're recording in your home studio via Pod Farm or other D.I. units where mic'ing a cab is impractical, used sparsely of course.

 

[Sporky McGuffin]

Re: Anyone ever tried Sustainer?

I've used the Fernandes Sustainer and the Sustainiac.

Consequently I have two guitars with Sustainiacs and none with Sustainers. The Sustainiac is far better - more powerful, easier to integrate with the guitar/pickups/controls of your choice and much longer battery life.

And bear in mind I've never had any commercial attachment to either company.

 

[Binnerscot]

Re: Anyone ever tried Sustainer?

There are only two sustainers, Fernandez and Sustainiac.

History: Floyd Rose invented it, sold his patents to Sustainiac, Fernandez is a competing product, but different design.

Very few production guitars ever came with sustainers; Kramer sustainer (Floyd Rose), Hamer Chaparral (Sustainiac), Fernandez (obvious), Jackson PC-1 (Fernandez), Jackson DK2S (Sustainiac), there might be a few more.

Jackson US uses the Fernandez (PC-1), Jackson Japan uses the Sustainiac (DK2S), Jackson Custom shop will not do a Sustainiac but will do the Fernandez.

Sustainiac > Fernandez

The Sustainiac operates as an active neck pickup when the sustainer is turn off. It is a single coil sized pup, the humbucker has a dummy housing attached to look like a humbucker. It has an adjustable trim for output to match pups (from vintage single coil output to hot active single output). Current models also have a switch to flip from single coil tone to humbucker tone, regardless of model (single size vs humbucker size).

They are fun, they work great, they are really an effect, everyone needs one guitar with a sustainer.

That is all off the top of my head.

 

[Binnerscot]

Re: Anyone ever tried Sustainer?

And bear in mind I've never had any commercial attachment to either company.

Me either, but I think they are pretty cool.

 

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: Anyone ever tried Sustainer?

I was looking at this diagram for the Sustainiac:

www.sustainiac.com/2pu_2-pot_toggles.pdf

You see some thick black wires with a small red wire being soldered. I'm refering to the non-pickup wires. Then there is a small black wire coming from those wires going to ground. What is that small black wire? It says something like a shield for that wire.

That shield wire is a ground wire.

One thing though in that drawing. I think I could just solder the white wire directly to the "B" part of the 3-way toggle switch. And I don't see the point in splicing in the bridge pickup wire to the white wire. I'd just solder that also to the "B" part of the 3-way toggle switch. Makes more since than the way they have it in the drawing.

Actually, the way the Sustainiac is designed is so the bridge pickup turns on when the driver is activated, and all other pickups turn off. If you activate the driver while on the neck or middle pickups - even if you have the single-coil driver mounted in the neck position with another regular single coil - the system shuts everything off except the bridge pickup.

If you're using the humbucker-sized Sustainiac driver in a 2-hum guitar and wire the bridge pickup straight to the 3-way as you suggest, you'll have to manually switch to the bridge pickup because the driver cannot function as a pickup AND the effect at the same time.

 

[Sporky McGuffin]

Re: Anyone ever tried Sustainer?

The Sustainiac people know what they're about - you really need to be 100% sure of what you're doing if you're going to try something else.