freefrog
Well-known member
The VH401 is the pickup sold with the Fernandes Sustainer and "guaranting" this system to work - which I find strange since the spacing between magnetic poles seems a bit too narrow for the Floyd Rose style Fernandes tremolo... Potential reason why the high E string is less reactive than others once the sustainer enabled.
Looks like there's various iterations of the VH401, with hex screw poles or not.
The model that I've tested (in a Fernandes Revolver Pro) has slugs and screw poles, a standard keeper bar and a baseplate grossly painted in black... Potting has apparently been done with bees wax and the magnet looks like a rather thick AlNiCo bar...
DCR in series: 13.5k. Inductance: 7.3H. That's a rather high inductance relatively to the measured DCR.
This pickup has an impressively low parasitic capacitance, giving it a distinctive clarity despite of its high inductance and potted coils. I think I've never measured a so high pitched resonant peak on a so hot humbucker...
I've fitted it with a 4 conductors cable allowing parallel wiring. It lowered a bit the resonance in series but not enough to kill the clarity aforementioned.
I finally prefer this VH401 to the X2N temporarily mounted in the Fernandes Revolver Pro where it was initially.
I think that it would be a great "hot" passive Gibson style HB for other guitars, at least if all models have the same high inductance + low stray capacitance than in the one that I've tested. Main reason why I share my experience...
On the Sustainer system:
Even when it looks like a neck humbucker (like in the Revolver Pro), it relies on a single coil measuring only a few Ohm / milliHenries and preamplified to death when used as a pickup... So it has no measurable resonance at all in the audio range. That's why it makes a rather dull neck pickup with some added hiss, although it's playable.
It's quieter than the VH-401 humbucker, even when its volume trim pot is set full up on the circuit. Unless the bridge humbucker is wired in parallel, giving matched levels (but a less efficient operation in Sustainer mode).
Since the system eats batteries for lunch, I've paired it with a 3 lugs rotary switch giving active or passive operation while enabling or disabling the battery... The led absurdly buried in the electronic cavity (and to stupidly watch through a tiny hole in the backplate) has also been relocated in a hole between pots, that I can see while playing.
In (stock) active mode, wether the Sustainer is enabled or not, there's no cable capacitance emulation so the onboard humbucker sounds as if it was played through 15cm of cable: it has much sparkle and crispness (especially with such a low stray capacitance). It's apparently needed for the Sustainer to work. It must also be why Fernandes has mounted 250k volume and tone controls. I've put a single 500k volume pot instead, with a push-pull for series/parallel operation... The tone pot has been pulled off: it worked strangely in active mode anyway.
The Sustainer worked well with the X2N in bridge position but levels were too mismatched, FWIW.
Maybe I'll try some trembucker instead of the VH401, for a better action of the Sustainer on the high E string. Time will tell.
FWIW and only meant to share possibly helpful info...
Looks like there's various iterations of the VH401, with hex screw poles or not.
The model that I've tested (in a Fernandes Revolver Pro) has slugs and screw poles, a standard keeper bar and a baseplate grossly painted in black... Potting has apparently been done with bees wax and the magnet looks like a rather thick AlNiCo bar...
DCR in series: 13.5k. Inductance: 7.3H. That's a rather high inductance relatively to the measured DCR.
This pickup has an impressively low parasitic capacitance, giving it a distinctive clarity despite of its high inductance and potted coils. I think I've never measured a so high pitched resonant peak on a so hot humbucker...
I've fitted it with a 4 conductors cable allowing parallel wiring. It lowered a bit the resonance in series but not enough to kill the clarity aforementioned.
I finally prefer this VH401 to the X2N temporarily mounted in the Fernandes Revolver Pro where it was initially.
I think that it would be a great "hot" passive Gibson style HB for other guitars, at least if all models have the same high inductance + low stray capacitance than in the one that I've tested. Main reason why I share my experience...
On the Sustainer system:
Even when it looks like a neck humbucker (like in the Revolver Pro), it relies on a single coil measuring only a few Ohm / milliHenries and preamplified to death when used as a pickup... So it has no measurable resonance at all in the audio range. That's why it makes a rather dull neck pickup with some added hiss, although it's playable.
It's quieter than the VH-401 humbucker, even when its volume trim pot is set full up on the circuit. Unless the bridge humbucker is wired in parallel, giving matched levels (but a less efficient operation in Sustainer mode).
Since the system eats batteries for lunch, I've paired it with a 3 lugs rotary switch giving active or passive operation while enabling or disabling the battery... The led absurdly buried in the electronic cavity (and to stupidly watch through a tiny hole in the backplate) has also been relocated in a hole between pots, that I can see while playing.
In (stock) active mode, wether the Sustainer is enabled or not, there's no cable capacitance emulation so the onboard humbucker sounds as if it was played through 15cm of cable: it has much sparkle and crispness (especially with such a low stray capacitance). It's apparently needed for the Sustainer to work. It must also be why Fernandes has mounted 250k volume and tone controls. I've put a single 500k volume pot instead, with a push-pull for series/parallel operation... The tone pot has been pulled off: it worked strangely in active mode anyway.
The Sustainer worked well with the X2N in bridge position but levels were too mismatched, FWIW.
Maybe I'll try some trembucker instead of the VH401, for a better action of the Sustainer on the high E string. Time will tell.
FWIW and only meant to share possibly helpful info...
