Need help with Sustainiac circuit mod

[che_guitarra]

I'm installing a Sustainiac but none of the supplied schematics are exactly as I plan to go. My plan = 1x bridge humbucker and 1x volume pot, on/off toggle for the Sustainiac system, and another toggle to flick between the Sustainiac's harmonic modes.

Basically, I want to mod this circuit to include a volume pot. If it were a regular circuit, no worries, but the extra complexity of the Sustainiac PCB is throwing me off, and i'm not 100% confident in my ability to wing the mod. Can anyone throw me a bone?

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Need help with Sustainiac circuit mod

Which exact version of the Sustainiac have you got?

In a typical application, the bridge position pickup and the Driver both need to be connected via the PCB. The overall output signal goes to a Master Volume pot and, finally, to the output socket.

 

[che_guitarra]

Re: Need help with Sustainiac circuit mod

Stealth Pro kit (I think it's called). I actually installed it in another guitar, but the black korina body had some weird notch filtering going on (flipped a few pickups through it, but same dead frequencies each time), so I flipped that body it for a swamp ash body and now it sounds perfect. But having installed it in the other guitar, I now know i'm not using it to be a potential neck pickup, it's only use to me is as an ebow style effect. Unfortunately the new body is a PITA to troubleshoot with because you have to disassemble half the guitar (pull the trem out and remove the neck so you can remove the pickguard) just to access the wiring cavity.

It's a shame, because the black korina was really good looking (and cheap! that's why I gave it a shot):

The swamp ash body on the other hand is nothing special to look at, but it feels and sounds perfect:

Not sure what i've done but the sustainiac in the new body isn't firing into life. I have a feeling the neck driver might have been damaged (wiring tail felt loose upon install), but if I can confirm my wiring is 100% correct at least that's one avenue of troubleshooting I can square away.

 

[Gone_Shootin]

Re: Need help with Sustainiac circuit mod

You're wanting to add a drive knob to control the level of the Sustainiac effect?

Here's Sustainiac's page that shows how the Jackson DK2S was wired up in a few revisions. You'll have to delete the tone pot and other pickups from the diagrams, but it shows how the drive knob is hooked up.

http://www.sustainiac.com/jackson.htm

 

[che_guitarra]

Re: Need help with Sustainiac circuit mod

Not wanting a drive knob. The only pot I want is a volume for the bridge pickup.

The only other controls I want are the obligatory Sustainiac controls - an on/off toggle, and a harmonic mode toggle. I won't be using the Sustainiac as a neck pickup, just as an effect driver.


I've had a look at all the Sustainiac diagrams, but none are exactly as I plan to roll. The extras coming from the PCB are throwing me off, and in this case i'm not confident enough in my schematic interpretation/electronic skills to chop and change the circuit layout as I please.