Installing Sustainiac in Strat.. trials, tribulations, pictures

[syo***]

Sorry to hear it wasn't thumbs up.
Sometimes it's best to punt. I think you'll probably get more sleep this way. Let us know how great it is when you have it back.

[333maxwell]

OK..

I tooled around and got it working 'enough'... I still have to play with it.. but I am going to call this one a wrap.. it just has times it works better than others.. but at times it is indeed working.. *L*

Here is a gander a the final project.. although I didn't get her to snap any 'back side' photo's so you can see my battery issues in back.. right now it is partially housed in the trem cavity and that works fine for putzing around at hime, but I still need to route a tiny bit to get it right.

This guitar was the best of 3 guitars put together. At first I was going to use a different and much lighter and a scalloped neck with it, but as the body needed routed and I didn't want to do that to the nice body so I used this one as it is heavy and could afford to lose any weight it can.. the thing is a tank. Heavy Les Paul heavy. But it rings notes forever on it's own without the sustainer.. as a result of having to use this body I couldn't use the scalloped neck without shaving it a bit, and lord knows I didn't want to do that, so I was stuck with this body and one of two other necks. Like I say, the upside to being heavy is she does sing.

She doesn't really sound like a Strat.. more like a Paul at times, partially due to the humbuckers, and partially due to the weight. But with the Strat scale length and the action set as I do, it is 100 Percent Strat.

I will put up some sound clips in the next few days, now I have rigged it all together I want to lock myself away for a bit and get the hang of things.

[Ch0jin]

Cool, glad to hear you've found some measure of peace with this project. I know how these kind of things can keep me up at night when they don't go as expected.

So is it fair to say that the end result is a guitar that has WAY more sustain that stock and gives you controllable feedback at low volume?

[333maxwell]

Cool, glad to hear you've found some measure of peace with this project. I know how these kind of things can keep me up at night when they don't go as expected.

So is it fair to say that the end result is a guitar that has WAY more sustain that stock and gives you controllable feedback at low volume?

Hiya..

I don't call it 'sustain' myself, even though 'they' do. I rather think of it as strings in motion with the potential to endlessly resonate' *L*.

What happens is that the neck pup doubles up as a an electro magnetic driver.

The signal from the bridge pickup is sent to the driver (neck pickup) and it sends it to an on-board amplifier that amplifies the string frequencies and sends it into the neck driver and the neck driver works much on the same principal as a speaker, well.. kind of.. the string signal gets amped and instead of moving a magnetic speaker coil it moves strings (the strings are the initial sound source AND it's own speaker (if you will) making for an interesting bit of fun..

When everything is optimum this causes the string to resonate off it's own signal for as long as you want, and you have the option of the string resonating in differing harmonics.

By string resonating, I mean the strings actually move. Just plugging in a blank cable (to turn it on) and pulling the knob sets it in motion.. you can feel the strings take off.. it's a wonderful thing.

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Again, that is when it is at it's optimum. *L*

I'm going to get it completely figured out.. for now it still works fun enough.

Thanks for asking.

[M29]

I didn't know anything about the Sustaniac but it sounds very interesting. I feel your pain, I dread doing anything with pickup cavities and the teeny tiny wires that are within.
All the best on it. I think a little time away from it will help. You will get it dialed in.
I don't know if you use a capo on the strings when you remove the neck but I found that it helps keep things in order until you get the neck back on.

My wife is the same way. If I am reading a magazine and get up to answer the phone or go the the rest room, when I come back my magazine is put away. Urgh...I love her dearly though!!

Keep on keepin on 333maxwell

[333maxwell]

I didn't know anything about the Sustaniac but it sounds very interesting. I feel your pain, I dread doing anything with pickup cavities and the teeny tiny wires that are within.
All the best on it. I think a little time away from it will help. You will get it dialed in.
I don't know if you use a capo on the strings when you remove the neck but I found that it helps keep things in order until you get the neck back on.

My wife is the same way. If I am reading a magazine and get up to answer the phone or go the the rest room, when I come back my magazine is put away. Urgh...I love her dearly though!!

Keep on keepin on 333maxwell

Thanks, got her running now.. changed a few things at once so I can't say exactly, but it looks like after all is said and done, it was a guitar cord that was not exactly shorted, but there was slight capacitance between the positive and shield.. seemingly it was what was shutting it down.. about the time I got it up and running, Hoover emailed me and said 'hey, I just remembered ... took me awhile but.. many years ago I had the same issue and I screwed with it forever and finally I discovered it was just the guitar cord.. causing just the right amount of capacitance that it would shut down when turned all the way up'...

Well, when he wrote I had just changed cords and re-wired in a mono jack where the thing is on all the time (until I remove the battery) and put here all together and she works..

I'll get some sound clips soon enough.. the moment I got it to work I lost interest.. I don't have the desire to play.. *L*... So I am giving it some space right now.

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Other than that I christen her DONE.. I just have to route a notch in the back for correct battery placement. Die hard trem users should note I use the trem as aggressively as anyone, and I have been off centering springs since my first set of actives over 20 some odd years ago. They work fine.. I'd put this standard trem against any in stability and retaining tune.