NGD: More Sustain Than Nigel Tufnel's '59 Les Paul

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IbanezDaemon

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A cool little Schecter Sun Valley Super Shredder. Nice budget superstrat. I wanted to check this out as I have a rather expensive Ibanez J Custom coming in that had a Sustainer pickup in it but now reverted to original neck pickup so wanted to see how I bonded with the Sustainiac before I drop a good pile of cash dropping one into the J Custom.

It's a pretty cool guitar....well made for the price. No obvious flaws that I can see. The Sustainer pickup is pretty cool though it does require a good degree of muting as everything else will ring out life a mofo if you don't. Only downside is the Floyd Rose Special (GULP!!!). When you hear the word Special after Floyd Rose....be afraid!! They actually called this one the the Floyd Rose Special 'Hot Rod'....insert another Spinal Tap reference here...lol! Thing is if you're gonna own a guitar with a Sustainer pickup chances are you're gonna indulge in a bit of trem wankery and the Floyd Rose Specials don't hold up to any prolonged abuse whatsoever.
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budda

budda

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Looks good!

Been tempted by cheap MIJ Fernandes or the Ed O’Brien fender strat to mess around with a sustainer.
 
High Plains Drifter

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Awesome! I picked one up a while back but in a PT tele flavor surf green. I've loved what the Sustainiac can do ever since my first one ( a Blackjack) back in 2015. Decent pricing on the Sun Valley especially with the SS frets. I've found too that muting is a must but that you can also gain some control by tweaking the vol pots and switch position. Fwiw I've got a Gotoh 1996t that I'm going to replace the Special with.

Congratulations! Love the black and white with that dark board.
 
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HeHasTheJazzHands said:
Once you learn how to play with the sustainer it's a really cool tool. I wish I could have one in all my guitars but that's expensive and I'm not a fan of the on-board neck pickup sound.
Click to expand...
You know the Sustainiac's preamp gives you 4 different sounds to play with, right? You can have it boosted or un-boosted, darker or more open sounding... and combine these in 4 different tones. The guys at sustainiac generally suggest what they say it's the hum (darker and boosted) and single coil sound (unboosted and more open sounding), and also suggest a one switch wiring for that, but we can separate both options in 2 different switches, so to get 4 different sounds... my fretless latest circuit iteration has all these options.

I'm not sure about the Fernandez Sustainer, but I also haven't heard of it (nor Fernandez) for a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG long time...
 
Fenriswolf

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odibrom said:
Sustainers are super cool to play with. These little gadgets will makes play differently. I need a new project guitar with one of these...
Click to expand...

As much as I'd love to try one, I don't need it. I learned how to do like 90% of the whammy bar stuff I want to do for my playing with out one (bend the neck and harmonics with behind the nut bends), so I have a Floyd, I just fuck off with it. I'm like Zakk Wylde and his pinch harmonics, but dive bombs, Dime squeals and flutters. I have way too bad either ADHD or tism for something like that.
 
HeHasTheJazzHands

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odibrom said:
You know the Sustainiac's preamp gives you 4 different sounds to play with, right? You can have it boosted or un-boosted, darker or more open sounding... and combine these in 4 different tones. The guys at sustainiac generally suggest what they say it's the hum (darker and boosted) and single coil sound (unboosted and more open sounding), and also suggest a one switch wiring for that, but we can separate both options in 2 different switches, so to get 4 different sounds... my fretless latest circuit iteration has all these options.

I'm not sure about the Fernandez Sustainer, but I also haven't heard of it (nor Fernandez) for a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG lo
Click to expand...
No I didn't know because every guitar I've had doesnt make use of those features :lol: therefore I always thought they just had once sound and it was that single coil sound + the onboard trim pot
 
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Fenriswolf said:
As much as I'd love to try one, I don't need it. I learned how to do like 90% of the whammy bar stuff I want to do for my playing with out one (bend the neck and harmonics with behind the nut bends), so I have a Floyd, I just fuck off with it. I'm like Zakk Wylde and his pinch harmonics, but dive bombs, Dime squeals and flutters. I have way too bad either ADHD or tism for something like that.
Click to expand...

Sustainers aren't only for pyrotechnics FXs on guitar, they can bring up lots of expression that would be almost impossible other way. I'm looking at mixing the sustaining FX with pitch shifter FX like the whammy pedal or with delays/loopers to create harmonies. The possibilities are way beyond normal guitar pyrotechnic conventions.


HeHasTheJazzHands said:
No I didn't know because every guitar I've had doesnt make use of those features :lol: therefore I always thought they just had once sound and it was that single coil sound + the onboard trim pot
Click to expand...
That's Sustainiac's fault, because they only advert those sounds and brands go with it. But there's that possibility for sure, one MUST read carefully their installation manual... (if that can be called a manual). To be honest, I'm not sure if their actual preamp/sustainer board features those options, the one I have is from 2010 (Stealth something model). However, I went on and read what I could, either from the actual files they presently have on their site, either from what I've gathered years ago and last year I managed to rewire my guitar this way: 4 mini switches only for the Sustainiac board: 2 to manage the Sustainer ON/OFF and MODE and 2 to manage the neck pickup tone.
 
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I bought my wife a Super Shredder last year, hard tail in Black Limba. I hate how heavy it is, 9lbs+. Nice enough guitar otherwise.
 
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odibrom said:
That's Sustainiac's fault, because they only advert those sounds and brands go with it. But there's that possibility for sure, one MUST read carefully their installation manual... (if that can be called a manual). To be honest, I'm not sure if their actual preamp/sustainer board features those options, the one I have is from 2010 (Stealth something model). However, I went on and read what I could, either from the actual files they presently have on their site, either from what I've gathered years ago and last year I managed to rewire my guitar this way: 4 mini switches only for the Sustainiac board: 2 to manage the Sustainer ON/OFF and MODE and 2 to manage the neck pickup tone.
Click to expand...

Considering I have a hard time reading Sustainiac's walls of text that make up their "manual" and their 2006-era website, where did you find that information? Because if it's possible for me to change the sound of the sustainiac pickup, that would be AMAZING. That's my only complaint about the system, really. That and Sustainiac doesn't respond to emails. Ever. At least to me.
 
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I feel your pain. They're a small family owned company (don't know how many workers they employ, but these are in a very small number) playing the big game with global brands like Ibanez and Scheckter. They won't reply to any of the emails they receive. They have old schematics laying around their site that are suitable to no longer produced preamps as they have changed them along the way.. but the schematics aren't dated, so one cannot guess. Their site is not from 2006, that's internet pre historic and archeological site. When i was rewiring my guitar, it took me a huge amount of time to understand what I'm looking at as the preamp's wire description. That's were I got my info and I did exchange some emails with them in the past (several years ago), but they weren't very helpful.

You need to find a file with the WIRE FUNCTION DESCRIPTION, suitable to your preamp board. That's where I found out how to change and get different tones for the neck pickup. It's a PDF file with only 1 page, an illustration of the preamp, the wire order and color and their descrition.
 
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odibrom said:
I feel your pain. They're a small family owned company (don't know how many workers they employ, but these are in a very small number) playing the big game with global brands like Ibanez and Scheckter. They won't reply to any of the emails they receive. They have old schematics laying around their site that are suitable to no longer produced preamps as they have changed them along the way.. but the schematics aren't dated, so one cannot guess. Their site is not from 2006, that's internet pre historic and archeological site. When i was rewiring my guitar, it took me a huge amount of time to understand what I'm looking at as the preamp's wire description. That's were I got my info and I did exchange some emails with them in the past (several years ago), but they weren't very helpful.

You need to find a file with the WIRE FUNCTION DESCRIPTION, suitable to your preamp board. That's where I found out how to change and get different tones for the neck pickup. It's a PDF file with only 1 page, an illustration of the preamp, the wire order and color and their descrition.
Click to expand...
Dude, you are a godsend. That was EXACTLY what I needed. Now if there's a way to spread this information further for anyone else who will inevitably come up against this issue, we should probably do that. Though IDK what the best course of action is. Because I couldn't find anything describing what you described until you brought it up.
 
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asopala said:
Dude, you are a godsend. That was EXACTLY what I needed. Now if there's a way to spread this information further for anyone else who will inevitably come up against this issue, we should probably do that. Though IDK what the best course of action is. Because I couldn't find anything describing what you described until you brought it up.
Click to expand...
You're too kind and their file naming isn't top either, if I remember correctly.
 
TonyFlyingSquirrel

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Fernandez seems to have gone belly up a few years ago, Sustainiac is the only current on board game in town.

Their website is archaic and crowded, needs a complete re-design. This system needs more quick connect options in a conditional logic order entry system.
 
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