yetanotherchris Posted December 4, 2006 Report Posted December 4, 2006 Hi folks! My first post on what looks like a great board, I'd really appreciate any help you can offer! I'm planning on wiring up a guitar with a Dually Red-Red Lace Sensor in the bridge, a Fernandez Sustainer, and for the output signal from the single volume/single tone to pass through a Delay Modboard. To simplify: Red-Red Dually Lace Sensor/Sustainer > Vol > Tone > Modboard > Output Wiring up the various elements is fine, since they all come with their own diagrams. The tricky part is how to wire the first part into the Modboard, as both use 9v Batterys and I have next to no electronics experience. Don't want to fry anything or not ground properly! The creator of the modboard said it was possible, but that I'd have to be 'clever about it'! Here's the PDFs for the various bits: http://fernandesguitars.com/manuals/FSK401.pdf http://www.guitarfetish.com/MODboards_lo.pdf http://www.guitarfetish.com/DL1_lo.pdf If anyone can give me asimple diagram that'd be fantastic, but really even vague, general advice would be appreciated! Chris Quote
Sambo Posted December 5, 2006 Report Posted December 5, 2006 you just need to piggy back the modboard onto the connection that would be to the jack and connect the power supply to both powered parts. I havent got any experiance with modboards, so i cant tell you a huge amount. but if its anything like the other boards guitarfetish used to sell then that's the way to do it. s x Quote
yetanotherchris Posted December 6, 2006 Author Report Posted December 6, 2006 you just need to piggy back the modboard onto the connection that would be to the jack and connect the power supply to both powered parts. Thanks Sambo! Can someone translate this into a dead simple doodle showing the wiring to the jack and how to wire up the battery? As I said, I'm a complete layman... Quote
Sambo Posted December 6, 2006 Report Posted December 6, 2006 right.... wire the sustainer up as per its manual. then, wire the output that would have gone to the jack from the sustainer circuit to the input of the modboard (and the ground tot he input ground on the modboard), then wire the output from the modboard to the jack as per the modboard manual. Hope that makes sense. If you're still having toruble i'll draw it up for you. S Quote
yetanotherchris Posted December 7, 2006 Author Report Posted December 7, 2006 right.... wire the sustainer up as per its manual. then, wire the output that would have gone to the jack from the sustainer circuit to the input of the modboard (and the ground tot he input ground on the modboard), then wire the output from the modboard to the jack as per the modboard manual. Hope that makes sense. If you're still having toruble i'll draw it up for you. S Making a lot more sense now, yeah! Thanks for sticking with this! One final question. Should I wire up each part with it's own battery (as per the diagrams) or should I use the one battery to power the whole thing? If the latter option, how would I go about it? Personally I'd be happier with two batteries, but whatever's least complicated... Thanks once again S! Chris Quote
Sambo Posted December 7, 2006 Report Posted December 7, 2006 Can do whatever really. But use a battery box! makes changing the damn things easier. If you wire em up separate then its easy enough. Wiring up wo same battery is easy too... just split each wire from battery box in two and wire it as you would with two batteries S Quote
yetanotherchris Posted December 8, 2006 Author Report Posted December 8, 2006 Can do whatever really. But use a battery box! makes changing the damn things easier. If you wire em up separate then its easy enough. Wiring up wo same battery is easy too... just split each wire from battery box in two and wire it as you would with two batteries S Just what I was thinkin, but it helps to have someone with half a clue say it! Cheers! Chris Quote
yetanotherchris Posted December 20, 2006 Author Report Posted December 20, 2006 right.... wire the sustainer up as per its manual. then, wire the output that would have gone to the jack from the sustainer circuit to the input of the modboard (and the ground tot he input ground on the modboard), then wire the output from the modboard to the jack as per the modboard manual. Hope that makes sense. If you're still having toruble i'll draw it up for you. S Ok, so wires A and B are soldered to the input and input ground on the Modboard. Wires C and D are just left as per this diagram, yeah? I just want to be sure on this before I crack out the solder! Thanks, Chris Quote
psw Posted December 20, 2006 Report Posted December 20, 2006 Chris... psw here from the DIY sustainer thread. Nice idea with the delay, I love delay and it works really well with the sustainer. The advice you have been given is pretty good, but the delay should usually come last in a chain of effects...distortion can get weird when it is working on all those multiple delayed signals...nevertheless, having onboard control of delay could make for some interesting techniques, watch out Adrian Belew On the issue of the battery, you will need to have access to the batteries, a battery box is ideal. The sustainer eats batteries, and most delay's have a fairly high consumption too. If it is possible to have separate bateries for each device I would do so...less likely to have problems with the performance as the batteries die... There is a way I believe of having remote power distributed by a stereo guitar lead to the guitar. We haven't tried it yet, but may be something to consider if power consumption becomes an issue. Some people like the idea, many don't. I have found the sustainer addictive and the consumption of power acceptable for what it does but with my DIY sustainer guitar, when the sustainer is off, it draws no power and the guitar is totally passive...with fernandes, you have to remove the guitar lead to totally turn off the circuitry. Thanks for the wiring diagram, I have linked this thread to the sustainer thread for future reference. Good luck with the project and if you record some sounds and such, or can report on the sustainer performance, installation issues or anything else, we'd love to here from you on the main thread... cheers and good luck... pete Quote
yetanotherchris Posted December 20, 2006 Author Report Posted December 20, 2006 Chris... psw here from the DIY sustainer thread. Nice idea with the delay, I love delay and it works really well with the sustainer. The advice you have been given is pretty good, but the delay should usually come last in a chain of effects...distortion can get weird when it is working on all those multiple delayed signals...nevertheless, having onboard control of delay could make for some interesting techniques, watch out Adrian Belew Hi Pete, cheers for the interest! You smacked the nail right on the head with the onboard delay... it's all about the onboard controls. I already have a seperate delay pedal which, as you say, is right at the end of my currently rather short chain. The benefit of the onboard control will hopefully be to pitchshift the sustained note in real time with the original note playing in the background, not to mention being able to wiggle the sound around with one hand whilst fretting with the other... Couple that with a further echo down the line and, well, I probably won't get invited back to a lot of venues... Thanks for the wiring diagram, I have linked this thread to the sustainer thread for future reference. Good luck with the project and if you record some sounds and such, or can report on the sustainer performance, installation issues or anything else, we'd love to here from you on the main thread... cheers and good luck... pete Yeah... the diagram is purely theoretical at this stage, although I have plenty of faith in what S's saying. If it doesn't work or something blows up then I'll let you know! Same goes for if it does work; I'm sure I'll find a way to record some noises and post them on the sustainer thread. With the above in mind, if someone can confirm my thoughts on the wiring that'd be great. I'll be off to buy spare wire and solder in the morning and unless I hear otherwise, it'll be getting the go ahead... Cheers folks, I'll keep you posted! Chris Quote
psw Posted December 20, 2006 Report Posted December 20, 2006 Ok, so wires A and B are soldered to the input and input ground on the Modboard. Wires C and D are just left as per this diagram, yeah? I just want to be sure on this before I crack out the solder! yep...C and D to the modboard if using one battery so it powers both. A and B to the mod board then out the mod to the jack, unless there is something else in the Modboard specs...just like plugging in a stompbox to the output, but inside the guitar... The benefit of the onboard control will hopefully be to pitchshift the sustained note in real time with the original note playing in the background, not to mention being able to wiggle the sound around with one hand whilst fretting with the other... I hear you Chris...the sustainer is ideal for manipulating sounds. I have found a tremolo invaluable to and you can get some really great "psychoacoustic" effects with pitchshifting against sustained notes with the trem and a delay. A bit of this can be heard in the clip of the sustainer guitar I did...beckistan...(around 2:11) though it is a little subtle...you seem to hear some harmonics rise angainst others falling. Anyway, gives you a sense of what fun you have in store with this kind of instrument... Most of those really high notes in the middle section were played below the twelth fret, so the sustainer offers not simply sustain but a way of playing harmonics and greatly extending the range of the instrument to. Notes can be morphed into harmonics giving an organic almost vocal sound if you can get it right... My DIY sustainer is very basic but in recent times a more advanced circuitry has been developed that offers even more modes than the two on mine and your fernandes. I suspect yours will work even better than my homemade job, but the DIY project is quickly catching up with it's own ideas. Col's circuit offers 4 modes now...my guitar has normal and harmonic, but in normal mode the circuit is biased so that the low strings will morph to a note usuallyan octave higher over time... Anyway...both Sustainiac and Fernandes are making good products and all it really needs is some people to start experimenting with it's potentials musically...have fun pete Quote
yetanotherchris Posted December 29, 2006 Author Report Posted December 29, 2006 Because someone was kind enough to link this to the main sustainer thread... It works! The modboard is in, along with the Lace Sensor and the Sustainer, and it works pretty good! I need to make some adjustments to the trimpots to calibrate the Sus with the Lace, but at least nothing has caught fire... Anyway, the modboard is great for it's size, lovely sound and onboard control is handy. My only complaint is that the echo is not quite 'overwhelming' enough even with the level all the way up, and decays a little quickly for my tastes. But as a simple echo, and for the money, amazing! So, my next project is to put a 'proper' delay pedal into my other guitar, a beat up old Aria Cat. I'm thinking a Guyatone Micro Delay, since it's small and if it's anything like my Guyatone Micro Fuzz, should be a doddle to disassemble and rewire. Any thoughts? Should I start a new thread on that one? Quote
psw Posted December 30, 2006 Report Posted December 30, 2006 That's great and I expect some reporting on the performance of thae sustainer and such on the thread I do know that a few people have or are contemplating, or always wanted to put a pedal in the guitar and these mod boards do look good. I am sure that people would be interested to see how you take something apart and install it into a guitar. If you take a few pics, you could even make a tutorial out of it for the tutorial section... There are a few bands that seem to be doing this kind of thing (muse for one...and s ome Aussie band that slips my mind at the moment have one taped to the back of his SG)) so there is some interest I would presume...so yes, perhaps another thread..."how to install a stompbox onboard"...or something to that effect would be cool... pete Quote
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