psw Posted August 10, 2008 Report Share Posted August 10, 2008 Hi fellow PG's. In five years here I have generally stayed over at the infamous "sustainer ideas" thread...now at a whopping 269 pages or something, but a lot of the things I have been up to has passed a lot of people by (quite possibly because the thread is sooooo long and confusing now). Anyway...I'd like to present here my latest guitar full of features. Due to the picture posting rule and to extend the fun, I will be revealing it bit by bit. I would have posted it more fully while actually building it, but I was a bit nervous at how it was going to turn out...fortunately it sounds and plays great. It is full of hidden features and unique and interesting little twists...so lets have a look at the guitar, what it can do and how it was done! Here is a picture of the complete guitar...(please excuse my lack of photo skills)... It is a highly modified 25th Anniversary Squier. Apart from the body and neck, nearly everything was replaced or modified, some of it custom made by me especially for the guitar. Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue! Something Old... The bridge pickup is a genuine Vintage Fender "Wide Range" pickup... Something New... The neck pickup is a 2008 fender telecaster Deluxe SCN stacked pickup... Something Borrowed... A lot of the parts are new but from genuine parted out Fenders... Staggered Locking tuners, LSR Bearing nut...A khaler hybrid trem gives bigsby to Floyd type performance Something Blue... The paint job is custom and was color matched to a classic AC cobra car and painted professionally. Several subtle references to that era are added. A blue LED lights up when the sustainer is turned on... .... I actually did not intend to put a sustainer on the guitar (I had not been playing sustainer guitar for a while and had been moving away from the device in my own playing) but I was given a challenge for another project and designed this new version...it may be the best one to date! ... There are a lot of hidden details...so I will discuss them post by post...some of them have come up in other threads and the guitar has gained interest elsewhere so I thought I would run through them all with it's own thread. One reason it is mentioned a bit is that it illustrates a lot of the ideas that are often asked about or considered and some of the things that may have been missed in the more obscure parts of the forum... Anyway...feel free to chip in with questions...I have not got any sounds yet, but I hope to in the near future...it has an amazing range of unique sounds both classic and futuristic...A lot of ideas may be of interest to borrow for other projects... Hope You like it...I am really excited by it... pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psw Posted August 10, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 10, 2008 Ok...let's start with one of the more distinctive features of the guitar...the bridge pickup... This is the Fender "Wide Range" Humbucking pickup. It was designed by Gibson's Seth Lover (who designed the original PAF Gibson humbucker). It has a distinctive "Kerannnnggg" sound and is built quite differently. It is very bright and fendery as was intended. The 12 magnetic poles are made of "cunife" so is kind of like a pair of single coils, the coils are flatter and wider. The whole unit is significantly larger than a standard HB. Newer reissues are in fact standard HB's under a look alike cover and are nothing like the real thing. Accordingly, they have attained "mojo" status that makes a single pickup worth as much as the rest of this whole guitar I suspect! As a result of the unusual size, I had to find a solution to fit the rest of the guitar with the additions unique to it and cover the large route required to get it in there. The solution after much thought was to make a mounting plate with a nibbling tool out of aluminium. The idea was to recall the telecasters traditional metal bridge/pickup mounting and to blend in with the khaler tremolo. I bought a plain white standard tele pickguard and altered the cut out for the bridge to make it fit better. Tortoiseshell (the kind used for acoustic scratch plates) was added in the distinctive 'racing stripes' that recalls the automotive influence after the aluminium was given a brushed look. The tortoiseshell was to give some colour interest and a bit of a retro look. Maybe recalling the wooden dashboards of classic cars...someone suggested it looked a bit like a hofner guitar as well. The bright chrome of this pickup is a part of a "chrome theme" that includes the khaler, controls and control plate, the neck pickup and even the tuners... The pickup plate attaches with two back screws and slips into a bevel in the plastic guard that holds it down with it's screws. The ease of access to the pickup cavity proved to be really useful later on as while the pickup is big, it is not deep and so there was plenty of room underneath for circuitry..more on this later... I am very pleased with the way this turned out and is an important element in keeping the traditional tele looks, a bit of a retro feel and a blending in with some of the modern elements like the tremolo and even the sustainer which I will show off later... As for sound...this is a telecaster and this pickup is pure fender tone. Still a very bright sound but different enough to other fender style pickups and is the key to the sounds that this guitar is capable of... pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psw Posted August 10, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 10, 2008 Let's have a look at the other end of the guitar... Yes...it really is a "Crafted in China" Squier! The tuners are fender branded bought from "The Stratosphere" and were parted out from the deluxe model name brands. The high chrome and knurled locking knobs give it a machine look and tie in with other features like the control knobs and fine tuners on the bridge. Being staggered, no string tree is required, the G,B & E strings are lower. String changes are very quick and easy, pop the string in, tighten the back screw to lock and a few turns and you are in tune. The nut was replaced with a new wilkinson/fender LSR roller bearing unit. The string rides on two tiny ballbearings. Padding material directly behind them stops any resonances behind the nut. It attaches with screws and can be shimmed to adjust for height. It is a permanent modification requiring the nut slot to be widened towards the first fret (I used a dremmel tool). Again the brushed SS and chrome look fits with the theme. The modifications here mean that the tremolo does not require a locking nut even with the extreme range possible and tuning stability is superb. The neck is maple with a maple board (no "skunk stripe" on the back) and is a very good quality in both timber and fretting. Perhaps they were doing something special for the 25th anniversary model, but I have found many great squiers and maybe I got lucky with this one. The body is ash I believe and is also very good. In my photos (probably due to the light) the neck appears to have a "vintage tint"...in fact in real life it is much lighter. The profile of the neck is a very comfortable C profile and fairly slim compared to vintage fenders...a great feel. pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psw Posted August 10, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 10, 2008 Here is the neck pickup and sustainer driver... The pickup is a new SCN telecaster and I am very enthusiastic about it's sound and the technology. Of course the chrome look and SCN engraved logo help with the theme. Tele neck pickups are quite different from strats and were designed to have more of a jazz tone. This it does, while retailing the fender single coil clarity and edge. It is often described as "sweeter" and the nickel cover is often claimed as responsible for taking some of the edge off the sound. Narrower that a strat, traditionally it is a bit deeper. Tele neck pickups seem to vary a lot and some, particularly cheap copies can sound muddy or alternatively tinny so they often got a bad reputation and have been often overlooked. SCn pickups are quite different from a lot of other pickups and is part of a new breed of stacked coil designs like the Kinman's and fender's own Noiseless pickups. The sound is superb and dead quiet...as the advertising says... A special combination of traditional magnets and Samarium Cobalt magnetic material delivers incredible dynamic and magnetic response. There are two coils on top of one another and quite powerful "rare earth" SCn magnets attached to the sides separating the dual coils in the middle. This pulls the magnetic field in at the sides and helps isolate the lower coil to preserve the original single coil sound. It is totaly "noiseless" and comes with three leads, the third being a separate ground for the cover which means you cn get clever with the wiring if you wish without compromising the shielding ground. This pickup was parted out from the new fender deluxe telecaster and bought at auction for a bargain price ...a great undervalued pickup! .... Next to it is my latest in home brew "sustainer technology". No doubt I will be explaining it later. This one is a totally new design for me and a stand alone driver. It's main feature is that it surface mounts to the scratchplate with double sided tape and so requires no modification to install. The wires are thin and pass under the scratch plate next to the neck, then through the pickup wiring channel to the control cavity. It is something of an exercise in minimalism. It has no bobbins, the lower black portion are 4 ceramic magnets, the "blade" 3mm ordinary steel shaped to match the curvature in of the fretboard and sits level with it. The coil is completely saturated in epoxy and the whole given another coat, and that is what holds it all together. The colour of the copper wire matches the colour of the tortoiseshell elsewhere on the guitar and adds a little to the retro machine fell of the guitar. This driver is 60mmx10mmx6mm(high). My work on sustainers has come up with a lot of designs, mainly I have been making designs that convert pickups into pickup/drivers for a more stealth look (mainly on strat sized pickups)...for various reasons this approach won't work on a tele neck pickup. I didn't intend to put a sustainer on this guitar and tried some other interesting things (including an optical tremolo circuit at one point) but I received an email that presented a challenge for a completely different project along the lines of "could this be done"...so I set out to see if it could...and indeed it can, at least on this guitar (unfortunately I don't think it is as likely on the "challenge instrument" after all as it is far more complex). The driver is the key to the success of the DIY sustainer project and although this "bobbinless" model is probably not really suitable to the average DIY'er, it is essentially the same as the ones I have been making since 2005 (and others have replicated with success). Besides my own work with these things, a lot of people over the years have influenced the work, in the development of "bobbinless" coils Tim/onelastgoodbye did some pioneering work. The basic principle is the same as that of the Fernandes and Sustainiac, or even an eBow but my approach and design is a little different and this driver is substantially more compact and does not compromise the guitar (no routing or pickup replacement). I tried a few different ideas, but this driver and the method used to make it is one of the best yet in concept and execution as well as performance! ... Even though this guitar now features a sustainer, the guitar itself was intended as a unique telecaster and the sustainer is a kind of distraction to the other features and the sound of the guitar overall. Besides the sustainer, that I will discuss further later on, the mix of pickups and passive controls and wiring makes this guitar something special...both familiar and yet different. I tried hard to make the sustainer not to be intrusive and I think I got the mix right and adding a few improvements along the way to the guitar in general... pete P.S. As proof that it works...I just noticed that the second photo was taken with the sustainer on and you can see how it is really moving the G string there as it plays itself unplugged! Unlike other "sustainers" the guitar remains passive using power only when the sustainer is on...that means it works even when unplugged and will merrily play itself as it is doing here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psw Posted August 10, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 10, 2008 (edited) Lets have a look at the bridge...a real feature on this guitar and a fine piece of engineering... Here you can see how the custom pickup surround blends this tremolo bridge into the theme. In the background are the controls which I will discuss later, notice though how the knurled fine tuners echo the control knobs and even the tuner locks...coincidently the bridge pickup exactly matches the width of the bridge and the chrome finish makes it look like they were meant for each other. There are so many great things about these tremolo's I am sure to leave a lot out. I got this one from Wammi J who has a pinned thread here and offers great service and prices (though this is not a cheap piece of hardware). This was my first experience with these bridges but it worked out great. It is not a fulcrum tremolo like a strat or floyd but operates on a cam with small springs under it in a small 1" deep route below it. The saddles adjust in both height and intonation...but also in string spread. I wanted as wide a spread as possible and that's what I got, everything locks down tight. The saddles don't move, the strings roll over them. This means that palm muting will not pull the floating trem sharp and in use the strings maintain a constant height whether pulling up (about a fifth!) or down (to slack). This feature is good as the strings stay constant with the pickups...but is even more important to the sustainer as the strings stay at a constant height relative to the driver too! In many ways it has an action similar to a bigsby (even though it has the range and stability of a floyd) but without any of their inherent tuning problems. I wanted it for that purpose to provide a shimmer to chords in the main. However, the ability to do any dive bombing type things is a bonus and with the roller nut and locking tuners, it stays remarkably in tune. The strings top load, luckily for me this telecaster was not strung through the body (cheap squier style!!!) so I didn't have to worry about the back being drilled through Another feature of this bridge is that it gives remarkable definition to the strings. You hear each string ringing in a chord and that was important to me. The brass rollers and steel cam seem to give the trem a real tele approved zing, another bonus! It is an odd mix I guess to a have a 'hair metal' approved trem on a telecaster like this, but as I say, it is extremely versitile, looks great, works great and sounds great...enough said! pete I knew I would forget a feature of this bridge. In the photo you can just see a little black grub screw sticking out the back. When you screw this in it turns it into a fixed bridge. This is why it is called a "hybrid" bridge and the trick is to adjust the thing so it floats in tune at the locking point. Next to the tremolo arm, you can see two "holes". The first adjusts the tremolo arm tension...so it stays put or falls back if you want. The centre one adjusts the spring tension. Edited August 10, 2008 by psw Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avengers63 Posted August 10, 2008 Report Share Posted August 10, 2008 Dude..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Sorbera Posted August 10, 2008 Report Share Posted August 10, 2008 The matching mini-tuners and control knobs is pure genius. Maybe in the future you can disguise the sustainer to look like a humbucker where one coil is your single coil pickup and the other coil is the sustainer... Just a thought. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kpcrash Posted August 10, 2008 Report Share Posted August 10, 2008 Nice work pete. Just for giggles - what would you ponder on a bass sustainer? My thoughts revolve around actually trying to make a sustainer that could support each string independently (but that's going to be another thread sometime). Anyway - nice tele! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psw Posted August 10, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 10, 2008 Ok...lets have a look at these controls... Firstly you will notice that their are three knobs on the thing! Volume Control... The first is the volume control. Moved forward into this position, it is much easier to reach than on a standard tele and has a really nice taper (500kA) for tele approved volume swells. Another good reason to push this control forward is to keep it well clear of the tremolo arm which would tend to fall over the traditional place (the centre knob position). This pot also has a push-pull function. Selector and Secret 4th sound... Next is the selector switch. This is a gibson style three way selector which I find much easier to use and again, looks better and matches the chrome look of the guitar. It is set at a 30% angle as well, as are the pots underneath, which was important to fit it in and makes it visually and easier to use by feel as to the selector position...up and slightly forward it the neck pickup, down and slightly back the bridge. Here it is in the middle position with both pickups on. Each pickup selection is good. You have the bright yet powerful bridge pickup and the sweeter more jazzy neck pickup (also surprisingly powerful and they have a good balance in output, no volume drops). There is a secret fourth sound as well...pulling up on the volume control puts the neck pickup out of phase with the bridge so when both are selected you get another sound completely. Often out of phase sounds are a little too thin, but the combination of this huge HB and the little neck pickup seems to produce a really nice funky strat like "quack" perfect for a lot of clean riffing and chord work (it has an almost acoustic clarity like positions 2 and 4 on a strat)...strat like, but definitely has it's own thing going on...a real bonus. Thanks to the humbucking pickups, all selections are completely hum free! Tone control and Battery access... The last knob is a standard tone, no push pull is possible here as I needed room below to fit in the sustainers 9 volt battery. Battery access is an important consideration with a sustainer, locating the battery in the control cavity allows for the whole control plate to be opened with only two screws! Sustainer Control Switch... Working back from the tone is a small toggle. On the surface it is a standard size, but below it is a large 4pdt switch with a lot of control wires to turn on the sustainer. For me, this has always been one of the more difficult parts of the sustainer...installation, especially with multi-pickup guitars...this being no exception. If you are not familiar with sustainer technology, there needs to be adequate separation between the driver and the source pickup. Therefore, all sustainers only work with the bridge pickup. This switch then, not only turns the power to the sustainer on, but completely isolates the neck pickup and automatically selects the bridge pickup regardless of the selector position. Turning off, it returns to what ever the selector has chosen. When the sustainer is turned on a bright blue hidden mini LED lights next to the volume control and reflects romantically on the chrome volume knob... Sustainer "Drive" Control... The middle control is the sustainer's "Drive" control. Kind of a sensitivity control, but on my new "secret" circuit it tends to over-ride the basic AGC (automatic Gain Control) and adds a mild overdrive giving you "wild" but controlled feedback effects. Turning it down to about 8 will give you infinite clean sustain, turning it down further, even to zero and you get a mild fundamental sustain mainly on the low notes of chords. This works well with chords, with a little chorus you can get a nice clean chord sound on the upper strings, while the lower notes sustain below them and swirl around like a string pad or organ effect! I have set my circuit up to provide a "mixed" effect on lower strings. The result is that notes played on the lower strings with a lot of "Drive" will morph from the played note to a harmonic above it, often a fifth...the amount of drive dictates how fast the transition between the played note and this harmonic. Personally, I don't like the term "sustainer" as the technology offers a lot more than infinite sustain and there are may things yet to be explored like the effects described above. Harmonic Drive Switch... An even more radical effect is the harmonic mode. To get this, pull up on the drive control knob and every note comes out as a harmonic! This significantly extends the effective range of the guitar. Not all notes are octaves, but like pinched harmonics, they tend to sound musical as they are derived from the natural harmonic series. Generally the harmonic is an octave and a fifth above and while it will vary, they are always predictable. Harmonic drive produces some interesting effects. On chords for instance, an Aminor chord, if you leave the low e open, it will ring a harmonic equivalent in pitch to the note B on the high e 7th fret making a cool Maj9th chord. Lead work is where these things excel of course, notes in the middle of the fretboard will sound as if they were played in the far reaches (but with a harmonic tone) and notes played really high on the high e....if you have a dog...he will be unlikely to be your friend if you play too many of them! ... Of course, many would say I am "sustainer obsessed" but in fact, I had weened myself off them till this guitar was completed...now I have to go through that all over again. The sustainer is a very cool device and a bit of a rut buster too. It hones techniques like damping that is good for any player to improve. The general effect of a sustainer is to make the guitar sound and respond as if incredibly loud...a lot of sensitivity to picking attack and of course feedback, but with perfect control and predictability (no more having to turn up and find the exact spot to get that crucial feedback effect!). Unlike a super loud amp, it will produce the effect with perfectly clean tone (no need to fuzz up the signal unless you want to) which opens up whole new ways of using effects (like a slow flanger for instance). Also, it does all this without even being plugged in! That means it can be used for recording incredibly loud sensitivity and feedback effects recording through headphones...your neighbors and your dog will thank you for it! ... But wait there's more...a hidden "Kill Switch"... Yes, although I don't wish to wear a chicken bucket, nor have I the DJ scratching down like Tom Morello...kids today seem to like them so I guess I am following the trend. In the above flash photo you can clearly see it, otherwise it won't come out on film (maybe I should call it a vampire switch...hang on, that wouldn't work cause those V's can't be killed !) This is a tiny SMD switch wired to the pot to short out the guitar. It produces all the usual stuttering effects but you wouldn't know it was there. In use with the sustainer, it is given added power as the guitar can play itself while you tap away at the thing...more power also in sustainer mode as when you are tapping on the thing your finger lights up blue and to the audience (if I had one other than you guys...now that the dog ran away!) it looks as if the light is flashing on and off as you do it...cheap thrills ... Getting all the controls to fit in their without any modification was a bit tricky and I will show a little what is "under the hood" to achieve all this in future posts. I did buy a blank control plate, but I ended up using the original control plate adding a little more tortoiseshell to cover the original selector slot which also allowed access for the LED and tiny kill switch thing (a last minute after thought!) I see there have been a few comments...so I will post this and give a little reply to those things separately...I am glad to see the interest and I am sure there are enough ideas put into this thing to inspire many a future project of modification... pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psw Posted August 10, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 10, 2008 Thanks for the replies...I am happy with it obviously Maybe in the future you can disguise the sustainer to look like a humbucker where one coil is your single coil pickup and the other coil is the sustainer... Just a thought. I wanted that look, and it is perfectly doable. This driver was something of an experiment to prove a point for a completely different project with similar restrictions (eg surface mounted). Once I made the thing and it worked and looked as good as it does (it turned out nice and glossy!) I wasn't about to build another. One option I considered was to do the final coat in white epoxy so it would completely match the pickguard, but I liked the fact that the design was so pure and you could see exactly what was in it. If you really wanted to do this on a humbucker guitar for instance, you could mount something like this disguised as a coil...or better yet, wind it onto an HB bobbin, and put a SD Jnr HB or rail pickup next to it. I also liked the fact that the copper color matched the tortoiseshell effect. Maybe next time... Nice work pete. Just for giggles - what would you ponder on a bass sustainer? I have done some work on bass sustainers of various types. In many ways it is a lot easier to do (long scale and often only one pickup far from the driver greatly eases the wiring as you don't need all that bypassing stuff). The bass strings move slower and have more mass and metal in them for the magnets to work with. You need to do a little adjustment to the circuit specs to handle the lower frequencies... However, a feeding back bass is not something I find "attractive"...maybe it is just me, who knows. Generally, bass tends to be played as a rhythmic instrument, but I guess there are people playing them with eBows and such so maybe...but probably not for me. Every now and again I have a go! My thoughts revolve around actually trying to make a sustainer that could support each string independently This too would be easier on a bass as the strings are further above, but technically difficult. In order to get it to work truly independently, you would need pickups that could produce independent signals as well as separate drivers. You would get something like the effect of 4 eBows...but then you would need 4 circuits and considerable power, probably two 9 volt batteries. This device is polyphonic, there is a tendency for the lower strings to predominantly sustain in a chord, but that can be a good thing and with single note lead stuff...well, it doesn't matter as there is only one note!. It is also an analogue effect, so there is no "tracking" issues...it can do some cool synth like sounds and a fair impression of a therimin with the tremolo arm. As bass too is predominantly one note at a time, then getting too fancy with the independent drivers and stuff sound like a bit of overkill! Having heard "bass feedback" it is not something that I desperately want to hear anytime soon. Just because you can do something, doesn't necessarily mean you should! (but that's going to be another thread sometime) Quite right, this thread belongs to the tele and is my first real outing off the electronics board...it's nice over here Thanks for the complements...after midnight, so enough for today, glad you like it! pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElysianGuitars Posted August 10, 2008 Report Share Posted August 10, 2008 this thing is freakin awesome. i love it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psw Posted August 10, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 10, 2008 Thanks...I like it! I will try and get some sound clips up at some point (computer recording technology is not my strong point)...it sounds amazing and it is a kind of wolf in sheep's clothing when you want it to be! pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnMcChavs Posted August 10, 2008 Report Share Posted August 10, 2008 (edited) Hello Pete, as I wrote earlier in the sustainer idea thread, I find your guitar absolutely gorgeous! I can't believe what you achieved : you put a trem, a sustain-harmonic unit, locking tuners, rolling nut, bridge humbucker plus a lot of switches, pots and tortoise covers on a vintage-looking Telecaster... and it still looks great and vintage! So vintage that you guitar even evokes me a Jaguar although I clearly see my beloved Telecaster shape. Well, if this isn't a miracle.... And moreover, I'm sure it feels and sound good. What are you till doing here? GO AND PLAY THIS BEAUTY, you genius Best regards, Gilles Edited August 10, 2008 by JohnMcChavs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ippon Posted August 10, 2008 Report Share Posted August 10, 2008 Awesome mods! I'm stealing some of your ideas! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maiden69 Posted August 10, 2008 Report Share Posted August 10, 2008 Very nice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psw Posted August 10, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 10, 2008 Thanks for the compliments... Here is a closer look at getting all those controls and the battery into the tiny tele control cavity... From the last post... Next is the selector switch. This is a gibson style three way selector which I find much easier to use and again, looks better and matches the chrome look of the guitar. It is set at a 30% angle as well, as are the pots underneath, which was important to fit it in and makes it visually and easier to use by feel as to the selector position...up and slightly forward it the neck pickup, down and slightly back the bridge. Here it is in the middle position with both pickups on. You can see from this stage of the wiring how the pots and selector have been set at an angle, the selector and the sustainer switch even overlapping the drive control pot and tone respectively in order to fit it all in there... The drive control is interesting, it is a 1k pot...in order to get a push pull of this value, I had to take apart a compatible 500k and 1k and piece them back together! I had to drill another 6mm hole into the bridge pickup cavity in order to hide the circuit in there and bring the wires through...notice the number of multicoloured wires feeding through there. There are 12 wires from the sustainer circuit alone! This photo was done about half way through the rewire and I had to ditch that big grey shielded cable as it was too big and a bit of overkill really (the metal control plate makes an adequate shield). Everything star grounds to the selector switch. This photo was also done before the LED and kill switch were even thought of. An MDF spacer can be seen under the selector switch. In the final version, this was extended to under the volume pot as well and drilled out to fit the switch and LED in place. In the above photo you can see a few things... Notice the size of that "Wide Range" Humbucker and the magnetic poles that can be adjusted from below...the extension of these poles below on half of the coils I feel account a lot for the particular "fender" quality of this pickup...pickup designers take note! Visible sitting on top of the tremolo is the tiny sustainer circuit of my own design. This is at least 4 times smaller than a sustainiac! It measures about 37mmx22mmx10mm(thick)...smaller and half the depth than a 9v battery. The blue trim pot on it adjusts the maximum drive...normally you would adjust this to just below oscillating feedback (squeal) when the main drive control is on max (I designed the circuit also so that this trim could be used to preselect the drive and do without the main drive control, but it is a lot better to have the control adjustable). This guitar turned out to be so good, it didn't squeal at all so I could set it to max drive...a first for me!) Again...you can see the number of wires coming off the circuit board. Power, signal, driver, Led and drive control all require wiring from the board. As the pickup is a valuable vintage in immaculate condition, I didn't even want to open up the cover and rewire that (necessary if you were going to split it or anything super fancy) or even cut the exposed braided lead. Instead, I wrapped it in black tape and curled it around inside the cavity. When done, the sustainer switch and circuit board were also wrapped in tape to protect it from potential shorts should it come in contact with something metallic (like the battery or pickup). ... So...a complex compact wiring, but worked out pretty neat. The key to this kind of thing is to take it one step at a time and make sure every solder join is neat and the wires cut to length. Colour coding the wires is a good idea also as it really helps to trouble shoot it later when things go wrong along the way. Although I didn't have any major problems with this, it did take all day to do it, even with my wiring sketch...so it ain't as easy as it looks once you see the final thing up and running! I was really pleased that I was able to get all this stuff in there but still have an easy to use intuitive and uncluttered control. This was the third or fourth rewire of the guitar. The version before that had instead of a sustainer a GF optical tremolo Modboard but I was most unhappy with it (very hissy) and an effect like that are probably best left out of a guitar! Before that it was wired as standard and played for a bout a month to get a feel for the instrument and sound. At another stage the phase switch was tried in order to get a different kind of sound out of it. ... This guitar has a half sister in the works which is completely different yet shares some of the same qualities of playability and will have some more electronic trickery (but no sustainer next time...promise). Some of the ideas here though will inform the way forward on the thing and future projects. The next one will have to wait a bit as it is hard to put down this one for now!!! Thanks again for the interest and I hope it does inspire or give people ideas for their own designs. An important point is that you could do even more but this guitar already has more than enough in it. You do not want to devise a guitar that is cluttered and have a bunch of so-so and good sounds but it is hard to get to the gems for all the switches and controls... pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heggis Posted August 10, 2008 Report Share Posted August 10, 2008 (edited) I can't believe what you achieved : you put a trem, a sustain-harmonic unit, locking tuners, rolling nut, bridge humbucker plus a lot of switches, pots and tortoise covers on a vintage-looking Telecaster... and it still looks great and vintage! ^What he said^ It's looking great pete! Can't believe all the features you managed to fit under a single tele control plate... If you find you can't sleep at night, thinking of all those innocent Tele's that had to die so their organs could be donated to your guitar, there are a couple of sites out there selling original Fender parts. Now, I haven't bought from any of them, so I can't say anything about their service, I simply know they exist. http://www.guitarpartsresource.com has got original fender parts and aftermarket spares. They have almost any Fender part you can think of, even ones I have not found anywhere else. http://www.angela.com/ also seem to have a good selection of Fender parts. I see moving over to this side of the forum hasn't made you any less verbose Just kidding, keep the posts coming, you know we love them! Heggis Edited August 10, 2008 by heggis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xanthus Posted August 11, 2008 Report Share Posted August 11, 2008 What'n'the....... Pete! Damn! This is definitely my new favorite Pete build, above and beyond the PSW Strat with the F-hole. It's totally unbelievable what you did to this build. The demonstration/rundown of the electronics included in it would make a great YouTube video. hint hint nudge nudge. As a side note, though, did you ever think of using the under-pickguard space to store any of the electronics? Not the knobs and switches of course, but the battery, circuit board, stuff like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psw Posted August 11, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 11, 2008 Thanks again... The demonstration/rundown of the electronics included in it would make a great YouTube video. hint hint nudge nudge. Yes, I thought so...I am looking into it, not a strong point for me, but a simple slide show with sound seems like a good way to put it across...still trying to get something together but some other stuff has been coming up... As a side note, though, did you ever think of using the under-pickguard space to store any of the electronics? Not the knobs and switches of course, but the battery, circuit board, stuff like that. In the tele, the only under-pickguard space is below the bridge HB which is where the circuit board hides. I might have been able to squeeze the battery in there as well as this pickup is pretty shallow. The bonus on the tele is the ease of access to the battery. The circuit is like a small practice amp and draws a fair current meaning battery life is shorter than a lot of effects and you will want to get to it frequently without having to remove the strings and a lot of screws...on this guitar, just two screws let's you in! On this guitar the battery seems to be lasting really well and in my version, the guitar is passive so it only draws power when the sustainer is being used and will work as normal even without a battery or when it's flat. The sustainer things have come a long way, but in others this version is very similar to the original f-strat thing back in 2005, I just got better at making them. Wiring in a two pickup guitar like a tele is a lot easier than on a three pickup guitar like a strat and that is what was holding up my wish to offer a kit. So much relies on the installation that I am concerned about offering anything that might be too much for the customer to complete and install...still working on it though and with each version it gets a little closer...but not yet! It is possible to DIY your own version of course if you have the patience and a lot of people have now with the info here at PG and with every version others try, the project also gets a little closer too. I like it, and that is always the main thing... pete the benefits of a non-stringthrough tele for a khaler Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InSasquatchCountry Posted August 12, 2008 Report Share Posted August 12, 2008 This is soo cool man, Its got a lot of features but they are practical. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psw Posted August 12, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 12, 2008 This is soo cool man, Its got a lot of features but they are practical. Thanks...I think that is the cool part...I have done a lot of impractical things before, but I think the balance is right here... 4 good pickup selections easily selected, a tremolo that works or could be fixed and be no more intrusive than a fixed tele bridge, quality tuner and nut set up to ensure it stays in tune...and well the sustainer, but that is down to one switch and a control knob/switch... The only thing that is a little overkill...was the kill switch... ...but for all practical purposes it is invisible and every now and again in the last few days I have found a few neat tricks with it and it works well with the sustainer too... One of the things that I wanted to do was not have to do any extensive radical modifications and that was a success too on a guitar notorious for not having a lot of room to play with. The f-hole sustainer strat (which now hangs in retirement by my front door) mentioned earlier, was used as a test bed for a lot of ideas till it was modded within an inch of it's life. The entire thing was essentially hollowed out and had three phase switches, selector, mid pickup blend, eventually the first pickup/driver sustainer and at one stage even a piezo in it. Interestingly, I replaced this guitar with another cheap strat and pulled all the electrics out of it. I have used this to test ideas on a working instrument before they are transplanted into a guitar, although I didn't need to for this one. I think this did influence me as to what to leave out but what extras were practical, but still offered...well...extras... glad you liked it... pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psw Posted August 14, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 14, 2008 The guitar and amp... Fender hot rod deluxe with 15" ported bass cab and analog delay is my setup at the moment and the guitar was designed to complement this for powerful clean tones... pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KenHan Posted August 15, 2008 Report Share Posted August 15, 2008 MAN!!!! That thing is totally awesome, never seen anything like it before I hereby dub you to be Knight/Jedi/Guru/Genious/Superhero it's so cool, and so well thought through, and still beutiful have a good one and keep up the awesome work //Ken1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idoru Posted August 16, 2008 Report Share Posted August 16, 2008 However, a feeding back bass is not something I find "attractive"...maybe it is just me, who knows. Generally, bass tends to be played as a rhythmic instrument, but I guess there are people playing them with eBows and such so maybe...but probably not for me. Every now and again I have a go! I can think of two off the top of my head (plus their countless bedroom imitators!): 1) Pete Steel of Type O Negative. Plays a Fernandes bass with sustainer system installed, runs lots of chorus, delay & distortion. 2) Soloist Micheal Manring. Ebow/alternate tuning fiend. c- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psw Posted August 16, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 16, 2008 Well...I have two basses fretted and fretless...but I am no bass player (like many guitarists, I have a tendency to play it like a guitar)...but I can appreciate a good bass player (I have to because a band was practicing 2 doors down till after midnight and the bass was all I could hear!). Generally though, for me the bass functions to underpin the harmony and give rhythmic drive...sometimes a counter melodic line or fill and even the occasional chord perhaps. The ability to play infinite notes or generate harmonics well into the guitars range would be stepping on "my" territory and potentially a singers too and leaving the bass function uncovered... However...if bass players wanted to, it is entirely possible...but be careful what you wish for! Since we are off topic again...to bring it back to the telecaster... Here is a picture of this custom built and designed driver developed for this guitar...and a shot of my latest circuit...very small! .... I have spent a lot of time playing this guitar since it was completed including most of yesterday and I am enjoying and appreciating it even more as time goes on. It plays great, stays in tune and has 4 great distinctive sounds yet is dead quiet when not being played....plus the "sustainer" as well. In fact, since taking the pic with the amp, it sounds so good with the added 15" I am playing it like this all the time for a wall of sound effect even at low volume. The "sustainer" is a novelty, but I am really getting back into it. There are so many things that this device offers, it is a shame that it is so complex to install, but it can do a lot more than a lot of people suspect and every time I play it I learn a completely new trick or sound from it. Some great sounds are subtle...at a low drive level finger picked chords produce a lovely sustained bass note (as if bowed) below the chord notes and in harmonic mode, the bass note morphs to a harmonic that floats above the notes as if you are playing two instruments. On single line lead stuff on low drive, notes are sensitive to picking strength and attack...strong notes will continue to sustain or rise to a harmonic, softer notes will decay as normal but as they die away, they ring out as a harmonic...subtle but beautiful. It is different again from the sound of the sustainiac or fernandes products in both design and sound. However the guitar is a lot more than a "sustainer guitar" and the best part of the guitar is that it functions really well, plays great...sounds great, regardless of the sustainer functions I can't get enough of it! pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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