Wiring Multiple Circuits?

[Chip]

How would I wire two circuits such as a sustainer and an onboard distortion going to one stereo jack? Do you simply wire them both to the stero jack as normal? They would both run off of their own battery. I've never dealt with more than one circuit before.

Cheers

[Paul Marossy]

This is how I would wire that:

1. Provide each circuit with its own 9V battery. The sustainer will use batteries far quicker than the distortion circuit will.

2. Use a stereo jack to switch the power for both circuits.

3. Wire the distortion circuit between the hot wire from your pickup switch and the jack. If you want to true bypass the distortion circuit, you'll need a DPDT switch.

This really is not any different than having your sustainer guitar going thru a distortion pedal and then on to something else. The distortion pedal is just in your guitar now.

[psw]

Hmmm...hopefully the connecting of separate power supplies together like this won't give you a pathway for them to interact...things like switch pops and things can so easily be transplanted through a common ground say as these devices are switched in an out. Sustainers frequently ahve issues with this and the fernandes systems have circuitry to deal with them, but with an onboard distortion...there might be issues, hard to say till you try. Perhaps some preliminary testing.

You can get switch jack sockets that have separate switching to the ground when a jack is inserted...possibly separate switches, so that might help avoid problems. I suppose there wouldn't be too much more problems than you'd find with the distortion outside the guitar, only way to tell is to try it and see.

Good luck with it though.

[Paul Marossy]

I don't think it should be a problem. When you have a string of guitar pedals connected to your guitar, they are all sharing a common ground whether they are powered with batteries or a DC power supply. Having on onboard distortion is not really any different that having it connected to your guitar externally. It's just in the guitar instead of a pedal on the floor. And the grounds of all these devices are connected together thru cables and patch cords. Both the sustainer and the distortion circuit have seperate power supplies in terms of the +9V connections.

[psw]

True...you are probably right there paul!

There are particular problems with DIY sustainers often because unlike fernandes units, when the deice is switched off, so is the power and there's a bit of pickup bypassing and such...the fernandes and other units need a battery to be there at all times...so like most pedals too, the power is only ever off when the lead is pulled.

Good point about battery drain as well, be sure you can get to the batteries easy enough, I suspect on this project a fair bit of guitar is going to be cut out of it, so that won't be a problem I suspect.

[Paul Marossy]

There are particular problems with DIY sustainers often because unlike fernandes units, when the deice is switched off, so is the power and there's a bit of pickup bypassing and such...the fernandes and other units need a battery to be there at all times...so like most pedals too, the power is only ever off when the lead is pulled.

I see. I have no experience with a DIY sustainer, so I'll leave that to your expertise since you are the master.