sorry folks i didnt' know that this forum was here,, hmm guess i should pay more attention. as far as the sustainor goes yes it is best to put the piezo as close as possible to the pickup.. now if you have the room you can use a small speaker instead of the piezo. i chose piezo for space. not nescecarily for effeciency.
basically it works like this.. all pickups have some sort of degree of being microphonic. it just depends on how hard you hit them with signal, and what freq range that signal is.. sometimes this has only worked on single coils. other times it has worked on every pickup.. i have done this mod around 13 times or better. personally i use a 100uf cap or better, basically you trade off bass for batterie life.
you need to have some bass in there to move the speaker. but not too much cause it will eat your batterie. you could probally get by with a 1uf cap. you can also use the stock tone control pot, and just put a 1k resistor across the outer lugs to convert it to a 1k pot.
now to answer your questions ..
soapbarstrat Posted on Jan 30 2004, 12:46 AM
I hope some of you that build the sustainer will say how well it works.
Can a sustainer like this be used with the amp at low volume, and little or no distortion being used ?
Hope it can work on a neck position single coil. >>>> yes ti works great on singles
MikeB Posted on Jan 29 2004, 04:52 PM
hi all, i saw the sustainer link there, and am interested in making one, but wanted to know which pickup to mount the piezo sounder on, and if it mattered. Would CA or epoxy be best for mounting? have you tried this circuit? would this work on my active pickups?
thanks for your time!
Mike >>>>>
depends on the actives.. i had to use a small speaker instead fo the piezo for my emgs when i first did this. but it seemed to work great on them was a little noisier than passive pickups but i think that is partially because i didnt' adjust the gain either. i left it wide open. epoxy is fine.
otgordin Posted on Jan 29 2004, 03:22 PM
I think i figured this out. I don't know if my revelation is gonna be news to anyone but i figured i'd post it just in case people like me were wondering what this circuit does. Pretty much it takes the signal from your pickups, amplifies it, and then sends it to a piezo element glued to the underside of the bridge pickup. Does anyone have any idea how well this will work? Cause I have no idea without trying it.
>>>>> it works great as a diy alternative to an actual sustainor. i dont' claim that this will revolutionize the world,, just gives an alternatvie to forking out a couple hundred dollars or however much they cost. good on ya for figureing it out.
-Vadim
JohnnyG Posted on Jan 29 2004, 02:18 PM
RS would almost certainlly have the chip. its a standard chip made my a lot of companies much like the bog standard 741 op-amp. you may also want to look at the LM380 as well, its basically the same as the 386 except that its a bit more powerful (386 is 0.3 watt amp and the 380 is 1 watt)
the lm380 is actually a 2.5 watt chip depending on what voltage you put it at. also you really wouldnt' want to use this one without a preamp before it as it has an internal gain of 34 which really doesn't do much in a circuit like this. you could use a feedback loop resistor but it really is kind of like putting a luggage rack on a volkswagen you can do it but comeon.. lol.
the lm386n-3 is a 660mw amplifier when the gain is at 200 which would be a perfect bridge between pins 1 and eight.
1. What is the rating of the cap?>>>> cap is anywhere really from a 1uf to 330uf
2. Does the Op-Amp need -9V to come to one of the pins? lm386 single supply mini poweramp
3. How, where and to what is the piezo connected?>>>>>it is connected to the back of the pickup you desire to put it on.
4. What model of small RS piezo buzzer is it...>>> that i dont' remember sorry but you can use a little speaker if you have the room.
5. What kind of switch is this and how is it wired?>>> the switch on the top right??? if so it is your standard pickup selector it doesnt effect the sustainor unit at all, i have shown this unit to be on all the time. but you can add whichever switch you desire to do to make it come in and out. i would use a push pull dpdt pot personally.
JohnnyG >>>back of the pickup. you wish it to work on.