onelastgoodbye

That's because it's my super-duper-secret-new design OK, I'll give you a hint: Needs a little tuning, finishing it tomorrow Tim

Little teaser...didn't want to keep this one from you guys. I call it 4 past midnight OK, so the LED's probably won't be *that* bright lol Tim

Ok PSW, I think I've got a cable for you...2mm overal diameter, 4 conductor, overall shield (you weren't talking about individual shields, were you?), available in 10 colours. look for W2739 mogami is real good stuff too, used for studio consoles, racks,.. Hope it helps, Tim

I like how the bulge tapers from right to left, but the sides are bothering me. I took away too much from the right and was hoping I could make the back look rounder but it is not possible without adding to the overall dimensions of the box. Little details go a long way, that's what makes it so difficult. It's all a balancing act really. I hate stompboxes! go rack! Question though: are the controls directly in the signal path? (as in do the wires to and from the controls carry the driver signal or only 'control' signals) I guess a big advantage of using digital controls would be the possibility of using longer cable runs without signal degradation, atleast in the control wires. To bad about the strapmount idea. Oh well, one thing to remember is that a production model circuit could be made a lot smaller. If they can put camera's and bluetooth in mobiles, than they can make this small enough to fit in a standard cavity. As far as the battery, you can fit a 9v battery in most tremolo guitars, between the trem springs ( my pickup is running 18v, so I've got 2 in there). Les Paul types have large enough cavities as well I think. I've als o been able to put a battery in a Jackson Kelly (not much room there!) so I'm guessing if the circuit is a wee bit smaller most people could build it inside the guitar without routing. Ok I'll stop dissing the box idea now especially since I visualised the thing yes it is li-ion is very cool, they actually produce twice the power of the alkaline we're looking at now,but cost of the battery could take up like 50 % of total production cost. I wouldn't mind using them but if price were not an issue we'd all have been playing sustainiacs years ago, right? Hopefully my next box design 'll catch on because after that i'm all out of ideas (well not really) Tim

complete silver driver as requested...Sorry, no lights. Haven't figured out how to do that yet

Well, i graduated last year as a graphic designer and now I'm studying product design, so I could probably help out with that, be sure to let me know. about the box, at first I thought it would of been more obtrusive, but it seems it can be kept pretty low profile (as in inconspicuous); at least on an RG type guitar where you got this big trem that sort of makes the box blend in. On a Les Paul it would probably look a bit more out of place, but I really don't see why you wouldn't or couldn't build the circuitry into (inside) a Les Paul, after all they put the sustainiac in there too, and that's a fairly big circuit. Of course you'd still have the problem of the extra controls (that's why I thought of putting them on a separate pcb or something, so you have just the controls on the outside and everything else inside). So, although I like the idea of a custom tailpiece, I wouldn't put too much effort into it right away. Somehow I think it wouldn't be very cost-effective. About the glow strip, at first I made a graphic where the driver was completely in chrome (can post it if you want), which was a bit more classy looking and i liked that one better. There's a trade-off here: you'd want your driver to be unconspicuous (given the idea of hiding it in the pickup ring); on the other hand you'd want a striking look, making people go 'hey what the hell is that, I want one too'... I was actually thinking of leds on the bottom of the driver, that could light up the area underneath the driver (think of neon lights underneath cars). You'd probably have a little gap between the driver and the surface of the guitar anyway, becase of the height adjustment screws. I'm gonna go do a bit of research on rechargable batteries now see ya, Tim

Hi all...I've been watching this topic since page 4 or thereabouts, figured it was time to stop lurking and do something constructive. PSW, you've come a long way with this sustain thingy, and I couldn't wait for the final result so I've been messing around in 3Dmax trying to visualise what it would look like; plus you'd might find something inspiring in the following pictures. Driver with the led strip + batterybox with controls in a single humbucker guitar: Same thing in HSH config My WebpageHSS config driver in detail battery box inside battery box the whole thing the battery box holds the battery; the controls on a small pcb (EMG-style); and a second pcb with the preamp,switching, power etc.. This way you could either have: a: all the electonics in the box b: the controls pcb mounted anywhere on top of the guitar, with the battery and the second pcb mounted inside c: everything inside the guitar I gather from your last posts you're not going for the separate box approach anymore, so maybe I shouldn't have put in the effort, but anyway food for thought Will be checking in with some more ideas shortly, greetz, Tim o...I didn't model the guitar itself, model is courtesy of theloop at Jemsite (the guy who did the virtual Jem's)