Tony Enamel

My battery is not getting hot anymore. I had the on/off switch wired wrong because I didn't understand how switches were wired inside(I told you, I'm new to this electronics stuff!) but I did a little research and got it right. If the drain is supposed to be 1/2 of the voltage supply, would it not make sense that if my battery was worn down to, say, 7V then the drain should be adjusted to 3.5V? Pete: Any chance of you givin' up a schematic of your circuit? I'd love to compare it to the fetzer-ruby using the same driver. Or maybe you can build a fetzer-ruby and try it with your driver so we can isolate which symptoms come from the driver and which come from the circuit.

Hey Pete, Thanks for your suggestions. I'll try the lower value cap tonight. I have completly removed all other pickups. Just the bridge remains. The circuit fits under the pickgaurd where the middle pup used to be. I get harmonic sustain on maybe 3 notes low on the 6th string and nothing at all anywhere else. It almost seems like the driver is stopping the vibration altogether. So, not only do I get no harmonic I don't even get the guitars' natural sustain!! I instaled the LED last night and today my sustainer doesn't seem to work as good. Do you suppose I need a higher value resistor to the LED? My uneducated theory is that the LED is "stealing" too much juice from the circuit. Does this make sence? The LED is pretty bright. Also...... The drain bias; does that just trim the amount of current the circuit recieves? What I mean is, If my battery is going dead and I open the trim a little, will that effectively bring the bias back to 4.5V?

Hey all, I recorded a small sample of my sustainer guitar for you guys to hear. It's two tracks (one clean the other with high gain) both in fundamental mode. My harmonic mode is not really working. I got a little debugging ahead of me. But, the clip shows that the sustainer works!! Check it out... http://www.asanteguitars.com/Hosted/Sustainer.mp3 ...And here are some pics: http://www.asanteguitars.com/Hosted/pics/top.jpg http://www.asanteguitars.com/Hosted/pics/driver.jpg http://www.asanteguitars.com/Hosted/pics/driver_side.jpg http://www.asanteguitars.com/Hosted/pics/guts.jpg http://www.asanteguitars.com/Hosted/pics/off.jpg http://www.asanteguitars.com/Hosted/pics/on.jpg .

Update: Installed my sustainer in my Fender Prodigy last night. It's working (which makes me feel great) HOWEVER... My harmonic mode doesn't seem to work very well. I only get harmonic sustain on like, 4 notes on the entire fretboard! I was just listening to "Beckistan" and I can't get those sounds. Any suggestions? My driver core is a bit wider that Pete's (about 4.8mm or so). Perhaps that's part of the problem. I was also wondering what parts of the Fetzer-Ruby circuit affect frequency response (ie. EQ)? I was playing around with my knob (tone, you dirty bastards!) and found that when I rolled off the the top end my sustainer hardly worked. So, I wonder if I can adjust the ruby to allow more highs through (maybe a different value cap or resistor somewhere ) Can it be done and do you think it would work?

Can someone explain how to wire the on/off switch for the sustainer. I think that's where my problem is. I don't really get how DPDT switches work.

Hey all, I was wondering, is there a way to use two 9v batteries so that you get a longer battery life/playing time out of the sustainer? StewMac sells these: http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Electronics,_p...es.html#details and I thought I might use one in my next build. Would you have to wire the circuit differently to take 18v down to 9v?

1. What exactly causes the battery to heat up? 2. Where would you look first? (for the short)

Hey all, I've recently attempted to instal my sustainer in a guitar and everything seems to fit OK. BUT...I've noticed my 9v battery is getting really warm. Is this normal? ...Or do I have something wired wrong?

The recommended wire is 0.2mm which would be 32 gauge AWG wire. You want to make sure the wire is insulated with a coat of varnish (or whatever it is) so you don't short your coil. You should have to scrape the coating off the wire before you can get a reading through it. I think it's best to stick to the working formula for your first attempt (ie. thin (3mm) driver with thin blade core with 32 gauge wire wrapped to 8ohms). After you've achieved some success, then start tweaking if you like. I just finished my first attempt and I stayed close to the recommended formula. I converted a stacked singlecoil bobbin to 3.5mm by adding plastic shimms to the top bobbin with CA glue. I wound this to 8.5ohms with 32gauge wire potted with white glue. I put this onto the pickup (the bottom coil is not connected to anything). It has individual magnetic pole pieces (not blade) and is fed by a Fetzer-Ruby. I get pretty good sustain with the driver held over the strings. The high E and B strings take a little work to get going but I have had sustain on them though it's intermitant. (sometimes works sometimes doesn't) My first tweak will be the thin blade core to see if I can get more sustain out of the high strings.

I use a graphtech Ghost piezo system in my tele style guitar. It sounds great and was easy to install. The only downside is the wire from each saddle to the connector block is visible on the bridge plate. A small price to pay for great tone. I suppose I could have drilled holes under each saddle and fed the wires through them but... I didn't It has a quick switch for choosing mags, piezo or blend modes. Also a stereo output so you can sent the mag signal to one rig and the piezo signal to another.

Hey all, I'm trying to design a PCB trace transfer for the fetzer-ruby. What program is the easiest to use. I'm making the board using the toner transfer method. Better yet, has anyone already done this? If so, hook a brother up!

Thanks for all the help. I'm happy to report that my fetzer-ruby is fully functional. I still don't know why I was getting the wrong readings before but today everything worked out great. I'm using this preamp for a sustainer driver and it works! I got sustain on all 6 strings! The circuit is still on the breadboard so I got some soldering to do. Anyone know anything about printed circuit boards? I plan on mounting this on a PCB using the toner transfer method to make the board. I'm having a little trouble making the transfer template. What is the best (easiest) software for designing PCB's?

Quick question, on the fetzer-ruby, which pot is used as the sensitivity control (vol or gain)?

Sustainer Success!!!!! I was having some electronics troubles (biasing the drain on JFET) which I have recently resolved. I wound a new coil (32gauge wire, 8.5ohms, 3.5mm) on top of an old pickup and IT WORKS! I'm getting sustain on all 6 strings! This is such an accomplishment for me, having no electronics experience whatsoever. So I'll be burnin through 9volts like mad for the next little while untill the novelty wears off. I'll try to get some pics and sounds up soon. My circuit is still on the breadboard so I go some solderin' to do. Now I have to build a new guitar to house this thing!

No luck. Anyone?

I'm obviously missing some basic bit of knowledge about circuits. I took everything out of the circuit except 9v+ to 100k trimpot to 9v-. I measured from every point in the circuit but the pot does nothing. I thought that the trimpot was supposed to add resistance to the current as it is adjusted but the voltmeter reads full voltage no matter what the trimpot is set at. The drain bias is the only part of my circuit that I can't figure out. HELP!!! I'm gonna slap myself a few times, crack a frosty brew and try this again.

This should help you: http://static.zoovy.com/img/guitarelectronics/-/wd_u010_01 If your pickup only has 2 leads ignore the two leads that are soldered together in the diagram.

Thanks Primal, I'll try to get a pic up here. If a trim pot has no value written on it, how do I measure it? Is it Ohm meter on the two outside poles?

Right... I rebuilt the circuit AGAIN and I have the same bias problem. The battery is new. The trim pot is new (100k as per schematic). 9v+ goes to pole 1 on pot. Sweeper and pole 3 are together and out to the drain pole of JFET. Is this right? When I measure from 9v+ to just after the pot I get a reading of 0.683 or something no matter where I set the pot.

Try This: http://static.zoovy.com/img/guitarelectron...-/wdu_hh3t11_01 If you're using singlecoils ignore the two wires that are soldered together on each pickup. Hope that helps. Dezz

OK, I rebuilt my amp on the breadboard with a new FET (I fried the first one) and attached a small speaker to the output and my guitar to the input. If I adjust the vol and gain pots to the EXACT right position, I get sound. If the pots move even a little I get this loud humming that changes pitch as the pots are adjusted. What could I doing wrong? I had my poles mixed up on the MPF102 the first time so I replaced it. Do you think I fried more than the FET? I'm going to re-build the entire curcuit with replacement parts and see. Also, I still can't get a proper reading on the drain bias. The trim pot adjusts from 0v up to 3.5ish. But I'm supposed to bias the drain to 4.5v. Any thoughts? Thanks, Dezz

Why 12v? Is this something I should do? .

Grab some shareware audio software and plug 'er into your computer. I'm dying to hear this thing!

Primal, congrats on the success! Hopefully I'm not too far behind you. It's encouraging to hear a success story using the fetzer-ruby and modded pickup bobbin coil as this is exactly what I'm attempting to do. Let's hear some sound clips of this bad boy. Question: How do I wire in an LED to indicate sustainer on/off? Where does it fit into the circuit?

Looks great. Let's hear it! SOUNDBYTES!