custom22

Its gonna be a little hard to use it for a two-piece top.

Maybe you could do some kind of burst?

Looks really good!

For the orange peel, you may wanna try going back to the finer grades of sandpaper. He's not talking about the pick; he's referring to the orange pel texture that you can see where the light is reflecting.

What did you use to finish it, and what were your finishing steps?

OK, the fact that this thread is over 100 pages long is hurting my brain and my eyes, so Im going to ask my questions now

I understand that the refined and currently accepted method of the DIY sustainer is using the fetzer ruby preamp, and having it drive a DIY driver, which is a magnet with some wire wrapped around it (see I have been reading)

but what i dont understand is, what is wrong with the original design on the tutorial section of the project guitar site?

I know that the piezo method doesnt work the same way as the "refined" method, but does it still sustain and acchieve a similar effect?

second question, for the method on the site, do I have to use a 386? maplins dont seem to sell them anymore, can i use a LM331N, lm358N or lm393N or anything else I can get from maplins?

forgive my noobiness guys

Try www.smallbearelec.com

Thats where i get my parts.

Theres nothing really wrong with the current design; these people are trying to work out different things such as using the sustainer with middle pickups or making a sustainer which cuts off when the note is sustained to save powe.

Hendrix in my opinion is extremely overrated. Yes he was very influential, but in my opinion, had very little style and technical skill. Yes he put "soul" into his music, but its just like it was mostly slop and noise.

Of the mentioned, SRV is probably the most soulful player, but EVH probably has the most style and skill combined.

There are too many means of rating guitarists, so its really not a fair question.

Sounds like a trussrod issue. It really depends on the guitar which way to turn, usually I figure it out by trial and error every time, and Ive seen guitars that go both ways.

Basically, looking down at the fretboard,(as if its on the floor), you want the bow to be towards the floor. (Dont adjust it this way, I'm just trying to explain it).

If you wanna enhance the grain, you might wanna check out the linseed oil technique. I dont know much about it, but this guy from www.guitarrefinishing.com did, and so have many others. It seems to work pretty well without having to sandback the wood.

Thats pretty sweet. Did you just follow the directions on the tutorials page?

I think the person who wrote that tutorial never tried it. It is very diffucult to get the solder to stick in the inlay for one, and if it does stick it will leave burn marks and ultimately fall out. Try it on scrap and this will become apparent.

I finally got my Fetzer Ruby to make a sound. I plan on messing with drivers and such, and i've come up with an idea.

Would it be possible to use the existing magnet and bars of a pickup to wrap around wire in addition to the pickup coil? I would think it feasible, depending on where the pickup's existing magnets are. What does everyone else think?

removing the neck pickup is just as you say- you must remove it from the circuit while the sustainer is on (probably the mid one as well) to avoid feedback. Definately join the humungo thread, it seeems like you have plenty of valuable knowledge.

BTW, is that Ruby thing on the link in your signature correct?

To those who use the Fetzer-Ruby, what do you turn the trin pot to? I believe it has something to do with biasing, but what is the general consensus with this?

Definately clean out the nut, but remember it is still a tremelo...

Alright, thanks for the replies. I sort of figured it out from an old circuit i had, but hopefully this will help others.

Alright, I'm working on my sustainer project, so i ordered electrolytic capacitors from Small Bear Electronics.(http://www.smallbearelec.com/Detail.bok?no=188) I know that if you put them in backwards, you can fry them, and i dont have a desire to learn by trial and error. Here is a picture of what the thing looks like.

The left end is a metal which the wire is connected to. The right end seems to be an insulator as to prevent the wire from touching metal. There are two arrows as shown, but i do not know what they mean. So...does anyone know which end is positive and which is negative?

Thanks in advance!

Ok...E.S.

so which works best for the sustainer, the "champ" or the fetzer/ruby?

The Champ is available in kit form with a circuit board and I used this as the basis of my LM386 section. The mods are listed in the above post and runs at full gain in my set up. You could put in a 1k trimmer pot in there between pins 1 and 8 with the 10 uF cap for variable gain between 20-200x gain.

You still will however need a preamp. The fetzer or any number of booster circuits will do the job. I have a preamp with a lot of gain and filtering, but the fetzer is smaller and works. My preamp is confusing and built on a PCB so is not really suitable for vero or perfboarding. I'm sure could be done better.

PSW- I'm sorry but i dont understand.

I really should draw this out...no time just now...however

BTW that would be wicked to have that LED thing in the driver!

Leave the pickup connected to the guitar's controls as normal. Then take another set of leads form the Hot and ground leads of the pickup, hot to the IN and ground of pickup to ground of circuit. Hope that makes sense...

pete

Alright, i think i got it. Is the ground of the circuit the same as the ground for the guitar?

Wait, so you want the humbucker partially split? You could blend each coil if thats what you are refering to but it doesnt seem possible that it can be part split part humbucker.

Just remember that its there if you're ever leaning it against something.

Sorry, I didnt mean driver. I am aware that the driver is where the speaker is. I meant how do i connect the bridge pickup to the driver circuit.

PSW- I'm sorry but i dont understand. The black is the pickup's normal input, and the green is its normal ground.

Do i connect the ground wire like normal, with the black wire going to the hot output and the preamp? Or is it one or the other?

Thanks Alot!

Alright guys, time for the question of the day...which is the correct way to wire the sustainer to the bridge pickup?

Please no guesses...I'm not quite sure where to implement to driver so i need a little help, and please give me some direction if none of the above are correct.

The tele is pretty sweet, but im not a big spalt fan. Dougs is like a satanic violin shape, and is definately wellfcrafted, but i dont know about the shape. The quilt top is amazing with great color; i dont know what to say about the shape. The baritone acoustic is simple and sweet, and i think i gotta go with that, but cant decide. Everybody should be proud.

Well, i guess I'll build the Ruby to be safe. I play gauge 11 strings and never have them extremely low, so that shouldnt be a problem. Thanks for the help!

Edit- For the Fetzer/Ruby, does the bridge output goes to the fetzer/ruby instead of directly to ground? Also, where do you put the on/off switch? Does it bypass the whole assembly, or cut off the battery, or something else?

I dont things you would want the strings bouncing on the fretboard would you(I'm not challenging you, this is an honest question)?

I'm sorry if i sound completely ignorant, but i am trying my best to learn electronics along with many other things.

What do you mean by "splitting the signal"? Are you talking about splitting the signal to the guitar amplifier and the driver amplifier?

They do effect the sound. Paul Reed Smith (the person) refuses to do chrome plating on his Dragons because of this. The plate sort of shields it, and gives a warmer tone, whereas noncovered ones are brighter generally.

Since it is 1.5 times output as a ruby, would the coil be more prone to frying, or the strings bouncing on the fretboard, or uncontrolled feedback? Could a resistor somewhere solve this? If this here amplifier has a good chance of working, i wouldnt mind trying it and reporting results to everyone else. Being a busy person, it would be well worth it to me if all that is needed is a resistor.

First of all, thanks to everyone who contributes, especially Pete. After 108 pages many people have been helped because of you.

Secondly, what is the output on one of those amplifiers you make (ruby etc)? I was thinking i could use one of these http://store.guitarfetish.com/on25waguamdr.html in place of wiring it. What you you think? You say that this amplifier is able to drive a small speaker, so how about this?

Thanks in advance

-Ryan