ebenezer shred

does anyone have a perfboard layout for the fetzer/ruby? I tried to make one on that computer program but I think I got it wrong.

could someone please explain to me if the e-bow type idea i stated in my last post is possible? And how i coudl do it?

You will NOT be able to build one of these, as it is MUCH more complicated than this sustainer project, for many reasons, one of which is EMI issues (which is solved in the Ebow by secret, patented means).

Not so...on this very thread Ebows have been discussed. They apparently use a LM386 without preamp (couldn't be easier) but the real problem is making both the pickup and driver, and then getting it into a usable format. It has been done, but it is not easier. Part of the ebow secret is the enclosure that slides along the strings...tricky to make.

Search here for ebows or look through this thread. There was a dutch(?) site that Tim/onelastgoodbye translated and I know of one with pictures built over at the stompbox forum.

Anyway...I like the ebow principle, but the sustainer wins out for me (as a playing instrument) and is probably easier to make (thanks to this thread...try to find anything else of use on DIY sustainers )

Anyway, hope that helps... pete

Thanks spazzy...as long as you have a means to power it, that circuit is probably a better bet than the PA you have been using to power the thing. Having never gotten a conventional pickup to work as you have done...I don't know how it would perform. At least it is a little more disposable and portable than your PA rig

I could've sworn earlier someone just took a computer speaker and ran it to a screw wound about 20 times with thick guage wire, and that managed to sustain one string. My idea is to put something like that in my guitar, with a retractable wire that ran out of the guitar and do e-bow type stuff, then retract it back into the guitar to the point where it just look like a screw sitting there. (there would also need to be an on/off switch of course). Then I could do e-bow type stuff without having to pick it up and put it down during live stuff. (plus I think it would look really cool). I also like the e-bow idea because you don't have to adjust it like some of the sustainers created by people on this thread.

anyone have any idea on how to make an e-bow. I tried one out today and liked it, and thought it might be a good starter sustainer project.

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

how did you do a paint job like that?

Could I possibly just build the ruby, and use that preamp from guitar fetish to run it like a fetzer? I would like doing that rather than the fetzer/ruby because there is a perfboard layout of the ruby on run off groove.

Still at it E. shred!!!

Hmm... Haven't been on this thread in a while, glad I did. I was wondering if there was some way (going back to psw's sustainer idea) I could just put a driver in the guitar, then have the board and everything in a pedal on the floor. Is this possible? (never mind if it's impractical to building it into the guitar)

We have discussed this option in various ways...there are some major problems...you may need to run two leads to the guitar...one for the driver and the other for the signal to the amp. Mixing them could cause a lot of problems with EMI from the cables themselves. You would also likely need more power, but this would be less of an issue as it wouldn't need to run off batteries! I looked at various ways that everything could be mounted in a surface mounted box (like a tailpiece) with a very small surface mounted driver. The problem is that you would still need (except for a single pickup guitar I suppose) major rewiring and bypass switching inside the guitar.

The photo of my "sustain box" on the LP in the above post, and pictured off the guitar here...

may appear to be just what you are talking about, but it isn't really! This is a testing device...there is no bypass switching and the driver is not permanently mounted to the guitar, nor the neck HB function properly as it is lowered so much to fit the driver on, and the other coil not compensated...that it does not function too well. It is a replica though of the driver and circuit that is in my guitar and a useful device none the less...but not really for playing. There are some sounds of the thing on the sounds thread, but it did not work as well as it does on a fully installed guitar like my strat.

UPDATE: Playing my strat just now with ulta clean sounds to get the "fizz". This is not EMI. I think that this is amplification of high pitched fret buzz and loose components and such! In order to get the harmonics to ring loud and true, the amplifier needs to be set so as to reproduce such high sounds...consequently you need a lot of treble and headroom to get these kinds of sounds. You can do it quitely with some compression for instance but this brings out the background noises (like this "fizz"). It does not sound in fundamental mode on the same settings....I think...because the full bodied sound of the whole note (not just the higher artifacts) overwhelms these things and the strings vibration is more natural. More needs to be done to look into it more fully, but that is what appears to be going on. Bear in mind also, that I am talking a very sterile clean sound...nothing very attractive about it...almost painfully brittle and high fi and not something you would naormally choose to play music with in the real world. Only a slight bit of hair (would still be regarded as clean) is required to give body to these high harmonics and eradicate the "fizz" effect!!!

So...it does appear to work ok...I wish to build another, better quality sustainer guitar in the future that will shed more light on things I guess... pete

This seems like something I would be very interested in experimenting with perfecting. I was thinking about making an out of guitar sustainer system so I didn't have to route and I could switch it from guitar to guitar, and attatch it to the strap or something. And I do just have a single pickup guitar. Do you think you could send me a schematic of your sustainer in a box system? I would very, very much like to experiment with this idea.

Hmm... Haven't been on this thread in a while, glad I did. I was wondering if there was some way (going back to psw's sustainer idea) I could just put a driver in the guitar, then have the board and everything in a pedal on the floor. Is this possible? (never mind if it's impractical to building it into the guitar)

i would guess the best thing would be a small vinyl sticker, then refinish it or something

i thought to wire a pedal in you just gotta take the signal goin to the output jack of the guitar and run it through the input and output of the pedal (and get a flipswitch and run the knobs to the top and put the battery somewhere)

nice, i think you're gonna have trouble reaching the upper frets though, lol.

the fetzer valve is just a preamp section though. how would i connect it to the ruby amp?

but i don't need the controls right? if i don't put them on how would the schematic change?

but i don't need the controls right? if i don't put them on how would the schematic change?

do you have a perfboard layout for the amplifying section?or a pic of it? which kind of switch would i use for what i want?(for the on/off) would the schematic change for the fetzer ruby if i don't add the controls?and to split the wire do i just run two wires off the end of the wire i'm splitting? and i don't need a bypass right? so is that where my on off goes?

i want to make mine as simple as possible. do i need a phase switch? all i want is endless sustain. i don't care about that weird harmonic thing. and i don't need any of the controls for the fetzer/ruby besides the on/off switch? what switch would i use for that? and how would i split the signal? running two wires from the end of one wire? would you have a schematic for something very simple like this? (sorry for all the questions)

psm told me to start posting here, so, here i am. im going to be building a prototype sustainer from a single coil pickup in a guitar with one humbucker and a volume control. my question is, how exactly do i send the signal from the humbucker to the driver? (through a fetzer/ruby amp section)

you don't need a diagram. just get an spst switch. run a wire from one of it's lugs to the hot wire on the output jack, and run a wire from the other lug of the switch to the ground wire on the output jack.

could you use the little gem amplifier for the amp part of the sustainer? or would i need to use the fetzer ruby?

for the driver, could you just rewind a single coil to 8 ohm's and use that? (i don't care if i can't use it as a pickup anymore)

so.............does anybody have a schematic for it?

yeah, it's sandable primer, so i don't have to re seal? (it doesn't have to be really perfect)

i just saw this pic of an ibanez with a humbucker and a single coil wired together. I'd like to do this and wire each of the coils to a killswitch or something so i could single out each coil, or combine them together. and have one volume control for the whole thing. (no tone controls). is this possible? if so could someone draw a schematic?

looks like this one is wired close to the way i want it, not sure though.

you can make your own if you have a laser printer. just print it backwards on laminate paper and use spray glue to attatch it to the headstock.