FlashBandit

I'm not sure if you meant the Fetzer or the Fetzer/Ruby, because I built the F/R. What circuit do I need to build? What circuits have been proven to work well?

So it has to be polarized like this? Where can you buy appropriate magnets for these drivers? And I've turned the magnets so it's polarized like this, but it's still not working consistently. How powerful do the magnets have to be? Can you turn your driver up enough so that the strings vibrate too much? I want mine to be that powerful, but now it's useless. help please!

I have six 1/8" neos, those really don't make the driver work at all. I also have 2 of those common rectangular prism magnets that I remember being popular as a kid. I'm pretty sure they're ceramic. The only time the driver has worked was when I set it on top of the poles of my crappy strat single coil, but obviously the magnetic attraction was weak so the sustain was too. Here are pics: This is how I arrange my neos on it. Should this work? This is how I put the block magnet, should that work? The block magnets are oriented with N on one big side and S on the other side. (I.E. it's not with N on one end and S on the other end, but the big surface area sides.) This is my driver and magnets. Note the tiny neoD magnet on top of the pick. this is how I'm wired, each pup has its own pot, no tone pots

I built the amp to the exact specifications on the schematic for the Fetzer/ruby. Pins 1 and 8 are connected by a pot, but theres no cap. The driver is very well wound and it doesn't emit any sounds. And how should the magnets be oriented? I've tried lots of different ways, with varying success.

Why is it not working!?! I've rebuilt a new driver, the amp still works, and the sustainer only works at the twelfth fret, placed very close, and it works very slowly and quietly. I'd rather be having the problem of the strings vibrating too hard. How do I get more power out of this? The amp is again the F/R, and the driver is almost exactly what I've read works in this forum. It's a steel bar wrapped with 31AWG to almost exactly 8 ohms. The coil is 2mm below the top of the bar and the coil is 3mm tall. What am I doing wrong?

Just curious, is there any way to tell the actual gain of an amplifier? I built the F/R and it definetly amplifies a signal, but I would be curious to find out what the maximum gain actually was. Also, when you're using your sustainer, do you tend to have the gain turned up all the way? I was wondering, if you didn't use full gain, could you add a resistor to the input portion of the F/R amp so that less power went into the amp, and more was directed into the bridge pickup's output. Then you could turn up the gain all the way and not sacrifice the output from the bridge.

OK, I've got pictures. Basically, I found that I wasn't orienting the magnets correctly, but now it works a little better. I just set my driver on top of my neck pup and it magnetized it. It sustained at a very low volume/amount though... disappointing... how do I fix that? Also, I have a DPDT for phase switching the driver and when I run current through it one way (I think it's the harmonic mode, it resonates a per 5th above) I'm more or less fine. But when I switch it, it sends radio-ish feedback to the other pups and it sounds bad. Any thoughts to help? And if I were to rebuild a new driver, could the core be steel instead of iron? Driver at 8.5ish ohms. 3mm x 3mm x 6cm. Fetzer/ruby amp, works properly. The whole shebang!

My driver is not working, and I have no idea what's up! I wrapped a small thing of ferrite (3mm x 3mm x width of neck) with 30 AWG until 8ohms. I potted it with regular elmers glue and attatched it all up to a working fetz/ruby. It does not vibrate the strings, but it does interfere with my pickups and cause some sort of feedback. What do I do? Please help!

psw, thanks for your help. Unfortunately, I have a few more road blocks, but I'm getting dang close. Basically, my amp works, and my driver is close, but I can't rewire my guitar. I removed EVERYTHING (electronic-wise) so that I could replace the 5-way switch on my strat with a pot for each pup. I'm also adding the sustainer and there will be no tone pot (for now). Here's my current scheme but it's not working right. Every volume pot acts like a master volume for all 3 pups. Also, I think the F/R amp feeds a signal directly into the output and I get some insane electronic feedback, but no physical feedback/vibrations in the strings. Is this diagram right?

I've finally started building the circuit and it's really coming along nicely. I have a few questions though: 1.) How do you connect the output from the bridge pickup to power the op-amp & driver, and still have it output to your main amp? 2.) I have a strat, can the driver be right next to the neck pickup? Or would that be a problem? Can I still use all three pickups and the driver? 3.) THIS IS CRAZY! I've built everything and I'm testing it on an acoustic/electric, but it's not working. The driver makes a constant humming noise at about 2 octaves above middle G. If I unground the input, it starts whining real loud until you remove the magnet from the driver. But even if the magnet is just close to the driver, it'll whine. I have absolutely no clue what's whining because there's nothing "speaker" about it. Nothing ever over heats, it's just wierd. I know the driver works well because I inputed an Ipod at a really low volume and listened to a much amplified version through headphones. The driver is almost exactly 8 ohms and it's dimensions measure 3mm x 3mm x 6cm. The wire is 30 gauge. The core is not iron, but is instead "impregnated ferrite" which is basically particles of iron impregnated in some material and this stuff is built specifically for wrapping electromagnetic coils. Please help! Thanks in advance!

<REMOVED> I found most of my answers.

What kind of magnets should you use for the driver? I got six 1/8" neodymium magnets (from radioshack), they're tiny but I've heard they're powerful, would they be powerful enough? I haven't used them yet though. I was thinking about putting the magnets on top of the iron core so they're up close to the strings. My theory was that if I had six small pole pieces located up by the strings, they could help focus the field at each string, but I've seen most people using blade type cores and the long black type of magnets without any pole pieces. What would be best?

psw, thanks alot. That was so thorough, and helped alot. Thanks a ton.

col, thanks for your reply, it really helped. Seriously, I'm a noob at this, thanks. In the interim time though, I've come across a few more questions, if you have a minute: On the Fetzer/Ruby schematic, the 9v batter has the positive terminal attatched to stuff, but what about the negative terminal? Does it attatch to ground? And same thing goes for the input, do I need to account for the ground for that? How do you divide the bridge pickup signal so that it drives the driver and plays through the amp? When you coil the driver, does each loop have to lay perfectly to the side of the previous one, or can you just wrap it really fast? And lastly (I hope), you substitute the speaker in the schematic for the driver, right? which end of the driver is +/-? Thanks again.

I recently go most of the parts to start this endeavor but I have some questions. THANKS a million in advance. On the F/R diagram, one of the resistors is labeled "1k5". What does that mean? For the FET, which prongs go where? I'm using the 2N5457. Actually, I'm using the 5459, will that be a problem? For the driver, what kind of metal and magnets should I use? I found a bar that's "impregnated iron" that's commonly used for wrapping wire around. Should I use that or just plain old iron? I also found a rubberized magnet thats almost the exact dimensions the blade should be, should I just use that instead of iron and magnets? Also, about how many wraps gets you to 8 ohms? What gauge wire should I use? How can I test the amp before making the driver to know it works? Thanks again.