Home Made Sustainer pickup - Any ideas?

[jumpwin]

As it says. I want some everlasting sustain at my fingertips! But I'm a cheap man! How do I make one? There's a few 'brief' descriptions out there, but nothing in depth. any ideas?

[MrPFloyd]

there aren't really any good drivers for pickups out there that you can buy and build your own with, most are pretty weak. you should just spend the extra few bucks and get a sustainer kit from fernandes. the old style ones sometimes pop up on the bay for less then a bill

[Roy]

http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=7512&st=0

 

316 pages on diy sustainer (there's a shorter tute somewhere). gets pretty advanced.

[WRGKMC]

As with most DIY, once you get beyond simple projects with cheap parts readily available, builds are often more expensive than buying. The circuit is basically a pulsed oscillator that cause an ac flux from a coil. A guitar pickup cannot be used because the wire is too thin and the coil uses an iron core not a magnetic core like a pickup. It generates an elecromagnetic field out of the coil which is the opposite of using a string and a magnet to generate a current inside of the coil so there are differences. The coil is probibly the easiest part. Finding a schematic for the driver circuit would be the harder part and the most expensive to come up with the parts for. Its not hard to build an oscillator circuit with the right parts, but its not cheap either as you may think. manufacturers buy parts in bulk so what might cost them five cents costs you fifteen dollars. Its what keeps them in business making a profit and keeps you paying the going rate.

[Karma1]

Good luck with your search for a DIY Sustainer. However, if you do eventually decide to go for the kit from Fernandes or Sustainiac, just be aware the installing one is huge job - I speak from experience having put a Sustainiac in one of my guitars. Another alternative, and I haven't tried this myself but I've heard, might be the Philosophers Tone pedal which is supposed to give an incredible amount of sustain.