SustainerPlayers 8 Ball sustainer guitar

[SustainerPlayer]

Like most of my other projects this started out as something quiet different.

I may have the world record in owning guitars equipped with the Fernandes sustainer system. I have been through many factory models and DIY's as well.

One of the latest was this Fernandes FR85s - a Japan model I bought used from a guitarist who originally bought it in Japan.

The garden tools and such are not part of this story. [blush]

But as I experincede before - after adjustment, setup, fret leveling etc. I still didn't bond with it. So I had to choose between selling it ... or do something with it ...

So I did. It should be obvious that when my best and most used guitars all are my self made Warmoth partcasters then it would be a good idea to transplant the sustainersystem to a Warmoth.

Then this appeared in the Warmoth Showcase:

Strat body with 8 ball graphic. Alder - actually a first for me having used basswood, swamp ash and mahogany before.

It went into the basket with this neck:

Maple neck (also a first) with Pau Ferro fingerboard (my preferred I have 3 others with this wood). 6150 frets (normally using 6130) and finished in black - matching the guitar´s design. I normally have unfinished necks on my builds.

I have not made photos of the building process. So it will only be "best of my iPhone" of the almost finished result. It is my 10th Warmoth build. But #9 isn't finished yet. So it's to early to celebrate that.

Enough talk ... now the photos:

The bridge pickup is changed to a Dimarzio PAF pro.

I have made a basic setup and cut and fine adjusted the nut. It just needs some fine adjustment of the sustainer system itself.

Oh - and I need to order a battery box. The ones I had laying around were a diffrent size from what Warmoth routes for. Thats why it has the elegant blue painters tape solution right now. Haha.

I also need to find out whether I want to continue with the higher 6150 frets or grind them down to the same height as 6130 when I make the fret leveling.

I'm also contemplating a Tremol-No for this. Although the Wilkinson VG-100 is a very stable solution in itself. Actually this very unit I have had on different guitars since 2006!

And then I probaly put my Roland GK-3 pickup on this also. It seems to fit nicely with scheme.

 

[Great Ape]

Cool! And FYI, all my guitars sound better with a freshly mown lawn, too... :doh:

 

[mark1178]

First thought "well, EVH uses a hand drill, this guy uses a lawn mower and apparently a trash bin for a reverb tank...."

Nice setup! I was eyeballing that body once I saw it.

 

[Nightclub Dwight]

Is that a Makita lawn mower?  You don't see those in the USA.

 

[line6man]

Outstanding!  :icon_thumright:

 

[SustainerPlayer]

Is that a Makita lawn mower?  You don't see those in the USA.

It's a Bosch Rotak 43.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

That's a cool project.
I'm looking at Sustainiacs for upcoming builds.

 

[DustyCat]

I have the Sustaining Stealth I think. ..2005-6 build.
You have to give up the neck pickup which is kind of a bummer but overall I like mine (oh and it takes 2 9 volt batteries 'n other bummer)

I essentially  went  s-s-h  with pickup rout foregoing the toggle switch for push/pull pots to activate the sustainer and modulate the harmonics.

There are some neat modes/harmonics that you can dial in but overall there's really just one mode I like the most...blooming into feedback an octave higher.

I also regret not going with a toggle/blade switch as the push/pull pots are difficult to engage seamlessly. They are physically further away from the strings and hard to grab in a pinch, not like the blade switch which you can move in one sweep...from the same down stroke/up stroke.

Having my guitar permanently stuck on pickup position 4 (except when the sustainer is activated) is okay....but I wish someone would invent a -5 way blade/toggle switch mote suitable to my needs for this particular guitar:
1=middle 2=middle/bridge 3=bridge 4=bridge with sustainer activated and finally pickup position 5 on the blade switch...you're gonna love this...ready?

**Pickup position 5 is actually along a separate axis and here's the kicker: it's momentary to be paired with a killswitch to cut the signal.

Long story short think of the guitar as G and the toggle switch as an L. GL thumb that baby down (spring activated) after slamming the 'shifter' to kick on the afterburner (bridge with sustainer)!
... --- ... (MOAR CANNABIS PLEEZ!

-DC

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

I like the "blend" with the drive control.
That's the Sustainiac setup that I've tried and like the most.
Just a volume, a 3 way LP type of toggle, a drive pot replacing the tone, an on/off switch and a 3 way switch between Infinite-Harmonic-Blend.

I like to control the "bloom" a bit more than just leaving it at one setting.

 

[DustyCat]

I like the "blend" with the drive control.
That's the Sustainiac setup that I've tried and like the most.
Just a volume, a 3 way LP type of toggle, a drive pot replacing the tone, an on/off switch and a 3 way switch between Infinite-Harmonic-Blend.

I like to control the "bloom" a bit more than just leaving it at one setting.

Thanks for the tip Tony, I too like the idea behind blend.
Unfortunately I find the sustainer system a bit squirrely, and use both hands to mute the strings I do not want "sustaining."

Another cool feature I just thought of might be a way to control the speed at which the harmonic kicks in from the sustainer. Sometimes I wonder if the sustainer might not be better off as a pedal unit, but I do not know how that would work.

Cool guitar SustainerPlayer, I think the 8 Ball is a perfect choice for such a (haywire? off kilter? TILT?) crazy contraption. Maybe I just need more practice with mine  :rock-on:

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

I like the "blend" with the drive control.
That's the Sustainiac setup that I've tried and like the most.
Just a volume, a 3 way LP type of toggle, a drive pot replacing the tone, an on/off switch and a 3 way switch between Infinite-Harmonic-Blend.

I like to control the "bloom" a bit more than just leaving it at one setting.

Another cool feature I just thought of might be a way to control the speed at which the harmonic kicks in from the sustainer. Sometimes I wonder if the sustainer might not be better off as a pedal unit, but I do not know how that would work.

That's where the drive control comes in real handy.  It helps you to control just how tame or wild you want your feedback sustain to be, sort of like the way that you would position yourself closer or far away from your speaker cab to do the same thing without the sustainer system.  The way that you have learned to mute the strings with the sustainer system is how I learned to mute them long ago with loud cabinets, but they accomplish the same thing because the end result is that weather by speaker cab or the sustainer system, your strings are being driven to vibrate and it's up to the player to determine which ones are to be heard at any given time.

Transitioning to a sustainer system is pretty natural for me given my experience with loud cabinets, so I'm glad to be able to accomplish the same thing without them since I go direct now.  Saves my hearing as I'm getting older.

 

[whiskyboy1977]

Love it!  Any chance of a picture inside the cavity?  I'm fitting a Fernandes system in my Warmoth Strat this week and would love to see how you positioned it all inside the cavity.

 

[SustainerPlayer]

Yes. I have a gut shot here. Mind you I'm still fiddling with it. Can't seem to get the blend and 5th harmonic mode to work properly. So wiring (is still) a mess.

 

[whiskyboy1977]

That's great, thanks.  My system is much older than the nice, new sustainers, it's from an old Revolver Pro and only has a single mini switch with the mode being selected via a push/push tone pot.  i actually have no idea the system even works at this stage, wiring in the battery today so fingers crossed.