DIY Sustainer
Introduction
Sustainer is cool little device originally designed by Fernandes®. It works opposite from "normal" guitar pickup. Basically, active circuit amplifies signal from bridge pickup and sends it to driver which generates magnetic field causing strings to vibrate infinitely. Driver replaces neck pickup on guitar which limits guitar tonal variations in one way but gives completely new possibilities. Signal flow with the sustainer is pickup -> amplifier -> driver where driver replaces a speaker. Speaker cone movement is replaced by magnetic field generated around the driver.
This photo shows Fernandes Sustainer kit which is cool but very expensive (above 200$). Fortunately, great guys from Project Guitar Forum (most of all Pete/psw and Col) developed DIY friendly project that costs much less than original but still sounds good. Also, I’d like to thank PSW Pete for sending me 0.2mm wire all the way from Australia at no cost.
Cost to build
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Bill of materials
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0.2mm wire
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1€
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Plastic pickup cover
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2€
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LM386 power amp
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0.5€
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DIL8 IC socket
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0.2€
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2x 100K trimmer
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0.5€
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1K trimmer
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0.25€
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Resistors: 1M, 1.5K, 68K
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0.1€
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Caps: 22n, 100nF, 22uF, 100uF, 220uF
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0.5€
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JFET J201
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0.2€
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SPST toggle switch
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0.5€
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DPDT toggle switch
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0.5€
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Board material, wire, battery clip
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1€
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Total
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7.25€
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If you do not have some old pickup to use for about 10€ you can order single coil pickup kit and pickup cover, StewMac carries both items.
Construction
I decided to go with Fetzer/Ruby amplifier that will drive the sustainer. It’s pretty simple to build and has been reported to work well. It’s basically a Fetzer Valve booster that drives a 386 based amplifier. Both circuits may be found at runoffgroove.com.
As far as the coil is concerned, I got a few dead pickups and choose the one that has the nicest bobbin. The coil itself should be as thin as possible so bobbin has to be shortened to 3mm or so. To do that I glued two plastic L profiles on the sides that leave just about 3mm of space on the top of the bobbin. Based on the size of my bobbin I calculated number of turns that will give 8ohm coil (link may be found below). Coil is potted with universal glue to keep it in place and prevent microphonics.
Pictorial
Click on an image to see more details.
Useful links
Project Guitar "Sustainer Ideas" thread (very large)
Project Guitar tutorial on building driver
Program for calculating turns count for given core dimensions
Official Fernandes Sustainer page
I have Ibanez JEM with DiMarzo pickup.
I guess I have to remove the neck evolution pickup and replace it with piezo coil
I already understand how to make piezo and driver fetzer/ruby
the pickup wiring diagram is standard HSH.
how the wiring diagram to install fetzer/ruby driver to my guitar.
the fetzer/ruby circuit diagram i found it at your DIY software
what is the scheme? I mean where the wire goes from driver to pickup/5 way switch?
can u draw and send it to my email?
thanks for the great job
Thanks for this! A few questions though…
1. No thoughts on how well it worked?
2. How did you wire it to the guitar?
Hi,
orange and green wires connects to the blue and white,and then ?
please help!
nice job!
Where does the driver pickup is connected?
Looking at your driver, i try to guess
I’m really frustrated
Thank’s
Bye
Hi,
orange and green would go to red and blue on the right side of the board. That’s the output of the amplifier. In between you will probably want to have a DPDT switch that changes polarity (green to red, orange to blue and the other way round). That way you’re changing between sustain and harmonic modes.
Cheers,
Bane
Thank you very much!
And what about white and blue wires? I have a dual humbucker guitar with 4 knobs (gibson like), my idea is to replace neck pickup with an 8 ohm “single coil” driver (even if the hole) … should white and blue wires have to be connected where the old nec kpickup was?
One more time, thank’s!
nope, blue wire goes to guitar ground and white goes to the bridge pickup output. You will also need a switch to turn the sustainer on and off, probably the best way would be to cut the voltage out.
Hello,
Thanks for your work in the sustainer proyect.
I would like to make one, but i need instructions and info to start, where i can find information to do the circuit and coil/magnet?
Regards,
Gabriel.
Hi,
the circuit is Fetzer/Ruby (you can find it on http://runoffgroove.com/). As for the coil, check out the photo gallery on this page. There’s description under each photo. Also turn calculator program I referenced under links will be helpful…
Cheers,
Bane