Considering a DIY Sustainer

[Dom]

I've heard some great examples of DIY sustainers devised and built by people on Project Guitar for less than a $100 so now I absolutely have to make one too. Belew & Fripp watch out.

The basic DIy Sustainer recipe is a small 3 way switch that activates your bridge pickup & a 9v onboard amp connected to a driver which plays what you played, thus moving the strings and creating the sustaining effect. Sustains for as long as you have battery. Also when you reverse the polarity of the driver you have two modes, normal & harmonic, hence a small 3 way switch. I think for what infinite sustain could unlock for me as a slide player I can certainly be fine with having a tiny 3 way switch added to a beloved Rickenbacker...OK, anything else? What's a driver? Sounds cool, sign me up. Wait! Here is the problem, and it is a biggie...the sustainer works best when it is bridge pickup only. This means the driver is placed right where the cherished neck pickup goes. Oh what No neck pickup? Rats. What is a driver again?

Now for the tech of it. A driver is not a pickup but really not too far off. It vibrates the stings like it would the cone on a speaker. The best working driver is a 3 mm tall coil of wire wound to 8ohms around a magnet & bobbin. So the driver is thin & can fit many form factors. Should be placed in the neck pickup position or as close to the middle of the string length possible. 21 fret neck pickup spacing is optimal but I've still seen it work on 24 fret guitars. The wire is thicker than pickup wire & there are online calculators that will tell you how many windings for your size magnet. Easy to wind by hand so no need for any extra equipment. This driver should be placed fairly close to the strings so hooray for already having low action. Regarding onboard amps they are simple to build or cheap enough to buy.

With just a 3mm tall bobbin it is possible to do a stacked neck pickup/driver. (ToastDriver, HiGainDriver?) I do not want to destroy a RIckenbacker pickup. Besides the first driver I build will probably be junky anyhow. Fortunately I have an old HB1 that a terrible guitar shop already destroyed for me back in the 90's. If I can chip out the epoxy I can use one of the magnets & put in a partition so the driver coil is only 3mm tall. I can attach the driver to a piece of black plastic then glue that to one of the extra pickup rings I have. That will look stock & maybe give me the insight into figuring out a stacked pickup/driver that fits a Rickenbacker pickup down the road. I'll likely try this experiment on my black 330 with the crazed finish. I can wire up a simple volume & tone & the Ric-O-Drive sustainer for testing. I can always put everything back.

[8mileshigher]

Dom -- this project of yours seems interesting .... it will be cool to hear a recording after you finish making this Sustainer in the HB1 casing.