Experience with the sustainiac?

[wheres my pick?]

Hello all,

I have been looking at the sustainiac system for quite some time now and am looking to get it. I think I will be getting the sustainiac rather than the fernandes sustainer just because the price is better as well as I have heard better things about it. I have a SUB 1 (not the new kind) so it would have go under the pickgaurd which would require routing. My question is: does anybody have any experience with either the sustainiac or sustainer systems and what were your general impressions? Thanks in advance

 

[bdtunn]

I have the sustaniac in my back up guitar. It's fun for some show off moves but the novelty wears off quick. The neck pickup by it self is def not a smooth as my JP,its got a bit of bite. But it is fun in its own right, I don't regret having it.

 

[BUC]

I think it's a great system. I used to play a Fernandes guitar quite a bit for that exact reason.

Pros: It's everything they say it is as far as infinite sustain at any volume and gain. Distorted or clean. 100% predictable and controllable feedback. Anyone who's seen Steve Vai has seen it in action. Sustains until the battery dies, even just sitting in the guitar stand. Matched with a Floyd Rose, you can do some amazing stuff. Anything you see someone do with an ebow, you can do better and easier with a sustainiac.

Cons: The drive/neck pickup that is required to make the system work, imho, is not a great sounding pickup. It's ok. OR, you can use the driver as a driver and install your own neck pickup right next to the driver BUT my experience with this is you usually need to use an active pickup because the driver will cause microphonic feedback from most passive pickups. (Supposedly the newer ones don't interfere as much as the old ones but consequently don't work quite as well. Not sure as I haven't tried one in maybe 10 years, but I did use my old one extensively).

Con #2: The newer Fernandes guitars look nicer, but the old one I had was not great. It's still sitting in the closet because I've thought that someday I might rip the guts out of it and put it in a different axe but it won't get played any time soon.

YMMV but for my purposes these days I might use it for certain songs or effects but I don't see it making it into one of my main axes. There is no way in hell I'm cutting into one of my current EBMM axes to install one.