Has anyone here used a sustainer?

[Eric O'Reilly]

Ive been watching some live clips of EVH from the 90s where hes using a sustainer and Im interested, has anybody got any advice or experience with them?

 

[TNT]

kinda, sorta...... I've always had somewhat of an interest in them, but mostly at a distance. I've toyed with them here and there, and I just never was overly convinced of needing one (at this point). I'm not sure how much they would actually add to the cost of a guitar, but I know it needs to be looked at carefully from the "build".

If imagine if I was going to record and start a new career in music, I probably would employ one in my guitar style because it gives another dimension of depth.

 

[coldsummer]

Eric, I've used both the Fernandes and Sustainiac in the past and found them very useful. They work great on high gain settings for generating controlled and musical feedback or simply provide infinite sustain. Surprisingly good for clean tones too, certainly add another dimension to your tone options.

I suppose the only compromise is that you do have to sacrifice the neck pick up in order to mount the sustainer but it does function as a normal pick up too but if you are in love with your particular neck pick up it is something to consider before swapping it out for a sustainer.

A lot of people say it is the same as an E bow, but personally I find the sustainer much easier to use and more functional.

 

[mystixboi1]

I had a few jackson pc1's. I used the sustainer a lot. Loved them. The sustainers were great for adding color when playing with a full band. I have some vids somewhere. Ill post them when I get to my laptop

 

[mystixboi1]

Here are some clips...

Dirty

 

[mystixboi1]

Clean

While I loved the guitars, I missed the humbucking tone of a humbucker. I ended up selling them

 

[threeminutesboy]

I use ebow that's enough for me

 

[Spudmurphy]

My only experience was around my mates workshop - a customer had tried to install one themselves and made a pigs ear out of it.
My mate had to go through a string of e mails with the supplier and had to get a new plug socket (PCB).

It was a pita to install and when I tried it I didn't like it.

Man it cost the customer an arm and a leg what with the new part and the bench time!!!!

 

[guitvai1]

I have the Sustainiac and its pretty cool. Works great for With Or Without You and infinite sustain on leads or just getting low volume harmonic feedback. It was a pita to install as there are a ton of wires to solder and if you don't get it quite right it just won't work. That being said Sustainiac were a very good company to deal with and stood behind their product even after I kind of messed up the circuit board. I installed it in a PC-1 style guitar that I built myself.

 

[BUC]

I used to gig with a sustainer and really liked it. The only drawback was that the sustainer driver, when used as a neck pickup only, isn't that great of a neck pickup. BUT the sustainer part, especially with the harmonic mode is pretty kick a$$.

I tried adding an additional neck pickup next to the sustainer driver, but unless you're using an active pickup (EMG or such) you will get a lot of microphonic feedback. Took me a couple of pickups to figure that one out.

Supposedly the newer Sustainer drivers are much better as neck pickups than the generation that I used about 15 years ago.

I don't have that guitar anymore but I really liked the Sustainer.