I think it's more flexible and less clumsy than the eBow. Having had an eBow since they were first released it's good for what it does but it definitely forces us to use a different technique for playing, and switching between the eBow and regular picking instantly is not possible. If I was in the market for something that does infinite sustain I'd definitely be looking for the Sustainiac. If I wanted it to sound like I was bowing the guitar then the eBow would be my choice.
One often undersold feature of the harmonic mode of the sustainer is that when you enable it, it also triggers the guitar player's "Steve Vai face mode (TM)"
wish they had a better website, it looks like it's been created in the early 2000s and never updated, been thinking about getting a single coil sutainiac for my LUKE, but i'm not sure if it's gonna work with the EMGs.
Brilliant…. In the late 80's I used a Hamer Scarab with an ADA MP-1. ALESIS Quadraverb and Kitty Hawk valve power amp, all controlled by an ADA MIDI foot switch the sound was truly amazing. Cheers 😊🇬🇧
Thanks Rick. The current version uses 1 x 9 volt battery as opposed to the old one using 2, so my tech wired the cavity to use 2 in parallel for twice the battery life again. Haven't run dry yet and I've been playing it a fair bit. I'm yet to compare the different sounds available from the neck pickup by switching some internal wires to see if I like the single coil or humbucker like sounds available. As is it is passable, but not outstanding. I think it is wired for HB sound and I'm not a fan in the neck position. Stay posted.
Not even 2 hours and that's if you're playing a show with 4 sets in it and you use your sustaniac in 1/4 of the songs just for cool sounding riffs. I don't know why 2 hours seems to sound like nothing but, that's a very long time. When you are not using it, just always keep it off but, if you're doing a concert and 1/2 of the songs have no lyrics in them, like Steve Vai's Songs" Then you will burn up 3/4 of the battery life in one show. That's still penny's for a concert. Why would someone worry about the price of a 9-volt battery if you are playing in concert or a bar for $100.00 a night. It's still penny's for the coolest solos... Hope that answered your question... '
@@5urg3x - Yup. There are 9v Lithium batteries on Amazon I use which are rechargeable and last at least 100 to 300 recharges. Some actually have the charging port on the side [of the battery] where you can flip open the 9V battery cavity on the guitar and just plug the mini-USB charger into the battery without removing it, which makes it way more convenient than taking out the batteries and replacing them.
@@RickHollis I was actually having a bit of trouble figuring out how to make use of it but watching what you did there got me going. Still having some runaway feedback here and there though...
The backing track was used with permission from Elevated Jam Tracks. Check out his RU-vid channel if you haven’t already. He posts a new backing track to jam to nearly every day.
You can, but you wouldn't be able to use the sustainer function while on the bridge pickup, it would use the neck pickup to "gather" the sound, and bridge sustainer unit to create the sustain. It'd basically have to be wired in reverse from the diagram (neck where bridge connects, bridge where neck connects). Just keep all the wires and circuit boards as far apart as possible.
Apparently this pickup does not work with chords or clean sounds because no one is demoing that. Swear to god everyone plays with a clean sound with chords and everything but as soon as they flip that switch it's all epic single notes with distortion in between shredding flexes. Or maybe people just aren't that creative.
Wanted one for a long time but the installation always kept me from buying one. Fixed that by ordering a new guitar with it pre-installed ;) And this video was the last incentive I needed to actually do that. Just hope the new one has a better batterylife than the mentioned 2 hours though
_[Rolling Eyes]_ No, Just No Jimi Hendrix’s genius was so incredible that amp feedback was a signature of his tone… then, after Eddie Van Halen released _Eruption,_ it was laced with artificial harmonics which is similar to Jimi’s feedback, except it’s controllable…
I still have a gap of knowledge how the pick up actually work. It ties into the bridge pickup somehow. So is the sutainiac is a pickup or just a sustainer? Is the bridge pickup is doing all the work? Can you explain how you get different tones with pickup selector?
You are better off getting the unit for your application directly from Sustainiac. What do you want to do with it in conjunction with the bridge pick???.. And more importantly, what kind of guitar you have. If you go through reverb you will not be happy. That is what happened to me.
Geez! You're gonna spend money just to make an infinite sustain? During the 90's when i was in college I accidentally discovered a distortion pedal that can make an infinite sustain. Unfortunately It got submerged underwater for several hours when a storm struck our home and water quickly rose up to our ceilings and I had nothing to save but just a few clothes and my laptop
Ok Rick Thank You for that Partial Demo. Everybody who has done a demo on their Fernandez/whatever sustainiac system all FAIL to explain ALL of the simple mechanics of the system, BECAUSE they all seem to want to just show us while they are showing off on the guitar which doesn't help one bit and just before the video is over we are all just as confused as we were in the begginning. First off you mentioned that what used to be your TONE KNOB now was you " Blah, blah, blah knob" NEVER EXPLAINED WHAT HAPPENED TO IT'S NORMAL FUNCTION. Then another part was the 2 toggles. I believe that one of them just turns the sustainiac system on and off BUT,,,, The other toggle has 2 purposes, ONE is the HARMONIC OCTAVE JUMP HIGHER, then you mentioned that the middle position of that toggle does BOTH,,,,,BUT,,,,, you never slowed down to show us and let us hear what it does.....AS USUAL, The man doing the demo forgets that he's doing a demo and gets carried away in playing with Steve Vai's new toy and Mr. Fernandez, " The man who first came out with it" So , while he starts playing it to just SHOW US HOW IT WORKS WHILE HE'S PLAYING IT, We never learn what the second toggle switch 's function really does in SLOW-MOTION... I wish just one person would show us a proper demo on the system instead of giving us a demo of themselves playing their guitar with a ton of vibrato on every note when we're wanting to hear the sustain working and the harmonics/octave riser working by themselves. PLEASE TRY TO UNDERSTAND THAT THE HUMAN MIND ONLY LEARNS IF IT IS TAUGHT CORRECTLY. CONFUSION IS NOT TEACHING, IT IS CONFUSION... Thank You and I hope you will do another video explaining the system without any string vibrato and slowly show what each switch does in slow motion so we can learn the pro's and con's of the sustainiac system. Thanks...
Hey Joseph, thanks for the feedback. I will be doing another batch of demos soon and one of them will be comparing the Sustainiac to the Sound Stone hand held sustainer. I will take your feedback on board and hopefully tick the boxes for you in that one. Cheers.
I was told by a guitar tech. If you want a sustainiac pick up to buy a guitar with one in it! Wires galore & easy to mess up if you're not familiar with wiring harnesses.
I used to have a Fernandes 7 string guitar, with famous Fernandes Sustainer. Sustainer pickups sound great! (I enjoy playing them!) You have a beautiful guitar now! (Love the sound) noticed the reverb and echo, took away the "punch" from the sound of the guitar. (Almost like a compressor, is turning the volume down or up depending on what note is played.) Love the sound though! (But I can almost copy the sound just by adjusting my Digitech RP-250 FX pedal sustain and octave settings! My FX Pedal doesn't give it as long or endless sustain, unless I crank the head volume way up, to where my neighbors can hear me play about a block away!!..lol..!!
I like the creamy smooth liquid notes, really, but it's sort of a one-trick pony- like being stuck playing the 1st Boston album all the time, if ya know what I mean? I'll go check prices and if it's not horrible, I'll install one in my Ibnz RG.
Great video! I have an old Jackson Dinky with a Sustainiac pickup. Love the sound but it eats through batteries. Until I found this video I assumed it was just something wrong with mine and didn't realise it was part of the system.
It might actually be the wiring. Schecters with the sustainiac were going out with the ground wires from the two battery compartments reversed and that was causing them to eat batteries when it wasn't being played. The battery with the positive going to the pickup needs to have the ground going to the jack and the sustainiac battery needs to have the ground connected to the sustainiac board. Schecter was soldering them the other way and at least one owner was having that battery problem until they switched where the two ground wires were going.
I recently bought a Schecter Niki Stringfield guitar with a sustainiac. It's an amazing thing. It actually help me play better because I have to make sure I am muting strings. It's great to have fun and just control the feedback.
Hey I would like some of your knowledge. Okay so guitar has coil splitable Seymour Duncan Sentient in the neck position, single coil sized sustainiac in the middle position, then a Dimarzio fantom p90 in the bridge position, and then it has a graph tech ghost piezo floyd rose trem. Is there an easier way to wire this crazy guitar???
It is my understanding that the Sustainiac needs to be as far away from the bridge pickup as possible so should really be in the neck position if you can swap it. I'd reach out to Alan for help with the install. sustainiac@comcast.net
@@RickHollis it shouldn't hurt the guitar. On the ibanez 30 fret got a single coil sized sustainiac and it works just fine. It's pretty much the same position as the middle position of an HSH guitar.. Thanks for the email tho.
how long does one 9 volt battery usually last for a sustainiac? ik that I can run my EMG pick ups off one 9 volt battery for months and months and not have an issue, but what about the sustainiac??
@@RickHollis okay cool, if I do get a guitar with one I definitely dont wanna have to spend 30 bucks on batteries or something just cuz I have to change them so often. cool video man!!
Just an FYI on batteries. They make Lithium batteries that last SUBSTANTIALLY longer. If you have any modern smoke detector and use a normal 9 volt battery, they die in weeks. If you use a Lithium battery, you get at least a year. Dramatic difference. Lithium batteries are perfect for sustainer pickups.
@@naegleriafowleri2230 smoke detector uses 9 volt battery, use a normal battery in one and it lasts a few weeks, use a lithium battery and it lasts all year
I’m not certain about this, but I think when you turn the sustainiac on, it doesn’t matter what pickup is selected. I think that’s because it’s wired-due to the nature of how it works-so that with the Sustainiac on, it must use the bridge pickup, because the sustainiac is no longer functioning as a pickup, but is physically energizing the strings for the other pickup
Battery life is WAY better. I haven't had to change them out yet and it's been 6 months. I'll keep you in mind if I ever sell the Hamer, but I think she's a keeper ;)
@@RickHollis That's excellent on the battery life!! Yeah, I don't blame you on your Hamer, I have two 1991 USA Archtop Customs and just acquired a '96 Mahogany USA Hamer Standard (totally recommend one of these, completely beefier sound!). I also have a Chinese archtop and a Korean Standard that are surprisingly good lil guitars and great for playing out/roughing around w/o worrying about my USA models having a mishap. Enjoyed your video, rock on! \m/ \m/
Does the sustainiac behave like a single coil when switched off... I'm a bit baffled by the fact that Synyster had humbucking neck pickups before he uses the sustainiac so does that mean he now misses the neck humbuckers. What's in the plain black pickup...
You can get single coil or Humbucker mounting Sustainiac. I prefer the single and have them on two of my guitars. Vai has the Single In his Evo guitar but paired with a lace sensor for hb tones
@@funkyfinnegan Got ya, I just picked up the Schecter Apocalypse with the Sustainiac and love it. Very beautiful guitar. I now can experience the difference of having a sustainiac built into the guitar with the ability to use the whammy bar. I also see the advantage of having the pedal is that I can use it on other guitars which is a plus.
@@funkyfinnegan I have 3 different feed back pedals and I enjoy them. I use them for creative effects each brings something different to the table. I have the FreqOut, Boss Feedback/Booster FB-2 (Its a great booster pedal alone) and the Boss Super Feedback/Distortion DF-2 (I like the way it producers feedback great effects pedal) The last pedal I am trying to add to the collection is the Fender Runaway expression pedal ( I really want to get my hands on one as they are hard to find). This guy has one for sale on Ebay but the guy wants $600. (LOL I can wait for that price)
I gotta say, I love the Sustainiac sound, but I'm not a fan of some of the aesthetics. However, that Hamer looks absolutely rad - the new Sustainiac doesn't feel out of place and takes the look to a whole new level. Congrats on really awesome job. I hope you have many happy years playing now you've got your Mojo back!
