Moog Guitar - Infinite Sustain

[Aka Nameless]

Anyone see this yet?

http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/06/...nveils-ba.html

Just a sustainer built into a guitar? Or something innovative?

I want to build one...

[DavidMP]

Moog guitar!!!

[Dirk Diggler]

Let me know if you figure it out. A great concept, I couldn't ever justify paying that much for the effect though.
I would love to build my own version too, but if it took Bob Moog to figure it out I'm betting it's beyond my understanding.
Dirk

[Georynn]

Is this the same or a similar concept to the Paroutaud Music Laboratories 5 string infinite sustain prototype that Michael Manring played?

[Nelson Guitars]

Nice gimmick. Like a Chapman Stick on steroids.

Saw a guy who did something similar a long time ago with an ebow duct taped to his guitar.

Did anyone else notice the mile high action on that thing?

Still, it's got a sound to it.

Greg N

[Eli_Upright12]

Thats crazy. after Calculus though, I wouldn't call it infinite. still a great idea and innovation.

[7string]

Jackson have been putting a sustainer into their PC1 guitar for a few years now.

Phil Collen (PC) of Def Leppard used to use an e-bow in the studio and wanted the same effect for the live show. The sustainer not only has an on/off switch but also a switch which takes the harmonic one octave higher.

It's a great unit built into a great guitar.

[Taylor Livingston]

It is not the same as a Sustainiac - it is hexaphonic. A regular sustainer can sustain 2 and sometimes 3 notes at a time, but this one can do all 6 strings simultaneously. It also has a foot controller that can sweep through various harmonics of the notes you are playing, which is pretty cool.

If you don't need to sustain big chords (which is the case for most bass players) a Sustainiac would do the job.

[pilotjones]

Reversing the polarity/feedback to damp the string is a cool idea, too. While it sounds kind of banjoish on the guitar, I can imagine that with a tweakable amount of that on a bass, it could help you to get something towards an upright decay characteristic, similar to the foam under the strings thing. Especially if they did a circuit with a non-linear response, to have decreasing effect as the amplitude went down, so you'd get the immediate quick damping along plus a bit of the longer, low-volume sustain.

[Taylor Livingston]

Right, and another interesting thing is that it uses that negative feedback to mute the strings you aren't fretting, so you don't have runaway feedback on strings you aren't playing. This can be turned off too if you need to use open strings. I guess it has some sort of sensing system in the frets to accomplish this - I noticed the FAQ says this tech can only currently be done with a neck-through, so that certinly points to some sensors in the neck.

[RAHAZ]

That is pretty cool. The tone is odd on it though, a little twangy for my tastes. I added a Sustainiac to my Dean Vendetta 4.

Lots of fun to play with but hard to master.

[Trevorus]

Not really too difficult of a thing to do I suspect. It's pretty much a bunch of Ebows in a pickup that isolates the strings. But a very cool execution, nonetheless.

[anechoic]

If anyone's interested in DIY sustainers, there's a 200+ page thread discussing various designs on projectguitar.com, in the electronics forum.

From what I understand, Fernandes did build at least one Sustainer bass for Pete Steele, but it never went into production.

I've been seriously considering building a 6 string bass with a hexaphonic sustainer built in, using piezos (Graphtech ghost, or some sort of homebrew, if I can pull it off) in the bridge to avoid interference between the pickups and driver coils. I will probably mock it up with 2 strings on a 2 x 4 before trying to put it into an actual bass, though.

[Taylor Livingston]

Originally Posted by anechoic

From what I understand, Fernandes did build at least one Sustainer bass for Pete Steele, but it never went into production.

I have a sustainer in my bass; it's not too uncommon.

I've been seriously considering building a 6 string bass with a hexaphonic sustainer built in, using piezos (Graphtech ghost, or some sort of homebrew, if I can pull it off) in the bridge to avoid interference between the pickups and driver coils. I will probably mock it up with 2 strings on a 2 x 4 before trying to put it into an actual bass, though.

This is a great project; I hope you'll keep this forum informed when you start working on it.

[lemur821]

Originally Posted by conical johnson

Right, and another interesting thing is that it uses that negative feedback to mute the strings you aren't fretting, so you don't have runaway feedback on strings you aren't playing. This can be turned off too if you need to use open strings. I guess it has some sort of sensing system in the frets to accomplish this - I noticed the FAQ says this tech can only currently be done with a neck-through, so that certinly points to some sensors in the neck.

Hmm, I assumed they did it with a gate on the sustainer input.

[Taylor Livingston]

Originally Posted by lemur821

Hmm, I assumed they did it with a gate on the sustainer input.

You could be right, I was just speculating. This would be a simpler solution, which is generally better. I'm not sure why it wouldn't work with a bolt-on neck though. Any ideas?

[Aka Nameless]

Probably does, maybe they are just following the "neckthrough increases sustain" theory.

Anyone have a piggy bank they could break to buy one and reverse engineer it?

I got $5 on it.