Custom offset with sustainer

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mc_deli
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Custom offset with sustainer

Post by mc_deli » Sun Jun 19, 2016 9:55 am

My first post. Great site. My first offset... will be custom built, starting tomorrow. I've seen the planks ready for milling;)

The builder has made some lovely traditional Jaguars.
However, I think I want full scale (Jazzmaster) and either the Fernandes or Sustainiac sustainer PU circuit. And probably the Mastery bridge and trem.
(I might also go with a more modern radius neck but let's see about that.)

Taking the sustainer probably means no dual tone circuit.
The default pick up set up would be to have e.g. the fernandes at the neck (101 kit humucker) and a bridge humbucker (the Manson MBK-2 is purpose built for this task)

I have had many hours of searching here and elsewhere and can't find many sustainer offsets.

I am really interested in any ideas for pick up config or electronics info - or any thoughts or experiences on offsets with sustainers... in an ideal world I would like to have the dual tone circuit and the sustainer circuit but I don't think that's possible... any ideas?

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Re: Custom offset with sustainer

Post by Redstar30 » Sun Jun 19, 2016 7:38 pm

Here is one I made a long time ago. The bottom cavity in a standard JM is big enough to fit the Fernandes sustainer circuit board. This body is a from a Japanese JM.

Fernandes did make a JM with a sustainer in it except it had a strat style trem. They pop up on eBay every once in a while.

Image

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Re: Custom offset with sustainer

Post by HNB » Sun Jun 19, 2016 7:44 pm

Here is mine:

ImageDSC05373 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

And my other sexy Fernandes!

Image20150518_183552 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr
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Re: Custom offset with sustainer

Post by mc_deli » Sun Jun 19, 2016 10:49 pm

Redstar30 wrote:Here is one I made a long time ago. The bottom cavity in a standard JM is big enough to fit the Fernandes sustainer circuit board. This body is a from a Japanese JM.
Brilliant - could you tell about the pickups and did you have any issues getting the sustainer working?
Also, any issues with the trem and sustainer?

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Re: Custom offset with sustainer

Post by mc_deli » Sun Jun 19, 2016 10:51 pm

HNB wrote:Here is mine:
Fantastic!
Really interested in the 3 pick up... please explain the pick ups... I thought that slanted bridge was a no-go - how is this one wired?

And the second too, really interested in how this went, any problems, any tips?

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Re: Custom offset with sustainer

Post by HNB » Mon Jun 20, 2016 5:55 am

They are both stock. :) The sustainer is in the upper one. The neck pickup is the sustainer pickup. The middle and bridge are normal pickups. The toggle goes between those two. It has volume and tone also. The lower one doesn't have a sustainer. Just a single neck and humbucker.
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Re: Custom offset with sustainer

Post by Redstar30 » Mon Jun 20, 2016 12:34 pm

mc_deli wrote:
Redstar30 wrote:Here is one I made a long time ago. The bottom cavity in a standard JM is big enough to fit the Fernandes sustainer circuit board. This body is a from a Japanese JM.
Brilliant - could you tell about the pickups and did you have any issues getting the sustainer working?
Also, any issues with the trem and sustainer?

No issues with the sustainer working with the trem. You just need to make sure the sustainer pick up is as close as possible to the strings to really work well. I do recall having to trim the plastic for the sustainer pick up mounts in order to get it the pick up height close enough to the strings. That was the only modification I had to do. After that it worked as it's supposed to.

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Re: Custom offset with sustainer

Post by s_mcsleazy » Mon Jun 20, 2016 9:43 pm

i'll admit, because i play ambient music, i've been curious about the idea of a sustainer in a jazzmaster but i've never done the research into them. can they be fitted to any pickup? how loud are they?
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Re: Custom offset with sustainer

Post by Redstar30 » Tue Jun 21, 2016 11:24 am

I'm only familiar with the Fernandes system. They work in the neck position only. The system comes with a sustainer pick up and a circuit board plus 9v battery connectors. So you need to make sure the guitar you put it in can accommodate everything the system needs to work.

If you have it set up properly it is plenty loud and works/sounds close to an ebow. I'll check later to see if I still have any sound samples of the guitar I posted in action.

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Re: Custom offset with sustainer

Post by mc_deli » Tue Jun 21, 2016 12:33 pm

HNB wrote:They are both stock. The sustainer is in the upper one. The neck pickup is the sustainer pickup. The middle and bridge are normal pickups. The toggle goes between those two. It has volume and tone also. The lower one doesn't have a sustainer. Just a single neck and humbucker.
:) Ha
I didn't spot that it was a Fernandes!
With that three pick up... I thought that the Sustainer had to be 3+ inches away from the other pup...?
When you say the toggle goes between those two, could you explain what pick up is on when (for a dummy;))?

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Re: Custom offset with sustainer

Post by HNB » Tue Jun 21, 2016 2:43 pm

Up: Middle
Middle: Middle and Bridge
Down: Bridge
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Re: Custom offset with sustainer

Post by mc_deli » Wed Jun 29, 2016 1:37 pm

Thanks for the info.

I've done some more research.

I got a pretty reliable tip - from big builder that builds lots of sustainer/sustainiac guitars - that the sustainiac is the way to go - which is good because I think it is better looking, just!
And that squeezing another neck pick up next to it is possible but can cause grief.
I also found out that the sustainiac can be wired to not cut out the other PUPs when the battery goes ;)

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Re: Custom offset with sustainer

Post by molul » Sun Aug 11, 2019 11:08 pm

Sorry for the necro-thread, but I'm really interested on this, as I want to make a Jazzmaster with Sustainiac too :) I recently asked the Sustainiac maker if it would be possible and he told me he didn't know how to do it as he hadn't seen it before.

@OP: did you succeed with this project? If so, would you please share any useful info? For instance, I would like to know:

-Was losing the neck pickup to the Sustainiac worth it? Some friends tell me not to sacrifice it but there's no other way I think.

-How did you fit the sustainiac board in the Jazzmaster top routing? I mean, does it fit or did you need to make more holes in the wood?

-Did you use switches or push-pull pots?

Thanks in advance :)

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Re: Custom offset with sustainer

Post by tdbajus » Mon Aug 12, 2019 4:46 am

I desperately want to put one in my import Doheny.

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