Sustainiac literally changed the way I play electric guitar when I first discovered it. One of the best inventions for guitar electronics since idk when.
@@PhillipMcKnight I spoke to the inventor of sustainiac on the phone once about artist endorsement or something, he wasn't interested but still ended up having like a 30 minute phone fun conversation. In it he told me that he basically tought everything he knew to Sustainer and they stole his designs and some ideas. Ever since learning that I point out to ppl when they "oh its a sustainer" I'm like no - Sustainiac, because they're the og.
Uncertain Speculative Presumption- Vs' Accountably Actualized Factuality _ Aren't and Never Can Be Uber Bff's _ Glad This Clears What 'Should' Be The Question _ Just Trying Figure Out The 'Present' Gear?! 😶🖖
Yeah you are right syn uses it very tastefully and he is the reason I own a schecter avenger with a sustaniac not his custom model but it was a Sweetwater exclusive in Aqua burst with a flame maple top and matching headstock beautiful Guitar that plays like a dream I would put it up against any higher level gibsons and all that it is my go to guitar for everything at this point
U2 sucks, that goober cant play. He is nothing without a zillion pedals, and yet his sound is always the same as if he has 1 or 2 pedals. He cant even get any variety of sound even with a ton of pedals Jimi did 100 times more than any of these guys you are talking about and he had about 4 or 5 pedals.
@@michaelcraig9449 He isnt the most technical player but he is a good player. His playing serves the song, is memorable and fills stadiums with sound. I like the Edge.
What Phil won't tell you is while it was one of the cheaper options it was the only one with a matching headstock, which is a weakness I can relate to. Great job.
@@ozoneswiftak he's saying the more expensive "better" guitar doesn't have a painted headstock. So instead of getting the "better spec'd" guitar, he went for the step down because it has a painted headstock that matches the body of the guitar. Basically, he went for "form over function".
Seeing a matching headstock, makes me happy. Bare heads, is cheaper for the maker, but same price often, except Fender. They know they can take us for another 150 USD because it's a matching head Fender "whatever". I have such an addiction to buying matching heads, because they feel like they are properly dressed to wow the crowd. Bare is old school, amd it's OK. When they nail the proper pick guard, and inlay materials that counter the lightness of the wood, along with a well picked color then match the head, it's like a zuit suit edition of your fave axe? My question is, why wouldn't you, if you could? I don't leave my house without a hat on, my guitar will not, either.
@@Mark-OutWest yeah, the El cheapo Gibson Capped headstock sucks. Never liked that generic blacked out head with a banging burst attached to it. Makes no sense. Burst the head, too, amd put a Black Logo over it, so you still see it, inlayed into the flame capped head, that's what would work best to have made Gibson even more legendary. Nope, owned by mizers the entire time, that cut corners wherever possible, but unlike Fender(for the most part, I remember the 70's...good grief.), they always did it where it would hurt them, and thus, the surf masters over at Fender, have already beaten them, it's just taking a longtime for the self poisoning at Gibson, to eventually make a scenario where Gibson will be Fender, given time. They just can't come back correctly anymore, amd simple stuff like this, would make the product fly off the shelf way more.
A point that gets missed often, is that when Sustaniac is engaged you actually listen to your bridge pickup, while the neck one is just driving the strings. You only hear the neck pickup when the sustain function is off, which is an active pickup with a single-coil-like tone (weird). I learned this only after unboxing my guitar.
@@BoltRM Yes. The sustainer circuit listen the notes you play through the bridge pickup, and electrically feedbacks that signal to the neck driver pickup, which in turn emits an oscilating magnetic field that moves your strings further in the same frequency. Your bridge pickup recaptures that excited signal and becomes the output. Its a feedback loop.
@@9hk38f It turns out I replaced my Sustaniac/M7 set not long after I bought the guitar. I did not use the feedback function too much and really missed a proper humbucker neck tone. I put in a set of Bare Knuckles with series/parallel/coilsplit wiring and I'm happy so far with them.
@@9hk38f same ,put it with locking tuners, Graphtec Nut(properly friggin cut, PLEASE! LOL), and 2 point trem. Make it a Wlkinson v100, and we're talking never, ever need a Floyd, cause the Floyd loses this tuning battle, everytime. I've never played a good Floyd, for what it's worth. Strings still wildly go out of tune on any of them I've ever used.ost are cheap potmetal Chinese "licensed" bridges and I despise them because they work for a week, and then become weak themselves, and the issues begin and become more and more apparent the longer the crap version is in use. You gotta get one directly from the maker, to get the really good ones. My opinion, sure, but as a Hair Metal elite fan, I'll tell you, it's legendary because of its place in time. 2 point well outperforms it in general, with locking tuners, amd well finished Nut.
@@caiusmadison2996 A floyd rose is a pain in the arse to tune from scratch (e.g. when changing strings), because the tension of each string affects the balance of the rest, so you have to find the sweet spot, which takes several minutes. But the locking nut can hold your tuning for weeks, even months with minor microtuner adjustment. My guitars are korean Schecters, each has a 1000 or 1500 Floyd Rose (the former has more than 10 years of use), and they perform impeccably.
I think you should do an episode on how to install it aftermarket in a guitar that does not have a battery cavity without rerouting the guitar, if that is possible. Maybe a guitars with plastic pickguard like Strats/Teles ?
I met one day with the nervous inventor with his prototype Sustaniac guitar headstock resonate sympathizing/amplification tech device. And this was about how he talked. I think fate had it that the head manager came to me. It was my first time doing anything, but sales. It just so happened that my dad was a vibration engineer who taught me basic electronics and working at his 12 employee shop balancing vibration pickups gave me a decent understanding to get the very shy Sustainiac inventor to open up and have a rapport together. His first model (it was #1 after his proto type actually) attached to any electric guitar, which he felt bad he didn't bring a guitar, he needed his guitar in his workshop. Once hooked up (to a Gibson SG iirc) IT WORKED! Wow, sustain at any volume, and even a clean signal. I was sold on it totally, even if it was a bit of a contraption looking, with a body component, headstock component, and an umbilical cord uniting the two. I could see it being downsized as time progressed. The system these days is completely invisible. The boss gave me the decision to take it on consignment, which I did, and asked for three more units to sell asap. I'm so glad this very shy nervous man had a success. The Guitar Center job helped me to get over my own painful shyness just a few months before.
For the oldies like me.. if you've written off Schecter guitars because you've consider them the new kid on the block (compared to Gibson, Fender, Ibanez, etc.) you should really give them a try. I was never interested in them until I finally tried one out a few years back.. and I was really impressed. The last one I tried out (somewhat more recently) was a Sun Valley and I was super impressed with the build quality and overall playability/feel of it. From a playability standpoint, it reminded me just a bit of my old (90's?) cheap import Charvel that just happens to have an amazing neck (especially after I put jumbo stainless frets in it).. but the Sun Valley was overall a much higher quality guitar. If I didn't have a wife and a dozen or so guitars already (I'm literally having trouble counting them all up in my head right now).. I'd totally want a Sun Valley too.
Nah they get way too much attention, never played a shector that "felt" good. Literally pick up any Ibanez in the price range of the Shector you're looking at, and you'll have a significant improvement in playability.
I have the Reaper 6 Sustainiac model and it absolutely screams also. The Sustainiac is super fun to use and open up a lot of options. So much more convenient and versatile than an Ebow, plus the harmonic and mixed settings are essentially feedback on demand!
I picked up a used Jackson from the early 2000s with a sustainiac. Unfortunately it wasn’t working properly. No only did sustainiac have all of the wiring diagrams on their website, but a quick email and they get back within a few hours diagnosing the problem, and offering to repair the board (that is nearly 20 years old!) for $25. Had it out and back within 3 weeks. Some of the most down to earth folks, and customer service that is unheard of today! Highly recommend their products!
Alway's remember FERNANDEZ guitars were the original with a sustaniac pickup and back in 98 when i opened up my first music store in CHICAGO PHIL, I could not keep them in stock and i always wondered did Sustainer pickup's were ever made for a Bass, can you check that out for me ? Big E here...Thank you and i love your channel Phillip, so let me know ok T.Y
@@chinossynthesizer705 it would be tuned the same way any other Floyd Rose system is tuned. The initial tuning setup takes a bit of time and then you only have to make small adjustments using the fine tuners on the bridge itself. Ben Eller has a great video that explains the process from start to finish.
Nice review, like always ,just to add up some info that i found on the sustainiac website : the second bobin you see in the vid is a dummy one, and is made for people who have a humbuckin slot, as opposed to a strat for example, but they both do exactly the same when the driver is off, they offer a noiseless single coil sound . That is by default, but you can have a humbucker sound (they describe as a "59'" type) by grounding the violet wire, and you can also have a 6 db boost (and this, whether you are in single or humbucking mode) by grounding the white wire. And all this is when the sustainiac is off, and used as a "regular" pickup to be clear : and there are 3 trimpots on the PCB that you can adjust to taste, one is for the volume/gain of the pickup itself and the 2 other are for when the sustainiac is engaged , one is for the overall sensitivity/gain of the the sustainer, the other is for the harmonic mode only, and adjust its level. Hope that helps , and everybody can understand my bastardized english ;)
I have both a Sustaniac and a Fernamdes Sustainer. They're both great. You probably need the Floyd Rose though. The trem is essential to using the sustainer and the trem in my EOB Strat doesn't cut it. There's one issue with these pickups that I wished you'd have mentioned: the dip. What I mean is that when you hit a note, it starts to decay in volume before the exciter kicks in and it starts feeding back. That loss of energy affects the timing of how you play and you can't adjust it. I've managed to reduce the problem by running the signal through a compressor with very low threshold. I wish there were a different solution. The coolest thing would be to be able to manually roll in the the sustain and the magnetic output of the exciter pickup.
Haha finally! Been scrolling through these comments thinking to myself how no one is mentioning this fact. He is, nobody else, the reason I am interested in one of these!
I still have a 1989 promotional pack Sustainiac sent me. This is way before the pickups. You had a big box on the floor and a bulky cable you had to run down the back of the neck to the headstock. Came with an flexi record with a chessy dj announcer. Classic stuff for sure.
Wanna hear the sustainiac really sing: listen to the Steven Wilson song Drive Home. Guitar solo, player: the one the only Guthrie Govan. This thing is just amazing with overdrive.
VERY cool, informative video, Phil. As always! Thanks for the always dedicated, informative output of your channel! Looking over the various Schecters, it would appear that ALL the Sustainiac guitars (well, those with trems) also only have Floyd Roses. Are there any guitars (other brands as well) that you know of with both the Sustainiac and a _regular_ trem system, maybe like a Wilkerson, etc? TIA.
I tried to buy a Sustainiac kit, but the company appears to have stopped Independant kits in order to fulfill their contracts with Schecter, other companies. Basic Econ. I wish them continued success. I wanted a kit for my Kramer...
I gotta stop watching videos. Now I’m gonna start gassing for the Ed O’Brien Strat (it comes with a sustain pickup) and scheming ways to budget for it.
I bought that LTD 1000p not too long after watching your video about it. It's amazing and I managed to get a Korea made one still from Sweetwater. I will definitely make a review video on it.
First heard of these due to Fripp and Belew, been obsessed ever since. Never been able to find the right guitar to put them in though. Glad to find they still get some love!
I have had my Red Reign Apocalypse C-7 FR S for about two years but never really knew what to do with the Sustaniac until I watched Kenny Hickey of Type O Negative using it. I now understand and love having at least one guitar with this amazing device in my collection.
In most sustainer installations, the Sustainer driver functions as your neck pickup when the Sustainer is off and you select "neck pickup" on your guitar. There are two sizes of sustainer pickup: full-humbucker-size and single coil size, both of which work pretty much the same. A good tech can install the single coil size sustainer pickup next to a single coil size humbucker inside a humbucker pickup ring and can set things up so that you can use the single coil size humbucker *rather than* the sustainer driver when you select neck pickup. When the Sustainer is ON, the sustainer driver in the neck position works normally. You'll find this setup on a lot of custom-done guitars, such as those that Neal Schon plays.
The Fernandes Sustainer 401 board offers jumper attachments for three of the adjustment pots so that you can, if you wish, run those adjustment pots out to an external pot, such as one of the quad found on an LP. The most popular installation is usually an external Sustainer Intensity pot, which is highly useful when working with a Sustainer.
excellent, what are the differences between the "single coil" and "humbucker" sustainiacs ? just single coil and humbucker sounds? or does something else is different in sustainiac mode?
I have the Silver Mountain FR-S 6 with the Sustainiac pickup I love it!!! I literally just got it a couple weeks back I am now a schecter guy!! Awesome Guitars 💯
Very similar sounds to the Digitech Freqout pedal which i own. I can make all these sounds with that pedal and don't need to buy a special guitar - plus i can get feedback like crazy with a set overtone. Sounds cool though nonetheless.
A great mystery has just been solved! When Steve Vai does the blowing on strings trick (fans will know what I mean), he must be throwing a switch on a sustainaic.
I bought a Shecter Sun Valley SS PT FR S recently (well months ago, but arrived a few days ago) mostly for how it looked, and didn't see that it had Sustainiac installed - which I've never heard of until I unboxed it. At first I was a bit bummed and confused, but after playing around and working with the effect for a while, I am really starting to love it. I didn't understand intuitively how the switches etc changed in behaviour when sustaniniac was turned on - and the little piece of paper wasn't helping much. You explained it to the point and clearly! Thanks.
I have 2 of the Synyster Gates guitars. One is a 2010 white and gold with the Seymour Duncan Invaders, and then a 2020 Synyster Gates Custom S black and gold with the sustainiac and the syn USA Custom pickup. I love both guitars, but the sustainiac adds so much more playability.
Ha! My Sustainiac was delivered to me just yesterday! Was hoping you'd get into the technical, setup aspect of the pickup. I'm actually excited about the install!
Might not be the intent of the video, but what I learned is that I am absolutely totally uninterested in a sustaniac. So I guess this video was pretty useful to me.
I got a Schecter C1 with a Sustainiac earlier this year. I love the sustaining ability; my other guitars are gather dust now :) That being said, I do have a couple of minor gripes: • It chews through 9V batteries. I think I replace the Sustainiac battery 4 times for every 1 time I replace the active-pickup battery. • The middle position (blended harmonic) seems a bit weak to me. There's allegedly trimpots that can be used to adjust the gain; I haven't gotten to trying them yet. • There is some variability across the fretboard for how well/quickly notes are sustained, especially in the high harmonic and blended mode. For normal rock and roll playing, I don't really care about the variability. For more ambient/thoughtful clean stuff though, I usually try out the melody on different strings to see which location works best.
You gotta get rechargable 9Vs. 9Vs aren't cheap but the rechargable weren't much more. I just plug them in when not playing. It's basically like your cell phone. About 4 hours or so?? That's about the life of the rechargable anyway. Like your phone battery they seem to degrade over time.
@Phillip McKnight - great video. I’ve been wanting one of these. Would you recommend buying a preinstalled sustaniac guitar or is this a reasonable DIY project? (If the latter, I humbly submit to you a future video idea)
I bought a white Sun Valley Super Shredder specifically because it had a Sustainiac. Plus they look so cool and at a very reasonable price! By the way, there is not a Tone control on this guitar; they are both Volume controls.
CONSTRUCTIVE criticism - Slow down. You are rushing to convey yourself and what you are explaining gets lost. I had to watch this at .75 playback speed to keep my attention and learn. I appreciate passion in music. And technology like this gives us all a much broader canvas to express ourselves
So i have a pedal board, with over 15 pedals. Two of which are iso bricks. Mrx,an voodoo. Most of the pedals are minis. Hof reverb,Ep booster,Sp compresser,mini tube screamer,mxr carbon copy,trem,two donner pedals waw / volume an tunner,two boss ,ds1 an acoustic sim,ernie ball volume pedal , hx stomp an hx effects, as well as line 6 wireless guitar plug. Pedal board is a SKB that also had the power source box built in to the broad which is a board / case all in one. I really thinking about upgrading it, an selling everything just for a line 6 helix ,but not sure what i might get in return or torse my goal. Love this pedal board that i built, ( with all the chords, also have a 13 inch pedal board voodoo lab pedal board inside the SKB.) This board is heavy. Now not sure how much i could get for all this an was wondering if downloading patches onto the hx stomp an hx effects devalue them? Love your channel . Have learned and gotten a lot of Guitar / Amp/ pedal knowledge from you. Thanks brother..
I have a Schecter Reaper 6 FR-S with a sustainiac. It's an awesome guitar - the sustainiac is very cool, but a bit tricky to use because it can induce feedback so you have to learn to control it. Also, if you leave your cable in the guitar's input jack it will drain the battery. I've left my cord in several times, but my battery hasn't died completely yet...
Got a like for "obviously that song was inspired by something" 😃 unexpectedly good video, I mean, I expected a quality vid, but didn't expect to like the product
As a guitarist of 20 years. I think that pickup is useless. Doesn't even sound good. Schecter should stop putting it in guitars. I like those guitars, hate the pickup. Due to it, I won't buy one. Even if I swapped that pickup out, thered be a useless large hole in the back of the body with no battery in it. It's honestly upsetting.
I might look into one, since the song that inspired that is an all-time favorite that just doesn’t sound right played any way other than with some kind of sustainer.
If the Sustainiac pulls you in and you believe that you can't live without it, do yourself a massive favour and check out the Fernandes Sustainer, cuz that's the one you'll want. The sustainiac is great fun but the Fernandes will woo you and own you.
One question and one remark. Question: there are pedals that do the same thing. What is the advantage of building this in the guitar itself? Remark. Increasing sustain requires a demanding picking technique to mute unwanted strings. You have a similar challenge, but to a lesser degree, in a good acoustic with rich resonance.
This will do more than the feedback sustain. It will also sustain the regular fundamental tone as well. The pedals can do something similar, but it’s definitely not the same.
I thought Steve Vai used a Fernandez Sustainer in his guitar. Either way I wonder how the sustainer and the sustainiac compare to each other. It seems like they're practically identical.
One question, when I have the sustainiac pickup on the neck enabled, the guitar sounds like a horrible screeching noise, when I enable sustainiac the noise is removed. I have been told that it could be the excess gain in one of the trim pots, can anyone help me, I am surprised that it was the guitarrapues this new, thanks.
After a few years being on the market,would anyone recommend buying that guitar? I am looking for a sustainer and at this price point it's seems like a steal for all you get.
I love that Schecter have a Sustainiac version of pretty much every guitar they have. I've been hovering over getting one for a few months now. I think this vid just tipped me over the edge.
Great review! Assuming that guitar uses the same circuit board as the Stealth Pro, on the 10-pin connector there should be a pin for a +6dB boost and a pin for a darken feature that you can ground to make the Sustaniac pickup sound more like a humbucker.
That's a beautiful schecter. Huge fan of matching headstocks. I've got a Schecter Snow 🐆 from Sweetwater and it's super cool. Sustaniacs are also neat. Shoot probably something I'll buy in the future. Thanks Phil!👍
as a luthier i will just ask, is there any dealer that sell just the pickups? i have 3 customers that want to build a guitar whit it, but havent been able to buy it alone
Sustainiac literally changed the way I play electric guitar when I first discovered it. One of the best inventions for guitar electronics since idk when.
I am loving it.
@@PhillipMcKnight I spoke to the inventor of sustainiac on the phone once about artist endorsement or something, he wasn't interested but still ended up having like a 30 minute phone fun conversation. In it he told me that he basically tought everything he knew to Sustainer and they stole his designs and some ideas. Ever since learning that I point out to ppl when they "oh its a sustainer" I'm like no - Sustainiac, because they're the og.
Love both of your guys’ videos! Keep it up! Maybe one day I’ll get the chance to see you live Dovydas!
@DOVYDAS has replaced Mary Spender as the “the best musician on TH-cam without a full time recording contract” ... #fact
I had heard there was some crazy stuff like that. It such a great idea. To make music in fun new ways.
Finally, I could be flying in a blue dream.....with or without you.
Just DON'T go too CLOSE to the Edge! ;o)
Uncertain Speculative Presumption- Vs' Accountably Actualized Factuality _ Aren't and Never Can Be Uber Bff's _ Glad This Clears What 'Should' Be The Question _ Just Trying Figure Out The 'Present' Gear?! 😶🖖
Great info.
@@spiritzweispirit1st638 You're selling WHAT now?
NICE!!!!!!
Everyone making U2 jokes, Synyster Gates and Avenged Sevenfold got me into the sustainiac. He uses it so creatively, it's incredible.
Yeah you are right syn uses it very tastefully and he is the reason I own a schecter avenger with a sustaniac not his custom model but it was a Sweetwater exclusive in Aqua burst with a flame maple top and matching headstock beautiful Guitar that plays like a dream I would put it up against any higher level gibsons and all that it is my go to guitar for everything at this point
U2 sucks, that goober cant play. He is nothing without a zillion pedals, and yet his sound is always the same as if he has 1 or 2 pedals. He cant even get any variety of sound even with a ton of pedals Jimi did 100 times more than any of these guys you are talking about and he had about 4 or 5 pedals.
Finally, a Syn comment
@@michaelcraig9449 u ok m8?
@@michaelcraig9449 He isnt the most technical player but he is a good player. His playing serves the song, is memorable and fills stadiums with sound. I like the Edge.
What Phil won't tell you is while it was one of the cheaper options it was the only one with a matching headstock, which is a weakness I can relate to. Great job.
Im a sucker for matching headstock guitars
Are you saying it's cheaper to have a rosewood instead of maple? I don't get it
@@ozoneswiftak he's saying the more expensive "better" guitar doesn't have a painted headstock. So instead of getting the "better spec'd" guitar, he went for the step down because it has a painted headstock that matches the body of the guitar. Basically, he went for "form over function".
Seeing a matching headstock, makes me happy. Bare heads, is cheaper for the maker, but same price often, except Fender. They know they can take us for another 150 USD because it's a matching head Fender "whatever". I have such an addiction to buying matching heads, because they feel like they are properly dressed to wow the crowd. Bare is old school, amd it's OK. When they nail the proper pick guard, and inlay materials that counter the lightness of the wood, along with a well picked color then match the head, it's like a zuit suit edition of your fave axe? My question is, why wouldn't you, if you could? I don't leave my house without a hat on, my guitar will not, either.
@@Mark-OutWest yeah, the El cheapo Gibson Capped headstock sucks. Never liked that generic blacked out head with a banging burst attached to it. Makes no sense. Burst the head, too, amd put a Black Logo over it, so you still see it, inlayed into the flame capped head, that's what would work best to have made Gibson even more legendary. Nope, owned by mizers the entire time, that cut corners wherever possible, but unlike Fender(for the most part, I remember the 70's...good grief.), they always did it where it would hurt them, and thus, the surf masters over at Fender, have already beaten them, it's just taking a longtime for the self poisoning at Gibson, to eventually make a scenario where Gibson will be Fender, given time. They just can't come back correctly anymore, amd simple stuff like this, would make the product fly off the shelf way more.
A point that gets missed often, is that when Sustaniac is engaged you actually listen to your bridge pickup, while the neck one is just driving the strings. You only hear the neck pickup when the sustain function is off, which is an active pickup with a single-coil-like tone (weird). I learned this only after unboxing my guitar.
@@BoltRM Yes. The sustainer circuit listen the notes you play through the bridge pickup, and electrically feedbacks that signal to the neck driver pickup, which in turn emits an oscilating magnetic field that moves your strings further in the same frequency. Your bridge pickup recaptures that excited signal and becomes the output. Its a feedback loop.
@@9hk38f It turns out I replaced my Sustaniac/M7 set not long after I bought the guitar. I did not use the feedback function too much and really missed a proper humbucker neck tone. I put in a set of Bare Knuckles with series/parallel/coilsplit wiring and I'm happy so far with them.
@@9hk38f I didn't love it
@@9hk38f same ,put it with locking tuners, Graphtec Nut(properly friggin cut, PLEASE! LOL), and 2 point trem. Make it a Wlkinson v100, and we're talking never, ever need a Floyd, cause the Floyd loses this tuning battle, everytime. I've never played a good Floyd, for what it's worth. Strings still wildly go out of tune on any of them I've ever used.ost are cheap potmetal Chinese "licensed" bridges and I despise them because they work for a week, and then become weak themselves, and the issues begin and become more and more apparent the longer the crap version is in use. You gotta get one directly from the maker, to get the really good ones. My opinion, sure, but as a Hair Metal elite fan, I'll tell you, it's legendary because of its place in time. 2 point well outperforms it in general, with locking tuners, amd well finished Nut.
@@caiusmadison2996 A floyd rose is a pain in the arse to tune from scratch (e.g. when changing strings), because the tension of each string affects the balance of the rest, so you have to find the sweet spot, which takes several minutes. But the locking nut can hold your tuning for weeks, even months with minor microtuner adjustment. My guitars are korean Schecters, each has a 1000 or 1500 Floyd Rose (the former has more than 10 years of use), and they perform impeccably.
I think you should do an episode on how to install it aftermarket in a guitar that does not have a battery cavity without rerouting the guitar, if that is possible. Maybe a guitars with plastic pickguard like Strats/Teles ?
@micknormoyle of Unforgettable Fire U2 tribute band did that with his Strat
I was just buying a schecter with sustainiac when the video showed up lol.
I met one day with the nervous inventor with his prototype Sustaniac guitar headstock resonate sympathizing/amplification tech device. And this was about how he talked. I think fate had it that the head manager came to me. It was my first time doing anything, but sales. It just so happened that my dad was a vibration engineer who taught me basic electronics and working at his 12 employee shop balancing vibration pickups gave me a decent understanding to get the very shy Sustainiac inventor to open up and have a rapport together.
His first model (it was #1 after his proto type actually) attached to any electric guitar, which he felt bad he didn't bring a guitar, he needed his guitar in his workshop. Once hooked up (to a Gibson SG iirc) IT WORKED! Wow, sustain at any volume, and even a clean signal. I was sold on it totally, even if it was a bit of a contraption looking, with a body component, headstock component, and an umbilical cord uniting the two. I could see it being downsized as time progressed.
The system these days is completely invisible. The boss gave me the decision to take it on consignment, which I did, and asked for three more units to sell asap. I'm so glad this very shy nervous man had a success. The Guitar Center job helped me to get over my own painful shyness just a few months before.
Phil looks the happiest I have ever seen him while demoing that sustainiac. Rock on!
For the oldies like me.. if you've written off Schecter guitars because you've consider them the new kid on the block (compared to Gibson, Fender, Ibanez, etc.) you should really give them a try.
I was never interested in them until I finally tried one out a few years back.. and I was really impressed.
The last one I tried out (somewhat more recently) was a Sun Valley and I was super impressed with the build quality and overall playability/feel of it. From a playability standpoint, it reminded me just a bit of my old (90's?) cheap import Charvel that just happens to have an amazing neck (especially after I put jumbo stainless frets in it).. but the Sun Valley was overall a much higher quality guitar.
If I didn't have a wife and a dozen or so guitars already (I'm literally having trouble counting them all up in my head right now).. I'd totally want a Sun Valley too.
Their guitars deserve a lot more attention than they get .
I hav a 1100 dollar set neck hellraiser, built wrong. Lowest string hight possible 2.5 millimeter...so no they don’t
Top hardware put on firewood
Nah they get way too much attention, never played a shector that "felt" good. Literally pick up any Ibanez in the price range of the Shector you're looking at, and you'll have a significant improvement in playability.
I have the Reaper 6 Sustainiac model and it absolutely screams also. The Sustainiac is super fun to use and open up a lot of options. So much more convenient and versatile than an Ebow, plus the harmonic and mixed settings are essentially feedback on demand!
before the sustaniac, the fernandes sustainer was the thing back then!
And it still sounds better
Wow love the demo sounded very with or with out you....great pickup just not for me..
I picked up a used Jackson from the early 2000s with a sustainiac. Unfortunately it wasn’t working properly. No only did sustainiac have all of the wiring diagrams on their website, but a quick email and they get back within a few hours diagnosing the problem, and offering to repair the board (that is nearly 20 years old!) for $25. Had it out and back within 3 weeks. Some of the most down to earth folks, and customer service that is unheard of today!
Highly recommend their products!
I wish Phil would have played Dead Skin Mask :(
Alway's remember FERNANDEZ guitars were the original with a sustaniac pickup and back in 98 when i opened up my first music store in CHICAGO PHIL, I could not keep them in stock and i always wondered did Sustainer pickup's were ever made for a Bass, can you check that out for me ? Big E here...Thank you and i love your channel Phillip, so let me know ok T.Y
Hi Phillip, you have the best pickup reviews. Any plans for EMG retroactives, a comparison of RA-2, RA-5 with passive pickups would be awesome.
I need one, it'd give me the edge.
Considering I never use a neck pup.. I’m now convinced, when I need one this is a good option..
The sustaniac is the entire reason I bought my schecter apocalypse c1 fr s. They are so much fun to play around with. Great video Phil.
Hey do you know how to tune the c7 because it has locked tuners
@@chinossynthesizer705 it would be tuned the same way any other Floyd Rose system is tuned. The initial tuning setup takes a bit of time and then you only have to make small adjustments using the fine tuners on the bridge itself. Ben Eller has a great video that explains the process from start to finish.
@@terryo9838 I have the apocalypse c7 fr-s
@@chinossynthesizer705 same as what I have. Ben Eller's video will explain it all. Super easy.
Nice review, like always ,just to add up some info that i found on the sustainiac website : the second bobin you see in the vid is a dummy one, and is made for people who have a humbuckin slot, as opposed to a strat for example, but they both do exactly the same when the driver is off, they offer a noiseless single coil sound . That is by default, but you can have a humbucker sound (they describe as a "59'" type) by grounding the violet wire, and you can also have a 6 db boost (and this, whether you are in single or humbucking mode) by grounding the white wire. And all this is when the sustainiac is off, and used as a "regular" pickup to be clear : and there are 3 trimpots on the PCB that you can adjust to taste, one is for the volume/gain of the pickup itself and the 2 other are for when the sustainiac is engaged , one is for the overall sensitivity/gain of the the sustainer, the other is for the harmonic mode only, and adjust its level. Hope that helps , and everybody can understand my bastardized english ;)
Good info
I have both a Sustaniac and a Fernamdes Sustainer. They're both great. You probably need the Floyd Rose though. The trem is essential to using the sustainer and the trem in my EOB Strat doesn't cut it. There's one issue with these pickups that I wished you'd have mentioned: the dip. What I mean is that when you hit a note, it starts to decay in volume before the exciter kicks in and it starts feeding back. That loss of energy affects the timing of how you play and you can't adjust it. I've managed to reduce the problem by running the signal through a compressor with very low threshold. I wish there were a different solution. The coolest thing would be to be able to manually roll in the the sustain and the magnetic output of the exciter pickup.
Meanwhile.. somewhere in Ireland .. Edge killing himself :)
That is a lot guitar for the money!
If you like that check out the Nick Johnson model, no sustainer . But and incredible neck and pickups sound awesome
All I can picture is "Phil with Hair" playing the Cemetery Gates solo.
Phil Collen of Def Leppard uses a sustainer (DiMarzio's though, not a sustainiac) to make their signature sound form the Adrenalize album onward.
Haha finally! Been scrolling through these comments thinking to myself how no one is mentioning this fact. He is, nobody else, the reason I am interested in one of these!
What a coincidence! I just bought one of these yesterday on the used market. Same color and everything. Should be here this week!
Steve, huge fan! Have you done a video on anything sustainiac related yet? Would love to here your input on a a few things
I still have a 1989 promotional pack Sustainiac sent me. This is way before the pickups. You had a big box on the floor and a bulky cable you had to run down the back of the neck to the headstock. Came with an flexi record with a chessy dj announcer. Classic stuff for sure.
Wanna hear the sustainiac really sing: listen to the Steven Wilson song Drive Home. Guitar solo, player: the one the only Guthrie Govan. This thing is just amazing with overdrive.
Steven Wilson is awesome! Didn’t realize he used it in that song. I’ll have to go back to it!
VERY cool, informative video, Phil. As always! Thanks for the always dedicated, informative output of your channel!
Looking over the various Schecters, it would appear that ALL the Sustainiac guitars (well, those with trems) also only have Floyd Roses.
Are there any guitars (other brands as well) that you know of with both the Sustainiac and a _regular_ trem system, maybe like a Wilkerson, etc? TIA.
I've 2 guitars with Sustainiacs, and they are a lot of fun. Cool vid Bro!
Thank you
I tried to buy a Sustainiac kit, but the company appears to have stopped Independant kits in order to fulfill their contracts with Schecter, other companies. Basic Econ. I wish them continued success. I wanted a kit for my Kramer...
great video phill i have the fernades version on my eob Strat and I love it whole bunch of cool unique
tones
I gotta stop watching videos. Now I’m gonna start gassing for the Ed O’Brien Strat (it comes with a sustain pickup) and scheming ways to budget for it.
I bought that LTD 1000p not too long after watching your video about it. It's amazing and I managed to get a Korea made one still from Sweetwater. I will definitely make a review video on it.
I can get a similar effect with the EHX Superego Plus but of course I can't use the tremolo with the sustained notes. It's similar though.
First heard of these due to Fripp and Belew, been obsessed ever since. Never been able to find the right guitar to put them in though. Glad to find they still get some love!
I have had my Red Reign Apocalypse C-7 FR S for about two years but never really knew what to do with the Sustaniac until I watched Kenny Hickey of Type O Negative using it. I now understand and love having at least one guitar with this amazing device in my collection.
The Sustainiac sounds like it could be a fun pickup to play with and potentially inspire different playing styles.
In most sustainer installations, the Sustainer driver functions as your neck pickup when the Sustainer is off and you select "neck pickup" on your guitar. There are two sizes of sustainer pickup: full-humbucker-size and single coil size, both of which work pretty much the same. A good tech can install the single coil size sustainer pickup next to a single coil size humbucker inside a humbucker pickup ring and can set things up so that you can use the single coil size humbucker *rather than* the sustainer driver when you select neck pickup. When the Sustainer is ON, the sustainer driver in the neck position works normally. You'll find this setup on a lot of custom-done guitars, such as those that Neal Schon plays.
The Fernandes Sustainer 401 board offers jumper attachments for three of the adjustment pots so that you can, if you wish, run those adjustment pots out to an external pot, such as one of the quad found on an LP. The most popular installation is usually an external Sustainer Intensity pot, which is highly useful when working with a Sustainer.
excellent, what are the differences between the "single coil" and "humbucker" sustainiacs ? just single coil and humbucker sounds? or does something else is different in sustainiac mode?
They’re all single coil. The humbucker is a dummy plate to fill in the hole
@@Mike_HuntizWet Great info thanks!
I have the Silver Mountain FR-S 6 with the Sustainiac pickup I love it!!! I literally just got it a couple weeks back I am now a schecter guy!! Awesome Guitars 💯
Been using Joe satriani signature model with systainiac. I now never wonder how he gets his notes to ring out forever.
Very similar sounds to the Digitech Freqout pedal which i own. I can make all these sounds with that pedal and don't need to buy a special guitar - plus i can get feedback like crazy with a set overtone. Sounds cool though nonetheless.
your having to much fun Phil lol
I had to edit out 30 min of playing because I could knock it off. Lol
@@PhillipMcKnight hey what editing software do you use and is it easy to use? if you dont mind me asking
Sounded like U2 “with or without you” LOL
Exactly
A great mystery has just been solved! When Steve Vai does the blowing on strings trick (fans will know what I mean), he must be throwing a switch on a sustainaic.
I bought a Shecter Sun Valley SS PT FR S recently (well months ago, but arrived a few days ago) mostly for how it looked, and didn't see that it had Sustainiac installed - which I've never heard of until I unboxed it. At first I was a bit bummed and confused, but after playing around and working with the effect for a while, I am really starting to love it.
I didn't understand intuitively how the switches etc changed in behaviour when sustaniniac was turned on - and the little piece of paper wasn't helping much. You explained it to the point and clearly! Thanks.
I have 2 of the Synyster Gates guitars. One is a 2010 white and gold with the Seymour Duncan Invaders, and then a 2020 Synyster Gates Custom S black and gold with the sustainiac and the syn USA Custom pickup. I love both guitars, but the sustainiac adds so much more playability.
U2 😍
U2 with or without you.
Sounds like feedback.
Ha! My Sustainiac was delivered to me just yesterday! Was hoping you'd get into the technical, setup aspect of the pickup. I'm actually excited about the install!
Might not be the intent of the video, but what I learned is that I am absolutely totally uninterested in a sustaniac. So I guess this video was pretty useful to me.
Thanks for the review
It's pretty cool, but why aren't thtese pickups available for more wider use in different brands i.e. a Strat, or Gibson?
Been thinking about a sustainiac for quite some time!
I got a Schecter C1 with a Sustainiac earlier this year. I love the sustaining ability; my other guitars are gather dust now :)
That being said, I do have a couple of minor gripes:
• It chews through 9V batteries. I think I replace the Sustainiac battery 4 times for every 1 time I replace the active-pickup battery.
• The middle position (blended harmonic) seems a bit weak to me. There's allegedly trimpots that can be used to adjust the gain; I haven't gotten to trying them yet.
• There is some variability across the fretboard for how well/quickly notes are sustained, especially in the high harmonic and blended mode. For normal rock and roll playing, I don't really care about the variability. For more ambient/thoughtful clean stuff though, I usually try out the melody on different strings to see which location works best.
You gotta get rechargable 9Vs. 9Vs aren't cheap but the rechargable weren't much more. I just plug them in when not playing. It's basically like your cell phone. About 4 hours or so?? That's about the life of the rechargable anyway. Like your phone battery they seem to degrade over time.
@Phillip McKnight - great video. I’ve been wanting one of these. Would you recommend buying a preinstalled sustaniac guitar or is this a reasonable DIY project? (If the latter, I humbly submit to you a future video idea)
I bought a white Sun Valley Super Shredder specifically because it had a Sustainiac. Plus they look so cool and at a very reasonable price! By the way, there is not a Tone control on this guitar; they are both Volume controls.
CONSTRUCTIVE criticism - Slow down. You are rushing to convey yourself and what you are explaining gets lost. I had to watch this at .75 playback speed to keep my attention and learn. I appreciate passion in music. And technology like this gives us all a much broader canvas to express ourselves
Is it sustaining when i play beyond 12th to 24th frets? 🤔?
Can i get the harmonics as well?
So i have a pedal board, with over 15 pedals. Two of which are iso bricks. Mrx,an voodoo. Most of the pedals are minis. Hof reverb,Ep booster,Sp compresser,mini tube screamer,mxr carbon copy,trem,two donner pedals waw / volume an tunner,two boss ,ds1 an acoustic sim,ernie ball volume pedal , hx stomp an hx effects, as well as line 6 wireless guitar plug. Pedal board is a SKB that also had the power source box built in to the broad which is a board / case all in one. I really thinking about upgrading it, an selling everything just for a line 6 helix ,but not sure what i might get in return or torse my goal. Love this pedal board that i built, ( with all the chords, also have a 13 inch pedal board voodoo lab pedal board inside the SKB.) This board is heavy. Now not sure how much i could get for all this an was wondering if downloading patches onto the hx stomp an hx effects devalue them? Love your channel . Have learned and gotten a lot of Guitar / Amp/ pedal knowledge from you. Thanks brother..
I have a Schecter Reaper 6 FR-S with a sustainiac. It's an awesome guitar - the sustainiac is very cool, but a bit tricky to use because it can induce feedback so you have to learn to control it. Also, if you leave your cable in the guitar's input jack it will drain the battery. I've left my cord in several times, but my battery hasn't died completely yet...
I have been debating about buying this guitar for 2 months now. I really should just pull the trigger.
Got a like for "obviously that song was inspired by something" 😃 unexpectedly good video, I mean, I expected a quality vid, but didn't expect to like the product
As a guitarist of 20 years. I think that pickup is useless. Doesn't even sound good. Schecter should stop putting it in guitars. I like those guitars, hate the pickup. Due to it, I won't buy one. Even if I swapped that pickup out, thered be a useless large hole in the back of the body with no battery in it. It's honestly upsetting.
I might look into one, since the song that inspired that is an all-time favorite that just doesn’t sound right played any way other than with some kind of sustainer.
Thinking of picking the 1289 up as a secondary to my MMJPXI. How will this do as an alternative tuned guitar?
If the Sustainiac pulls you in and you believe that you can't live without it, do yourself a massive favour and check out the Fernandes Sustainer, cuz that's the one you'll want. The sustainiac is great fun but the Fernandes will woo you and own you.
Hey Phil, what do you mean by “when sustaininac is on, pickup selector doesn’t matter” ? It has a 3 way switch, what does it do?
I bought the original Fernandez Sustainer for cheap, other than needing the body stripped down because of all the chipping, it sounds just like yours.
One question and one remark. Question: there are pedals that do the same thing. What is the advantage of building this in the guitar itself? Remark. Increasing sustain requires a demanding picking technique to mute unwanted strings. You have a similar challenge, but to a lesser degree, in a good acoustic with rich resonance.
This will do more than the feedback sustain. It will also sustain the regular fundamental tone as well. The pedals can do something similar, but it’s definitely not the same.
One of my favorite guitarists, Steve Hackett uses them!
I thought Steve Vai used a Fernandez Sustainer in his guitar. Either way I wonder how the sustainer and the sustainiac compare to each other. It seems like they're practically identical.
Ed Obrien's signature Strat has a sustainer and it is one of the coolest guitars I've ever seen.
Agreed. You could pay more for a higher-end Strat, but why? Th EOB has everything you need. I love mine!
100%. The neck takes a minute... but I love the jb jr in the bridge, sustainer is damn fun. My wife is getting sick of it though...
Superb instrument. So versatile.
I just got a Kenny Hickey C-1 EX-S baritone, probably the only non-FR guitar with a stock sustainiac on it
One question, when I have the sustainiac pickup on the neck enabled, the guitar sounds like a horrible screeching noise, when I enable sustainiac the noise is removed. I have been told that it could be the excess gain in one of the trim pots, can anyone help me, I am surprised that it was the guitarrapues this new, thanks.
Phillip any luck ?? finding out about the sustainer for a bass any info for me Phil CHI town just checking in ok take care !!!
After a few years being on the market,would anyone recommend buying that guitar? I am looking for a sustainer and at this price point it's seems like a steal for all you get.
I love that Schecter have a Sustainiac version of pretty much every guitar they have. I've been hovering over getting one for a few months now. I think this vid just tipped me over the edge.
everyone who love Joe Satriani, would like to install this sustaniac pickup.
I’d love a full review of the guitar and the emg retro active!
hey phil. nice vid. how does it compare to the digitech freqout?? keep rockin\m/
Matt Bellamy from MUSE used it sustainiac on mason guitar way before Joe satriani or everybody else knows imo.
How much commission do you make on every one of these you sell? Because you just sold me one.
I found this to be very akin to the Digitech feedbacker pedal.
I have a schecter...but my fernandes has the sustainer pickups which does the exact same thing. If you want this effect get a used fernandes.
Great video. Man what a crazy difference awesome...2thumbs up.
So basically this is like a ripoff of the Fernamdes Sustainer that that I owned 20 years ago?
Great review! Assuming that guitar uses the same circuit board as the Stealth Pro, on the 10-pin connector there should be a pin for a +6dB boost and a pin for a darken feature that you can ground to make the Sustaniac pickup sound more like a humbucker.
What’s with all the “with or without you” comments... I must be dense or something!!!
I first recall seeing these in Fernandez guitars back in the late 80s, I blame Vai for the resurgence.
The only reason I'm now interested in sustaniacs is from Charles Caswell from Berried Alive
That's a beautiful schecter. Huge fan of matching headstocks. I've got a Schecter Snow 🐆 from Sweetwater and it's super cool. Sustaniacs are also neat. Shoot probably something I'll buy in the future. Thanks Phil!👍
@@R1GAMBLER I know right? Dang shame. I saw the 75th anniversary strat and really dig it's look. Sad it's outta stock
Can you make a video how to install it? I do also have one but it's not working
as a luthier i will just ask, is there any dealer that sell just the pickups? i have 3 customers that want to build a guitar whit it, but havent been able to buy it alone
Bob Guido uses this kind of technology better than anyone I have ever seen - th-cam.com/video/OWNQhHvqjm0/w-d-xo.html