Charvel Sustainer Project Completed!

[ghosty999]

After a month of planning, cutting, measuring, re-thinking and fitting, I've finished my sustainer install! The plan was to install a "stealth" sustainer set up in my Charvel sol-cal with as little routing out wood as possible. Firstly the battery pack was cut out and fitted. Next the area under the pick guard was modded to fit the circuit board for the sustainer. I discovered using a shallow pot that you could mount the volume pot ontop of the circuit board and shield the parts that touch. This allowed me to cram everything into a smaller space. The downside is that the control switches are really close to the volume knob. Next part was the hardest, the set up. To adjust the trim pots on the circuit board involved removing the pick guard and neck each time in order to gain access, once this was completed I decided to string it up with 10s as high gauge strings work better with the sustainer and I usually run on 9s or 8s. It's all up and running, only a few issues with feed back but apart from that it's shredding!

 

[screamindemon]

Nice !

 

[ghosty999]

Here is it being played, first test:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BEQ37uCQJKC ... y=cwarre14

 

[Purpleibby]

Congrats, they are a LOT of fun and are a treasure trove of possibilities if you're creative. I went the sustainiac route and installed it myself, I don't think any of these things are easy to install lol. Cool guitar too! Also put mine in my Charvel:

 

[ghosty999]

Congrats, they are a LOT of fun and are a treasure trove of possibilities if you're creative. I went the sustainiac route and installed it myself, I don't think any of these things are easy to install lol. Cool guitar too! Also put mine in my Charvel:

Love it dude! looks right at home. Still getting to grips with mine, string muting is a must or it starts feeding back really badly. No idea how Phill Collen sustains with his picking hand in the air!

 

[Purpleibby]

Love it dude! looks right at home. Still getting to grips with mine, string muting is a must or it starts feeding back really badly. No idea how Phill Collen sustains with his picking hand in the air!

Thanks, and again congrats, very cool lookin' axe man! Confused about you feeling like you needed to go up to 10's like you said, you shouldn't have to do that to get good results.... Did you make sure to move the sustainer pretty close to the strings(sustainer pickup height?). The sustainer pickup height is a big tweak to the performance of any sustainer! I'm using mine with 9's at Eb and it just goes nuts sustaining just fretting a note lol, I may back the sustainiac gain down a notch lol. No doubt about it, some good muting technique is essential for getting anything useful out of a sustainer

 

[ghosty999]

Love it dude! looks right at home. Still getting to grips with mine, string muting is a must or it starts feeding back really badly. No idea how Phill Collen sustains with his picking hand in the air!

Thanks, and again congrats, very cool lookin' axe man! Confused about you feeling like you needed to go up to 10's like you said, you shouldn't have to do that to get good results.... Did you make sure to move the sustainer pretty close to the strings(sustainer pickup height?). The sustainer pickup height is a big tweak to the performance of any sustainer! I'm using mine with 9's at Eb and it just goes nuts sustaining just fretting a note lol, I may back the sustainiac gain down a notch lol. No doubt about it, some good muting technique is essential for getting anything useful out of a sustainer

Thanks dude!

The packaging says that higher gauge strings react better with the sustainer so I took their advice. The pickup is super close so no issues there \m/

 

[Purpleibby]

Love it dude! looks right at home. Still getting to grips with mine, string muting is a must or it starts feeding back really badly. No idea how Phill Collen sustains with his picking hand in the air!

Thanks, and again congrats, very cool lookin' axe man! Confused about you feeling like you needed to go up to 10's like you said, you shouldn't have to do that to get good results.... Did you make sure to move the sustainer pretty close to the strings(sustainer pickup height?). The sustainer pickup height is a big tweak to the performance of any sustainer! I'm using mine with 9's at Eb and it just goes nuts sustaining just fretting a note lol, I may back the sustainiac gain down a notch lol. No doubt about it, some good muting technique is essential for getting anything useful out of a sustainer

Thanks dude!

The packaging says that higher gauge strings react better with the sustainer so I took their advice. The pickup is super close so no issues there \m/

Awesome, enjoy! Go make some more great tunes, still have that AOR Melodic Rock 4 on a youtube playlist.. Huge fan of the AOR Hard rock sound myself....ever check out Talisman(Awesome!)? Wish Malmsteen would go back to the Eclipse/Fire and Ice sound, that era of his work was always my fav. from him.... Good stuff!

 

[ghosty999]

Love it dude! looks right at home. Still getting to grips with mine, string muting is a must or it starts feeding back really badly. No idea how Phill Collen sustains with his picking hand in the air!

Thanks, and again congrats, very cool lookin' axe man! Confused about you feeling like you needed to go up to 10's like you said, you shouldn't have to do that to get good results.... Did you make sure to move the sustainer pretty close to the strings(sustainer pickup height?). The sustainer pickup height is a big tweak to the performance of any sustainer! I'm using mine with 9's at Eb and it just goes nuts sustaining just fretting a note lol, I may back the sustainiac gain down a notch lol. No doubt about it, some good muting technique is essential for getting anything useful out of a sustainer

Thanks dude!

The packaging says that higher gauge strings react better with the sustainer so I took their advice. The pickup is super close so no issues there \m/

Awesome, enjoy! Go make some more great tunes, still have that AOR Melodic Rock 4 on a youtube playlist.. Huge fan of the AOR Hard rock sound myself....ever check out Talisman(Awesome!)? Wish Malmsteen would go back to the Eclipse/Fire and Ice sound, that era of his work was always my fav. from him.... Good stuff!

Glad you also enjoy the cheeses haha. Yeah man I listen to Talisman! Yeah Goran Edmund on vocals during the early 90s Yngwie was excellent! He has some set of pipes on him, not so much into Jeff Scott Soto's vocal style as much but still cool. Glad you are liking my tracks here is my new bands EP: https://soundcloud.com/callumwarrenderp ... n-south-ep

 

[Purpleibby]

Right on! I really loved the Goran Edman demo versions of the tracks on Talisman's stuff better that JSS's, but I like them too.....Goran is probably my fav. vocalist Yng ever had.....great singer! Was very sad to hear about Mats Olausson a while back, not much of a mention around at the time but I always loved what he brought to the table for Yngwie as well. Will check it out, good luck man!