Weird Sustainer on the bay

[Mr80's]

There is a Sustainer on evilbay at the moment with a weird pickup where the Floyd Rose Sustainer pickup should be. Kind of looks like half a regular humbucker and half a Sustainer pickup.Is this a different sustainer pickup from another manufacturer?

[JGB]

Could be damaged...maybe one of those blades fell off? :scratchhe

[DarrenD]

Looks like the sustainer was just replaced with a dimarzio megadrive (or similar style pickup).

[BamaKramer]

Looks like the sustainer was just replaced with a dimarzio megadrive (or similar style pickup).

that is what i first thought

[Mr80's]

Hmm, the seller is claiming this sustainer is working or at least they state that the light comes on.Looks suspicious to me.

[BamaKramer]

is it just me or is the right side of the floyd baseplate bent?

[DarrenD]

That is not a sustainer driver. The guy bullshitting you. I have worked with both the kramer, fernandes, and sustainiac sustainers, and I have never seen one that looks like that. He simply replaced it with a regular pickup (in this case, maybe a dimarzio megadrive) and is saying otherwise.

[BamaKramer]

fishy

[Mr80's]

That is not a sustainer driver. The guy bullshitting you. I have worked with both the kramer, fernandes, and sustainiac sustainers, and I have never seen one that looks like that. He simply replaced it with a regular pickup (in this case, maybe a dimarzio megadrive) and is saying otherwise.

Well, he is bullshitting those bidding on it because he stated that "The light does come on and everything functions perfectly", I sent him a message yesterday stating that the neck pickup was suspicious and have had no response yet. I m not bidding on it, I just feel sorry for the winning bidder thinking he's getting a working sustainer.

[Shreddedsinew]

I had a sustainer with that same pickup that worked awesome (sold on ebay to somebody on the forum) He's not ripping off anybody.

[NightRider]

is it just me or is the right side of the floyd baseplate bent?

looks to me like the posts are leaning... plate probably fine

[Mr80's]

I had a sustainer with that same pickup that worked awesome (sold on ebay to somebody on the forum) He's not ripping off anybody.

Do you know if the Sustainer you had was an early model? I am just trying to figure out if this guitar might be an early production model as I have never seen that style of Sustainer pup before.

[bcrich1975]

I looked at this one too. I call this one out as a bullshit listing.

..."the light comes on"...yeah, the battery(ies) is/are dead!

Probably a guitar that has a lot of potential but if someone wants that back to factory, it's going to cost quite a bit (IF you can find parts) or to convert it over to a Fernandes sustainer setup.

A few more observations:
There's probably 250 pounds of tension on that neck...look at the tremolo angle. Probably bent the neck like a banana if it's been like that for a long time.
There isn't any space what-so-ever between the front of the tremolo and the body. Those posts are probably leaning really bad.
I wouldn't touch this "project" for anything over $375.00 personally.
The black one and the pink ones on ebay look pretty nice but on the expensive side.

[helocene]

Mr. 80s, this one looks to be an earlier production model, note the lack of a separate battery compartment.
Nothing wrong with the Floyd a proper adjustment on the claw won't fix. Looks to me like someone put some heavier gauge strings on it then it was set up for. Looking at the 2nd, 3rd, and 5th pictures the posts "may" have a slight lean but it all looks pretty solid to me.
The only comment I have on the neck pickup is I thought the MegaDrives had plated pole pieces, this looks more Schaller like to me. :scratchhe
It's no case queen, but it may be a chance to get a Sustainer at a decent price. Plenty of time to ask questions about battery, green/red lights, hi-res pictures etc...

Wait, it's missing an allen wrench holder, it ain't worth shit. :D

[vincedelapena]

Check the broken pickup ring. Was it originally a 4 hole pup-ring later drilled out in between the holes? Was that the pup-ring originally supplied with the Sustainer? Was there ever a 6 hole pup-ring? Maybe that will shed more light...

[Kostas Dee]

Nah..nothing for me here.

Good luck to the winner :whistle

[TommysGs]

That's a particularly interesting statement considering
the light is a low battery indicator.
It doesn't have anything to do with the sustainer working.
As a matter of fact when the light comes on,
there probably isn't enough battery left to drive
the sustainer pickup.

Gotta love Ebay sellers.

[Shreddedsinew]

I might have to retract at my statement....that pickup resembles a D-Sonic.

[88PCII]

Check the broken pickup ring. Was it originally a 4 hole pup-ring later drilled out in between the holes? Was that the pup-ring originally supplied with the Sustainer? Was there ever a 6 hole pup-ring? Maybe that will shed more light...

This PU ring is an original schaller and normally factory installed - Schaller PUs are mounted with 2 screws a side....

Andi

[Coloradoman25]

The first sustainer I had used a red light only that stayed red when the system was on. Had nothing at all do to with the batter power. If the light was off it was either dead or not on.

As for the pickup I have seen 1 other like it and it was an acutal sustainer, this is however going back 10 years or so and I dont have any proof one way or another.

[Mr80's]

Me wonders if this may be a prototype or a very early run of the Sustainer line....

[velocity]

the sustainer i had used a green light that stayed on when the system was in use as well...

[bcrich1975]

Early production sustainers had a red light that would only come on when the batteries were nearly out of power. Later production sustainers had a dual color light-green would light up when the guitar was plugged in and if it illuminated red, the batteries were nearly out of juice.
Another easy way to tell the difference between early and late production is this. Early models did not have a separate battery box, the batteries were located in the control cavity.

[skydive69]

while i dont know much about the sustainer circuitry, i do know quite a bit about the sustainiac system (you could call me an expert on it, i was taught by the guy who invented it). im taking a guess here, but im thinking they are along the same lines. the sustainiac did not work well with anything but a passive humbucker in the bridge position, which to work properly, sometimes had to be pulled apart, magnets flipped around to make poles align properly, coils wired against manufacturers recomendations so that north and south poles of the magnets would work properly with the north and south coils and correct coil polarity along with the circuit.

thats an emg in the bridge. im finding it odd. im also not sure if the sustainer used a stereo jack to turn the battery power to the circuit on and off when the jack is plugged in as the sustainiac did. if it did, its going to be a special aftermarket jack with alot of terminals on it in that axe to turn on the battery power to the circuit and the emg, which would be seperate battery packs for each unit.

whether its a sustainer pickup/driver in the neck, i dont know. i have embossed logo ones and non logo, but they both have the rail caps instead of posts.....it is possible that one was a proto, but the emg definitely did not go with the system. does it work? dunno, but its easy......message the guy and ask him if the strings vibrate by themselves when he turns it on......

[hologramkramerguitar]

How many sustainers were actually made? Does anyone know?

[Mr80's]

I had an EMG 85 in a sustainer and it worked fine. I am just curious about this one. I did send an email to the seller about this guitar and have had no response.

[helocene]

Early production sustainers had a red light that would only come on when the batteries were nearly out of power. Later production sustainers had a dual color light-green would light up when the guitar was plugged in and if it illuminated red, the batteries were nearly out of juice.
Just to qualify this, the LED is not dependent on plugging in the guitar, it's controlled by a switch.

Breakdown of controls on the later model.
Knobs: Volume, Tone, Sustain level
Switches: 3 way pickup selection(passive neck, passive bridge, passive bridge w/ neck Sustainer circuitry on), 3 way Sustain mode selection(Sustain, Harmonic, Enhanced Harmonic), 2 way Sustainer circuitry on/off switch.
LED: Green means switch is on and power is good, red means switch is on, change batteries, off means switch is off.

That's how mine works, it's a late model G plate. When running with the Sustainer off in the bridge/sustainer switch position there does seem to be a slight tone suck from the resistors in the circuitry, seems to lose some bottom end. That all goes away once you turn the Sustainer on. :headbang

Vinnie brings up a good point on the EMG and it needing a passive pickup. The batteries for the Sustainer may have been co-opted for the EMG in this case. A pic of the control cavity would clear a lot up.

If it was me I'd sell the EMG, put a JB back in the bridge, ask Vinnie to sell me a proper Sustainer pickup. Hope the circuitry is all in order to rewire it, if not figure on spending a couple hundred to by some when it comes around. As of now it's a bastard Imperial, bid accordingly.

[Blitz]

I was interested in this as its cheap but to many questions surround judging by your posts. Oh yeah and he doesnt ship to the UK