Sustaniac pickup hight?

[Ryan Puro]

Ok so I have a sustaniac on my guitar and I’m getting allot of unwanted feedback from the strings that aren’t being played. What would you guys recommend for the height for both pickups? (Still new to the whole sustaniac thing)

 

[Ed Seith]

The sustainiac works by generating vibration in the strings by magnetic field – it is a “WANTED feedback machine,” so you should have it turned off or disabled at all times EXCEPT when you specifically want to use it. This is typically to hold a single note (or chord), and always requires the muting of every string you don’t want making noise. Hope this helps!

 

[Ryan Puro]

I only have it on when playing single notes. But when I play one string WITHOUT hitting another I get a bunch of feedback from the other strings. So I figured it had to do with the height of the pickups.

 

[Ed Seith]

Nope. That’s the sustainiac doing what it was designed to do – make strings vibrate. You need to mute every other string. You can use a combination of both hands to do this, and it’s a technique worth learning and mastering at all times – that’s what makes a super-clean player, especially where high gain is involved.

 

[Noah Berends]

Ed is right. It’s gonna make a vibration over all your strings and you have to be selective via muting. The physical seating height of the pickup will simply determine how quickly and how intense the vibrations come on. Back it up from the strings and it’ll take longer for strings to start vibrating and for feedback/harmony to engage in the respective modes. On the other hand, if you mount it closer to the strings, the vibrations are going to come on much harder and more intense, which from my experience really starts to generate fret buzz of all things. I have mine seated just barely above the factory height…I don’t have any way to measure it for reference unfortunately. If you want to affect the tone you’re getting while the Sustainiac is on, you’ll need to adjust the height of your bridge pickup since that’s the one that’s actually picking up the sound when the system is on. But muting is essential to pick out just the one string you want.

 

[Ryan Puro]

I see what you guys are saying now, thanks for the help. Makes more sense now.

 

[Calvin Phillips]

basically the pick up turns every note into its harmonic. There fore, open strings can have harmonics as well. That’s what you are h earing. Sometimes you can get the most amazing effects off that. I used the feature with one chord to finish off my one song, and its the best finale I could ever think of. really adds to the build up of the song.

 

[Jake Young]

I posted on this but it’s not showing up? So I apologize if it shows up later.. It basically said the guys up above hit the nail on the head with their replies..but I struggled with the same thing a few months back. I ended up setting the height to where the single coil with the sustainiac switched off sounds best then messing with the drive “knob” on the circuit board to find a happy medium. I emailed Maniac Music, the manufacturers of the sustainiac, to find out their recommended height settings and they are extremely close. Almost too close..the strings barely have room to vibrate freely. So then I emailed Syn’s tech Kevin to see if he had any measurements for how he sets up Syns sustainiac guitar..he basically said he does it by ear also.
Alan at Maniac Music’s email:
“You should adjust BOTH the Sustainiac driver and also the bridge pickup
height as follows for good, strong Sustainiac performance:
Little e-string distance: 1/16 inch (1.5mm)
Big E-string distance: 1/8 to 3/16 inch (3-4mm)”
Kevin Syn’s tech email:
“Howdy Jake. I’m sorry to report that I don’t have any actual measurements to recommend. I set the pickup height by ear for each guitar, some guitars are set up for certain songs with a slightly higher or lower action depending on the style of the tune so the pickups need to be adjusted accordingly. Once you have a balanced sound from the sustainiac as a pickup you can adjust the ‘drive’ internally. The sustainiac function is different on each guitar as the effect itself needs to react differently for certain parts of solos. Lots of slight variations on the setups, that’s why we carry so many instruments on tour. Hope this helps.”
The sustainiac does work better with it close..but to me, Kevin had the best advice

 

[Ryan Puro]

Thanks for the feedback that’s very helpful. Like I said I’m still very green to this type of tech. I’m still messing around with it. It’ll take some practice but, it’s a really cool devise.

 

[Calvin Phillips]

wow, that response from him was amazing there.

 

[Jake Young]

Bumping this for a fellow student..