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> Electric guitars attack hard, decay fast, and don’t sustain like bowed strings or organs. Since the 1980s, we have had the "Sustainiac": an active circuit in

> Electric guitars attack hard, decay fast, and don’t sustain like bowed strings or organs. Since the 1980s, we have had the "Sustainiac": an active circuit installed in the electric guitar along with a "reverse pickup" which is energized in order to excite vibration in the strings. With this device, at the flip of a switch, you get indefinite sustain on any note on the neck, at any volume, distortion or not --- even if the electric guitar is not plugged into an amplifier at all, and just heard acoustically. The best implementations of this have a three way harmonic switch. You can choose between excite the fretted (or open) note itself (fundamenta a.k.a first harmonic), an octave above it (second harmonic) or a higher harmonic still. You can be sustaning the given note, and then at the flip of a switch, it will fade over to the higher harmonic. YouTube videos of this in action are worth checking out. Here is one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZwPPGsxY6g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZwPPGsxY6g

kranner 8mo ago
If you don't want to or can't install a Sustainiac pickup, you can get a much cheaper handheld one-string "E-Bow" that does the same thing. It's not as easy to use as a Sustainiac and you can't also be playing with the whammy bar unlike with a Sustainiac, but you can get it to do tricks a Sustainiac can't do: see the "spiccato" section in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0V3pzxma-8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0V3pzxma-8 I've also managed to make an E-Bow work with a steel-string acoustic guitar (but only on one string IIRC).
dwd 8mo ago
Ed O'Brien from Radiohead worked with Fender to develop a Strat with a Fernandes Sustainer. https://au.fender.com/products/fender-eob-sustainer-stratocaster https://au.fender.com/products/fender-eob-sustainer-stratoca... You might enjoy this video. He really goes deep into using the guitar to create textures and emotions. He talks about the Edge (U2) and his Infinite Guitar and that he actually calling Michael Brook to see if he could get one. Eventually Fender did a custom build on his Clapton Strat which became the Fender EOB Sustainer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YK4Fmrlqz3I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YK4Fmrlqz3I
WalterBright 8mo ago
[Nigel Tufnel is showing Marty DiBergi one of his favorite guitars] Nigel Tufnel: The sustain, listen to it. Marty DiBergi: I don't hear anything. Nigel Tufnel: Well you would though, if it were playing.

kranner 8mo ago

If you don't want to or can't install a Sustainiac pickup, you can get a much cheaper handheld one-string "E-Bow" that does the same thing. It's not as easy to use as a Sustainiac and you can't also be playing with the whammy bar unlike with a Sustainiac, but you can get it to do tricks a Sustainiac can't do: see the "spiccato" section in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0V3pzxma-8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0V3pzxma-8 I've also managed to make an E-Bow work with a steel-string acoustic guitar (but only on one string IIRC).

dwd 8mo ago

Ed O'Brien from Radiohead worked with Fender to develop a Strat with a Fernandes Sustainer. https://au.fender.com/products/fender-eob-sustainer-stratocaster https://au.fender.com/products/fender-eob-sustainer-stratoca... You might enjoy this video. He really goes deep into using the guitar to create textures and emotions. He talks about the Edge (U2) and his Infinite Guitar and that he actually calling Michael Brook to see if he could get one. Eventually Fender did a custom build on his Clapton Strat which became the Fender EOB Sustainer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YK4Fmrlqz3I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YK4Fmrlqz3I

WalterBright 8mo ago

[Nigel Tufnel is showing Marty DiBergi one of his favorite guitars] Nigel Tufnel: The sustain, listen to it. Marty DiBergi: I don't hear anything. Nigel Tufnel: Well you would though, if it were playing.