I've decided to go with the Sustainiac Stealth Pro. The circuit board is smaller/thinner, and I would have the freedom to mount the external switches anywhere I like; unlike the Fernandes Sustainer, whose switches are attached directly its wide PCB. It's a little bit of a shame, because I honestly think the Sustainiac looks a little ugly with its funky diagonal exposed magnet on the top, whereas the Sustainer has a no-nonsense jet black cover. But it's not a deal breaker at all. I'm expecting to tuck the Sustainiac's circuitry underneath the pickguard. More research to ensue on wiring the thing, for there seems to be quite a few configurations, but for the time being I'm happy to commit.
I've tried to read through all of Sustainiac's website. I appreciate that they're not shy about putting every piece of information available on the site, including what works and what doesn't work with their system(s), but seriously, it made my eyes hurt a little and my brain a bit muddled. I think the influence of my Seattle design-savvy-extreme-nerd-media-professional friends is rubbing off on me, so maybe I'll ask the company to organize their site better for future users, but whatever.
Sustainiac's website. Several pages of this. Organize, organize, organize!
Time to stop being a baby. Here's what I'm finding out:
-Installation of the Sustainiac requires that the 9-volt battery is running, even when you've set your pickup selector for your other pickup, which may be passive. The Sustainiac is itself an active guitar pickup, and from what I gather on their site, it's supposed to sound a little warmer like a Seymour Duncan '59 in the neck position. I'm a longtime user and fan of the '59, so this seems good to me overall even though I'm chagrined by the thought of running a battery down when I may not be explicitly using it.
-When you turn the switch for the Sustainiac on, the pickup selector is bypassed and the other pickup on the guitar is automatically activated for sending signal out. The Sustainiac switches from its active pickup function to its sustaining function. (I meant to say "electromagnetic sustaining function", but an active pickup function is, of course, also electromagnetic.) The guitar returns to whatever function the pickup selector is in when the power switch is turned back off.
-Pickguards will usually have an aluminum or copper shielding underneath them to prevent outside electromagnetic interference (you know, hum) from messing with the internal wiring. However, Sustainiac recommends removing the shielding from around the pickup(s) because the driver pickup needs to emit an electromagnetic pulse to get the strings to start vibrating. ...Or something like that. This is where my attention span trailed off...
-$200+ and it will need to be ordered separately, most likely direct from the manufacturer so I can pick and choose which switch and knob setup I prefer. For example, I could go with a push-pull pot to turn the Sustainiac on or off rather than have an external mounted switch.
"F***ing electromagnets, how do they work?"
Let's talk about that Floyd Rose. I called Warmoth and asked them if they could or would do that extra custom rout behind the low E string so that a recessed floating bridge with a D-tuna installed could move freely. The guy I talked to on the phone told me that they've done it for one customer, who later returned the guitar because he wasn't happy specifically with the way that rout was cut. I was told that if I absolutely know that I want the job done, I'd have to give them very highly detailed instructions on where and how to cut into the top, and I'd have to swear a blood oath that I would never attempt to return the guitar, all sales final.
After much thought, I've decided that the floating D-tuna attempt just isn't worth the trouble, so I'm going with a flush-mounted Floyd Rose setup to keep the D-tuna function. This means the bridge will rest flush with the guitar body; I can dive down on the strings, but can't pull up. I've already got a recessed float setup on my Jackson Soloist and the maintenance for that alone is a bigger pain in the neck than a truss rod adjustment (hahahaha... get it?). The trade-off of losing float for gaining the ability to switch to Drop D tuning on the fly is completely fair. I'm not a heavy Floyd user; I mainly use it for light vibrato and the occasional metal dive-bomb.
If the guitar will stay in tune after pulling a stunt like this, I'm totally happy. Not saying I'm capable of pulling off stunts like this.
Ah, well, I can't leave off this post without featuring one of my guitar heroes, Ben Weinman from The Dillinger Escape Plan. I'm actually going to have a chance to meet him in a couple of weeks from now as part of a live recording class. Check out his signature "Party Smasher" guitar. Neck-through on a semi-hollow body?! Brilliant. If I wasn't so dead-set on having a Floyd Rose and preferred a hardtail instead, I'd very seriously consider having an Evertune bridge installed. That thing is going to be revolutionary in the guitar world very soon.
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