Anyone know of a pedal that'll sustain notes for a verrrry long time?

[iandy4]

cold*

[Mich P]

Pigtronix Philosopher's Tone maybe :

http://www.pigtronix.com/products08/philosopherstone.html

Mich P.

[Mark Hammer]

Devices that sustain the actual guitar signal do so by leveraging volume to keep the strings vibrating.  So any of the assorted "sustain" pedals, are simply compressors that raise the gain as the signal starts to die out.  If one is playing quietly, then the apparent "sustain" is rather limited in duration.  Using the same device in tandem with a nearby loud amplifier produces enough resonating of the guitar body to shake the strings at the fundamental frequency of the note and generate an ongoing "sustained" note/chord.

Pedals/devices that do not require high volume to work, like the EHX Freeze, the HOG, the old Korg X-911, or the Boss DF-2, synthesize a note or chord, based on what you fed them, and THAT is what is sustained, not the actual real-time guitar signal.

[deadastronaut]

Have U heard of the PAiA Infinity Plus??    

A incandesent bulb compressor that sustains cleanly and for days   ......
I had one many many many yrs ago.....don't know what happened to it  

Can't find the original PAia manual on the web, but here's some mods with a partial schematic.

http://www.lynx.bc.ca/~jc/pedalsInfinity.html


This page talks about the Infinity Plus and the history of PAiA.

http://sonic.net/mjones/paia/paia.html


IIRC, the complete manual in PDF is over at the Paia-YahooGroups site in the "files" section.
You'll have to join the Group to view the manual.

afn



EDITED: found it!! It's actually in the documents section @ www.PAiA's.com.
    http://www.paia.com/talk/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=203

anyone tried this?.....sounds good, if it sustains forever....

[Mark Hammer]

The Infinity Plus is but a humble compressor.  Nothing terribly special about it other than the use of an incandescent bulb that will reduce audible ripple, where use of an LED might require some tweaking of time constants.

It will still require higher ampliier volume to result in any noticeable prolonged sustain...just like any other compressor out there.  The "for days" part is more a reflection of just how impressed we all were with compressors back in 1978.  I had a cheap little Univox compressor that was probably every bit as slapdash a design, and we were all equally impressed with it.

[deadastronaut]

hmmm...not what it says on the tin then really.....

so what would be the best compressor for sustain and squash...?

[Gurner]

Tend to agree the schematic is underwhelming,  I think this is the bit from the pdf blurb that needs referring to the regulating authorities...

""One of the gimmicks you can pull with the infinity plus is "controlled feedback",
Set the sustain duration control to maximum sustain, the guitar volume to the optimum output
and stand close to your speakers. Now strike a chord and hold it. As the vibrations of the string die away
the infinity Plus will bring the volume up until the point is reached at which
the sound from the amp is enough to keep the string vibrating""

Basically crank your amp up, stand in close proximity to your speakers & then use sound energy  from the amplifier to excite/resonate your strings infinitely (or at least until the neighbours call the police). You can pull this off without a compressor, but even so, just about any compressor can help pull off this "gimmick"....it's a little naughty for them to infer that there's some form of USP going on here.

[deadastronaut]

^ oh well, back to sustainer pickups then....and a zobel of course.....lol..lol...

[Gurner]

^ oh well, back to sustainer pickups then....

Do you have a circuit for one of those? Whaddaya mean it's a secret?  

[space_ryerson]

^ oh well, back to sustainer pickups then....

Do you have a circuit for one of those? Whaddaya mean it's a secret? 

Lol.

[slacker]

Do you have a circuit for one of those? Whaddaya mean it's a secret?  

What ever it is I bet you could do it better with a PIC

[deadastronaut]

^ oh well, back to sustainer pickups then....

Do you have a circuit for one of those? Whaddaya mean it's a secret?  

well i could give you a long winded boring answer...but i can't, it is a secret...

[ashcat_lt]

If it's that big a secret you'd best hope nobody ever actually reads the lm386 datasheet! 

On the previous page I linked to a sustain driver which mounts on a mic stand.  No mods to the guitar necessary.  Much like stepping up close to a loud amp, except it's silent!