Fernandes Sustainer - notes

[wordstep]

Fernandes Sustainer - notes

after install my Fernandes Sustainer 101 into my guitar, I put some notes here, hope it could help sb out.

1) change Fernandes Sustainer  101 to 401 is compeletely work.
just change the  mode toggle switch to 2PDT 0N-OFF-ON, you got your mix mode, add a 500k pot to the "sustainer intensly", you got more control and even you dont want the mix mode, you can add this control, it`s useful.

2) the 9 feet toggle switch  is  on/off
   the 6 feet toggle switch  is  mode
this`s not confuse when you got 401, but not any info in the 101 manual, when you consider change sth in 101, really make different.

3) about 101, the neck pickup is a active pickup, so part of the PCB
is to active the neck pickup, you can compeletely not use it. after put a steel ruler on the pickup, i believe the neck active pickup just on the front side of the HUMBURKER, means the back side(with the word "sustainer" on it) of the HUMBURKER is empty (good guess). that means the driver/pickup of 101 or 401 is the same in different shade (better guess)

4) it use the bridge pickup to sustain, so the bridge go through the pcb, even in SUSTAIN
OFF--now you got a active neck pickup a go through pcb bridge pickup,the bridge pickup compare
to not go through PCB,the go through one got a little bit boost,not much.

5) if you got a middle pickup,you can direct conect it to the 5-way-switch(not pcb)

6) make sure your 5-way switch work as same to the manual,mine is up-side down.

7) the yellow/purple 2 line is use to go to the 9 feet on/off switch for
when sustain is on  --  cut the middle and neck pickup off the output
when sustain is off --  put the middle and neck pickup on the output
if you dont want the neck and middel pickup, you can compeletly not connect them.

Fernandes Sustainer -- when battery is died -- no output

9) I did follow the five way switch way to connect my guitar execpt the middle pickup
direct to the 5-way switch. but for the battery reason, I put a 6 feet ON-ON toggle switch
on the guitar back cover( one is decide the bridge pickup goto the pcb or direct to the
5-way switch, another one is decide the output from the 5-way switch is from the pcb main output or another--not from PCB)

there`s no way to change from not battery mode to got battery mode on fly ,because when battery on, it get some sound out. so put the switch in front of the guitar is useless.

after did that I found if follow the manual -- use the stero output jack to control
the pcb batterly on/off (put the jack in, the power on) .
when not use the PCB(sustainer)/direct use 5-way pickup switch to output, change different
pickup will give "pot" sound. so i put another switch to control the batterly on/off.

so I got 2 way
one --- sustainer guitar   need batterly--on
        sustain off  -- active neck/boost bridge/orginal middle
        sustainer on -- bridge output with boost   and 3 mode

two --- regullar guitar
        battery--on  active neck/orginal bridge/orginal middle
        battery--off orginal bridge/orginal middle
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
GUESS-GUESS

after go through
http://www.sustainiac.com/
Q. Another company tells me that they bought your patents. Is that true?
A. We continue to hear this. It is absolutely not true. We have our patents, and other companies have theirs.

and some compare. these are some good GUESS.
they are same nut, Fernandes buy licenes from SUSTAINIAC, maybe even buy PCB from SUSTAINIAC.
not the entire PCB. if you see the  Fernandes 101 photo from internet, you will see a long part all in black, this is a small PCB -- full of mcb parts -- i think this is the nut.

except the nut, different company use different way to achieve the orginal sustainer 18v
there`s some mentin on sustainiac.com about how to use 9v instead of 18v.
and they dont add active pickup on the driver, instead the say there`s a half singel/half
HUMBERKER on it-- you figure out.

if you see Fernandes PCB--a transformer on it--- what you think.
and they add a active schematic on their PCB for the neck pickup.

there`s another one in musicyo.com use 18v.  no more info on it right now
I think they buy from sustainiac.com too,
but add a low battery schematic on to solve the low battery problem.

[wordstep]

if you do like me,need to weld off the 2 toggle switch,really careful,easy to dampage the pcb.
and one more tip is the  6 feet mode toggle switch only use 4 feet.

-----------
O | X | X
-----------
X | X | O
-----------

X  -- useful   O  -- useless    means you only need to weld 4 wires out.

[akeong]

Hi wordstep,

I know it has been a while since the last post.  But who knows you're still around or somebody maybe can help here.. What's the transformer on that FSK-101?  I didn't want to route my new ibanez, the board fit if I change the transformer & switches positions. The plan was to make new board for the transformer and put somewhere else.  So I strip the switches and transformer, but unfortunately I pulled the transformer too hard and that solder lug stayed on the PCB, leaving me a transformer with missing its pin

[wordstep]

http://www.fernandesguitars.com/support/downloads/doc_details/8-sustainer-trim-pot-functions.html

This pdf file could help you with the pcb. Maybe that pin is useless(who knows). I don't have time and equipment to trace them for you right now.

About the transformer, you can try to repair the  broken pin. It should not be really hard.  Open the tapeog the transformer, find the broken point and put in a replace pin.  You can first find another transformer and practice how to do it. Then you will know how the pins are put in there in the first place.

Of course, be careful and you need a little bit luck.

Good luck.