is this a sustainer pickup? no-name brass case 1980s pickup?

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tabbycat
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Post by tabbycat »

i bought this unbranded pickup years ago on fleabay thinking it was a decent high gain rail pickup (measures 15.5, so maybe an unbranded kind of x2n or something).

Image

Image

but have since seen some pics of sustainer pickups as found in some freakout 1980s hair rock guitars, kramers particularly, and they seem to have either floyd rose or schaller sustainers housed in a complete brass enclosure a lot like this one.
this is severely shielded. meticulously soldered brass enclosure for back and sides and even the masking tape on the inside of the plastic mount is copper-reinforced shielding tape. fully resin or wax potted obviously.

this is one page i was looking at with similar pics. http://www.vintagekramer.com/parts9.htm

if it is a sustainer it seems they need some supporting circuitry to get the thing to work as sustainers rather than just pickups. i've found a rough diagram for a basic floyd rose sustainer pickup circuit which might serve as a starting point.

i've always stuck with pretty basic guitar electrics, never even had active pickups, so wondered if anyone here would have some knowledge of these?

basically, do you think it's a sustainer? are they worth the bother or are they just gimmicks? and is the supporting circuitry for the floyd rose and the schaller sustainer interchangeable (a pickup being a pickup)?

many thanks if you can cast some light on this one. have had it a while now and always wondered what it actually was.
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Post by sinner »

Cool if it is. Did you tried to ask Floyd Rose customer service?
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Post by phatt »

Assuming your measure of 15.5 actually means 15.5k Ohms then it's unlikely to be a sustainer as they would need to be a much lower winding resistance.
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Post by tabbycat »

sinner wrote:Cool if it is. Did you tried to ask Floyd Rose customer service?
hey sinner, i hope all is classy with you. not sure what it is (no markings, bought it thinking it was an xn2 or a similar) so may have to go that route. no uk customer service so will email us hq. the seller i bought it from said it came from a vintage boutiquey-type metal guitar but i can't remember which. metal not being my scene i didn't think much about it other than it would suit a guitar project i was playing with. will update if i find out anything more.
phatt wrote:Assuming your measure of 15.5 actually means 15.5k Ohms then it's unlikely to be a sustainer as they would need to be a much lower winding resistance.
Phil.
thanks for the info, phil. just checked again and reads 15.14k with the cheap meter i have to hand, but still big numbers. have checked out a few roll-your-own sustainer pickup threads and the homemade ones definitely come up with tiny resistances, not even in the ks. so that suggests it may well not be.
but odd that it is so heavily screened. that's what made me wonder, along with the pics on the sites. a fully enclosed soldered-braised brass housing seems overkill for a high gain pup under normal conditions. but maybe it was exposed, so brasswork more decorative than functional. brass was big on fancy early-mid 1980s guitars i remember.

to be honest, i don't know what i would do with a sustainer if i had one. have never been one for the widdly guitar solos. just curiosity for a new noise toy. maybe i'll make one one day as an experiment.
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Post by phatt »

Hi Tabby,, In case you don't realize,,The Brass is as much about TONE not just shielding. :secret:
Non Ferrous metals such as the type used in PU covers absorbs hi freq and makes for a smoother tone but by the 60-70's everyone wanted more of anything that made it louder and hence any chance of real tone was then history. Now its just distortion, gain and any wordy thing that sounds hip. :roll:

As for hum rejection brass is not much use down at 50~60 Hertz
Ferrous metals work better for EM Radiation from mains transformers and like stuff which is the biggest problem on stage.
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Post by lead2203 »

tabbycat wrote:i bought this unbranded pickup years ago on fleabay thinking it was a decent high gain rail pickup (measures 15.5, so maybe an unbranded kind of x2n or something).

[ Image ]

[ Image ]

but have since seen some pics of sustainer pickups as found in some freakout 1980s hair rock guitars, kramers particularly, and they seem to have either floyd rose or schaller sustainers housed in a complete brass enclosure a lot like this one.
this is severely shielded. meticulously soldered brass enclosure for back and sides and even the masking tape on the inside of the plastic mount is copper-reinforced shielding tape. fully resin or wax potted obviously.

this is one page i was looking at with similar pics. http://www.vintagekramer.com/parts9.htm

if it is a sustainer it seems they need some supporting circuitry to get the thing to work as sustainers rather than just pickups. i've found a rough diagram for a basic floyd rose sustainer pickup circuit which might serve as a starting point.

i've always stuck with pretty basic guitar electrics, never even had active pickups, so wondered if anyone here would have some knowledge of these?

basically, do you think it's a sustainer? are they worth the bother or are they just gimmicks? and is the supporting circuitry for the floyd rose and the schaller sustainer interchangeable (a pickup being a pickup)?

many thanks if you can cast some light on this one. have had it a while now and always wondered what it actually was.
I think it's from an Aria guitar from the mid to late 80s ... No sustainer ....just a regular pick up.
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mods: joyo voodoo octave cap rotation, dan echo r10 mod, pb&j r10 mod, behringer vintage phaser true bypass mod, behringer sf300 superfuzz diode switch (germanium-silicon).
vero layouts: earth sound research graphic fuzz (posted here).
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Post by tabbycat »

lead2203 wrote:I think it's from an Aria guitar from the mid to late 80s ... No sustainer ....just a regular pick up.
hey lead2203, i followed your lead and hit google and i think this may be the one you were hinting at
http://www.myrareguitars.com/vintage-19 ... ric-guitar
but on closely inspecting the pups on other sites they seem to have a square edge to the magnets not rounded, and they have no brass enclosure either, only a brass bassplate.

but... by a freaky coincidence following other google images and links related to the ria, and blade pups, i think i've cracked it. about halfway down this page: http://www.jcfonline.com/threads/127371 ... Paul/page3

Image

Image

have never really heard of jaydee, though i don't move in metal circles.

so i think that might be a result?
"be a good animal, true to your instincts" (d.h. lawrence).
"there is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion" (francis bacon).
"ni dieu ni maître" (anarchist slogan).
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