D. Gibbs & I.M. Shaw, Guitar Sustain Unit, Practical Electronics, October 1977 🇬🇧

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modman
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Post by modman »

Full article in PDF:
Practical-Electronics-1977-10 Sustain.pdf
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Post by mictester »

That's a really good sustainer. The transistors in the audio path need to be low noise ones, but the ZTX384W is made of unobtainium these days. I have built a variation of this circuit using BC109C which doesn't hiss, and I used the 2N3904 / 3906 for the LED driver. It can easily be built on Veroboard, and like my Really Cheap Compressor, it needs to be in a light-tight box. Some players prefer this design because of its somewhat unusual sustain characteristic. It does the "duck and swell" thing really well if you have a high output guitar.
"Why is it humming?" "Because it doesn't know the words!"

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Post by BMS1971 »

mictester wrote: 07 Jul 2021, 22:08 That's a really good sustainer. The transistors in the audio path need to be low noise ones, but the ZTX384W is made of unobtainium these days. I have built a variation of this circuit using BC109C which doesn't hiss, and I used the 2N3904 / 3906 for the LED driver. It can easily be built on Veroboard, and like my Really Cheap Compressor, it needs to be in a light-tight box. Some players prefer this design because of its somewhat unusual sustain characteristic. It does the "duck and swell" thing really well if you have a high output guitar.
What did you used to replace TR4? 2N3906 as well? I was considering BC214B...

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mictester
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Post by mictester »

TR4 needs to be low noise too, so the one I tried used a BC179C. If you look carefully at the circuit, it's not too far removed from the old "Roland" Sustain from the 1970s, or even the Colorsound "Supasustain", but it only needs 9V.
"Why is it humming?" "Because it doesn't know the words!"

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