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D. Gibbs & I.M. Shaw, Guitar Sustain Unit, Practical Electronics, October 1977 🇬🇧
Posted: 07 Jul 2021, 10:39
by modman
Re: D. Gibbs & I.M. Shaw, Guitar Sustain Unit, Practical Electronics, October 1977 🇬🇧
Posted: 07 Jul 2021, 22:08
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.
Re: D. Gibbs & I.M. Shaw, Guitar Sustain Unit, Practical Electronics, October 1977 🇬🇧
Posted: 02 Oct 2022, 09:41
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...
Re: D. Gibbs & I.M. Shaw, Guitar Sustain Unit, Practical Electronics, October 1977 🇬🇧
Posted: 02 Oct 2022, 22:57
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.
