My Beast!

[tigermoth]

Well, I just felt like talking about my guitar because I love it. I have an Ibanez RG470. In itself a lovely guitar, and though for the big spender it's a budget moddle, for the average Joe its a great bit of kit. I love the Ibanez sound, and the trem is kick ayers! But, here's the beauty, (or the barstardisation however you see it) I've had a sustainiac fitted. Yes, I got someone to gouge a hole in it and shove a sustainiac in there. As an aside, if you're thinking of doing this, make doubly or trebly sure you have the best modle of sustainer for your guitar and that you get someone who know how to do it to fit the thing, or else you'll waste an awefull amount of time and money and what idiot would do that? (Erm, me)
But that's by the by. So what I have is the awesome action and sound of the bridge and middle Ibanez pickups, and the neck pickup and hugeness of the Sustainiac. 
Now if you know anything about the sustainiac you'll probably be thinking "Well we already know its awesome Tigermoth! We need look no further than Mr Hackett and Phill Colin for evidence of that!". If you don't know about it however, I can tell you that it basically will sustain a note in theory for as long as you like or until the battery runs out, or until your band mates bend your guitar around your neck. My particular modle has three modes, fundamental (Route note sustain), Harmonic (Screamy harmonic sustain) and a blend of the two.
As a guitarist I would describe myself as fair to middling depending how I feel on the night and how often I've practiced. I rely fairly heavily on trem which all my mates tell me is perhaps not the best thing, and I frequently try to shred and then wish I hadn't. However, with the sustainiac on board, I can't help but feel like a king among men. I can do lovely slow passages letting the notes linger on whith just a little trem for vibrato. And if I'm shredding and I get tired or don't know what to do next I can do lovely reliably screaming dive bombs or just jiggle the trem arm for that bouncy vib thing that Steve vai does. Well, if you're stil reading, heres a video of my beast:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdPDPYa-fPA
  I'd call this amiddling day. I'd even left my wammy bar at home. What a numb scull! But here you can hear just how easy it is to sustain. No amplification required. You can even do it on a clean setting. However, it is a beast, and requires taiming. As I accidentally demonstrate  its easy to let the wrong string sustain. But with practice and mastery of the controls, you can get great results. The purists out there may dislike this in the same way they dislike the Variax (Which I also have one of) but for me its a huge plus. Unlike the EBow, you have the freedom of both hands. Unlike the ebow of course, you have to have it fitted to one guitar alone, and this is more costly, but if you really want it, it's worth it.
I mentioned Variax. Now what i've really like is a guitar with a floid rose trem, Variax technology, and sustainiac. That would be my dream. But until Mr Belew decides to have some more made and I win the lottery and buy one I guess i'll have to dream. Or maybe there's a guitar wizard out there who can custom make one? Who knows.
Well, hope you enjoy the vid, and if anyone has Sustainiac stories, please do post. Cheers, and good day all.

[Rook]

Budget around £300. This be what ya need: http://www.guitarworld.com/boss-introduces-gp-10-guitar-processor-instrument-modeling-instant-altered-tunings-multi-fx-and-more

Should bolt right on to your already sustainer equipped floydrosian Ibanez, giving you instrument modelling, alternate tunings and even guitar to midi(!)

I have not used one myself, but that's how I read it anyway...

[tigermoth]

Interesting Mr Bond. I'll have a look. Cheers

[D S]

I've been using the GP-10's sort of big brother, the Roland GR-55, for a couple of years now and it's just great.  I'm sure the GP-10 would be a good choice.
Great guitaring Pete and lovely tone - Mr Moore himself would have been impressed.    Interesting that you just use your fingers and not a plectrum and yet somehow still get that attack and pinched harmonics that you normally only get playing that way.
I also love my Ibanez guitars but as I'm not brave enough to give them 'open heart surgery' to install a Sustainiac, I just use an eBow!  Mind you, I've long seen the benefits for the players who do use them (Steves Hackett & Vai in particular) and if I found a good guitar with one installed as stock, I may be tempted... 

[tigermoth]

Thanks D S. The Peddle certainly sounds like it would do the job, although I'd have to see if there's room on my guitar to attach the GK pick up as the guitar modling doesn't work without it and that would be a big part of it for me. I do wonder, given the modling technology, whether they could perfect a sustainiac modler then it wouldn't matter what guitar I had. Thanks for your comments. I use a finger pick for acoustic playing, but I've hardly ever used one for electric. Been playing now for about 15 years, so I guess I've found a way round pinching and so on, but I think I generally have to have brighter sounding presets than most to compensate. At the minute I use the Bos ME70, which I don't think is the best out there by any means, but it is remarkably user friendly what with my blindness, and I find it quite easy to adjust parameters and save presets. I guess the GP10 is a rather different affair, and that's something I'd have to think about. I've got friends who can halp me make a bunch of presets, but if I want to make a new one at a later stage I'd probably struggle alone. But that's not the be all and  end all. What ever I decide to do I think it will have to wait a little while as with the GK pickup it comes to a pretty penny and I may have to save.

[Mikey]

Well, if you're stil reading, heres a video of my beast:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdPDPYa-fPA
 
Well, hope you enjoy the vid, and if anyone has Sustainiac stories, please do post. Cheers, and good day all.

Still reading and definitely enjoying, excellent Mr Moore, er Jones 

[tigermoth]

"excellent Mr Moore, er Jones"
Thank you my dear chap, all though I'm wondering if Mr Moore would have gone near a sustainiac, not to mention a bolt on necked Ibanez! Perish the thought. Haha

[Rook]

Are you kidding? He would have had ALL the gadgets!

[gr8gonzo]

Nice vid. I remember that GM song very well. I enjoy the pickless approach on it. Not something you see often. Alan Morse comes to mind.

[Rook]

Are you kidding? He would have had ALL the gadgets!

To clarify; the Mr Moore with all the gadgets is of the Roger variety, not the Gary.

[tigermoth]

hahahaha! How silly of me. I laughed so much I nearly had a connery!

[rogerg]

heh

[RobRideout]

Really enjoyed that! Sorry to be the one that picks this up, I imagine you've already explained this to everyone else, but why the lap guitar technique?

The switching of sounds and things like that was extremely nice. It's made me want to get one...

[tigermoth]

"The switching of sounds and things like that was extremely nice. It's made me want to get one" Thanks that's good to hear. To be honest I did that vid over a year ago when I hadn't had the guitar for that long and I'm thinking I should do another vid now I'm more used to it. Then again, there's that many awesome sustainer vids, not least from Mr Hackett. As for the playing technique, I don't really know, other than the fact that I tried for years to play the conventional way and barely managed to play a chord. I'm a pianist first, and maybe my fingers just weren't meant to go that way round. I realised I could play bass flat on my lap back in 98, and the guitar followed a couple of years later. Once I discovered I could bar chords withmy little finger, the rest came quite quickly and I've played with that technique ever since. However, 15 or so years later, barring chords for too long can stil make my little finger hurt like hell. But that's what capos were invented for.

[RacingHippo]

Admit it - you're Jeff Healey reincarnated!