"wish I could drive my 600 with the sustainer and get all the vax models and the infinite sustain/feedback."

Apologies, I wasn't that clear in my original post - that what the one I've designed does (it is bespoke/custom made *for* the Variax). It uses the Variax's standard bridge piezos to feed a sustainer coil/cct I've put together.

As such, it just sustains the Variax preset sounds - infinitely (it generates no sounds of its own). Therefore if you like your Variax 'Sitar' sustained forever...then so be it!

The sustainer is only 5mm tall & is surface mount (therefore no routing of your Vax necessary)

The switches are 'touch' & require no drilling of your Variax's body.

Any other questions...fire away!

>> I don't like the new line they all have traditional pickups and they will have suck sustain.

Sounds like they could do with a sustainer ;-)

There are couple of reasons the control unit needs to go under the strings near the bridge (which I'll not go into right now) - that said it should be do-able to have your gk3 between the control unit & the bridge (I think the Gk3 pickup is only about 7-8mm wide ...right?)

Re the price...well, i'm not gonna kid you - these will take me a long time to make  (& there's no economies of chinese scale at work here -  it's just 'lil ole me grafting away to make all the somewhat labour intensive niche components needed to put one of these together)....these really will be handmade in the UK - & by me! To buy a bog std guitar sustainer here in the UK costs about £150-£200 + shipping .....& even though what I'm making is very niche, I don't expect anyone to sell a kidney ...so my selling price will be in that ballpark (at the lower end of that bracket to reward early buyers who place their confidence with me - but seriously at that lower end price level there'd probably be more money in me flipping burgers, hence I'll need to increment the price once I've got some favourable vibe going down!).

Shipping to Belgium will be no problem.

there is no actual waiting list because I'm not fully geared up to roll these out yet (but believe me each night I'm working feverishly on this aspect). - i wouldn't dream of setting up a waiting list until I'm 100% confident I can deliver on buyers' expectations.

when it's ready, I'll post up a video so you can see upfront what you can expect (both aesthetically, functionality & performance wise) ....I think it's a great device, but have no idea whether it'll be popular amongst the Variax community - I hope so (but the lack of posting activity on this thread suggests not!)

Update? Lol, Only that I haven't lost the thread of the plot - just a case of modern life getting in the way! (like I say, this isn't my day job!)

I was bit naughty & set off down some self intrigued sustainer 'what if' lines of sustainer exploration (all very interesting/exciting ...but will probably hold back on those developments for now).

I'm parking those lines of exploration down & coming back to the bread & butter offering!

To prove I'm not just a wind up merchant (& have the goods in the pipeline!), here's me dabbling tonight (warning very rough and ready! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0iyIV-nWSk      (note: just a proto design still, the end result won't look anything lioke you might see in it)

The first part of the video, was just to illustrate how strong the sustain really is - no plucking required...the second part of the video - whilst it comes across as unstructured 'noise (it is - becuase I was randomly hitting notes/strings!) '...what you actually see (to my knowledge) ...is unique, in that a sustainer will not normally allow tapped harmonics to ring out & sustain (the dominant fundamental or harmonics will quickly overcome any tapped harmoni)c. Well, I've hit upon a way that will allow a guitarist to tap a harmonic & it'll hang in there...this is pretty cool, because wrt  'harmonic modes' on  sustainers - they default to a harmonic of their own, makes you a bystander vs a participant!

but anyway...back on topic....truthfully, I'm a little overwhelmed with proper (!) work right now - & I'm travelling abroad for the whole of December, so it's not likely to be before that trip....not immediately after (back early Jan). I'm loathe to give any estimates, becuase I know to my cost how much of let down when the dates aren't hit...but rest assured I've not gone off the boil on this!

>>Yes, I could be interested.  Any updates on hardware and price?

Hiya.

Here's what I said in my last update...

" I'm a little overwhelmed with proper (!) work right now - & I'm travelling abroad for the whole of December, so it's not likely to be before that trip....not immediately after (back early Jan). I'm loathe to give any estimates, because I know to my cost how much of let down when the dates aren't hit...but rest assured I've not gone off the boil on this! "

I've bolded the bit that's most prevelant right now - ie about to travel abroad for a month! (& nothing else has changed from that above paragraph)

One other issue-ette that's surfaced since posting, is that one major component I use in my associated circuit is in very short supply - & it's not being restocked anywhere until January (it seems the IC manafacturer - Microchip - failed to gauge demand for their new line of products!). So I'm hoping to secure some in mid January, which  ties in nicely with my return from abroad.

Re price....well, here's the predicament.

Firstly, these take a whole heap of time to make ...read majorly 'labour intensive'! I'm not about to gear up & lock into economies of scale until I have a better feel for the demand...so the first few will be sold handmade (by yours truly!)...& as such the aesthetics/ finish won't be what you'd get if mass producing (but there again it won't be awful!)....it'll perform great though!

So for the early adopters, I propose a trade - the upside is that you get a unique Variax sustainer for a price that nowhere near reflects the amount of time I spend making them (& may be one of just a few ever made - a piece of history, lol), but the 'finishing' will be be average/ok ...the upside for me, is that can test the market (& placate my wife with the fruits of my toil, she hasn't seen much of her hubby in the evenings of late!)

The price for early adopters would be somewhere in or around £140 .....not sure how this hangs with prospective customers, but the major win here is that you'll be able to fit my sustainer yourself...I reckon it should only takes 5-10 mins...no routing or complicated switching involved  (whereas normally with sustainers, you have to pay a guitar tech for a day to fit!)...so a major cost saving there.

Did I mention this thing will blow your mind? ;-)