Re: Sustainiac and Fathead

["Fluke" <fluke@gotadsl.co.uk>]

Brooks is evasive about the technology because he had the actual circuit
engineering done by a Mr Kam Dulay, based in the West Midlands of the 
United
Kingdoim. I worked with Kam on some unrelated electronics for several 
years.

www.sutainiac.com has about the best and most comprehensive write up of the
history of the Brooks, Fernandez and sustainic systems I know of.

Nik

--------- Original Message --------
From: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
To: "Richard Sales" <richard@glasswing.com>,
"Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com" <Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com>
Subject: Re: Sustainiac and Fathead
Date: 21/04/06 15:48




I spoke with Michael Brooks a L-O-N-G time ago. He was deliberately unclear
about the Infinite Sustain thing, because 1) there was some issue of
patent/exclusivity not yet resolved and 2) it's a friggin' dangerous rig,
apparently runnung 120 volts right into your guitar. Kinda like running
around with a toaster on your belly. I believe in terms of tone and
response, the Sustainiac will do the same thing without making you feel 
like
you're waiting on a phone call from the governor to play the second set.

My experience with both the Fathead and some homemade variations was this:
it adds a TASTE more sustain, but barely tames the sometimes wild resonant
frequencies that some (usually bigger) headstocks can gobble up. I remember
working on a Fender 5-string bass with n oversized head that made the high 
D
(G string, 7th fret) disappear like a Houdini trick. The only amount of
mass/stiffness that would counteract it was a C-clamp - about five pounds!
If you had an axe that you simply couldn't live without that had this kind
of problem, you might consider some graphite rods in the headstock for
stiffness sans weight.

BTW, Aspen and Associates, makers of the fathead, is Aspen Pittman of 
Groove
Tubes fame. A good man with golden ears who will talk YOUR ears right off
your head.

Douglas Baldwin, coyote-at-large
coyotelk@optonline.net

"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic
hallway where pimps and thieves run free and good men die like dogs. 
There's
also a negative side."
--- Hunter S. Thompson

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