franken guitar, Ctrl-x & Fernandes Sustainer

[Hackettier]

Hello everyone, Ive just purchased both a Fernandes Sustainer FSK101 (the cheaper one) and a T-Bridge+Ctrl-X. I have a Les Paul type guitar (four knobs, two hums, three way switch, etc)
Im installing both systems So I can play Horizons and Darktown without switching guitars (Im a Steve Hackett fan).

I asked first to install the sustainer (the work is all done by a luthier), It worked. Then we disconected the four cables from the Stereo Jack: one hot output, one battery´s black wire, and two grounds (one for the pickups and one from the sustainer system). Both Grounds were solded together in the ground part of the Stereo Jack, the Hot output was solded in one of the "pins" on the Stereo Jack and the Battery black wire was solded to the second pin on the Stereo Jack (so when you conected the guitar cable the system turned on).

Im no electrisist but I figured something out.

The only part of the Baggs system that conects to the magnetics is the micro toggle switch´s white cable.
There was only one hot output from the sustainer/magnetic system.
I conected the white cable from the micro toggle to the hot output from the sustainer
The other three wires (the 2 grounds and the Battery black cable) were left there "floating" unconected.

When I went to recover my guitar from the workshop two things happened.
1) the piezo sounded beutifull (I played the first chords of "And You and I" from Yes and sounded very good)
2) the sustainer didnt work (as expected)

Those 3 wires (2 grounds and Battery Black wire), I dont know were to conect them.

Here is the manual of the sustainer

http://fernandesguitars.com/support/downloads/doc_view/1-fsk-101-installation-manual.raw?tmpl=component

Here is how it Works

http://fernandesguitars.com/sustainer/sustainer.html

PD: I have two batteries in the guitar, one feeding the sustainer and the other conected to the CTRL-X

[Justin Rucker]

Hi Hackettier,

I have one question for you. You mentioned the piezo pickups worked great and that the sustainer did not work. Were you able to get any signal from the magnetic pickups in this configuration?

[Hackettier]

The magnetics did sound, I manage to conect the grounds to the silver plate in the side of the 9 pin output jack. The bridge pick up worked fine

The neck pick up (the sustainer driver works as a active neck pick up when the sustainer is off) did not sound. THe sustainer black battery wire ussualy conects to the second pin on a stereo jack so the system turns on whenever the guitar is pluged in. As th control x works with a strange jack I dont know where to sold the black battery wire. And if that wire is not conected then there is not energy flowing on the Sustainer system or the neck pick up

[Justin Rucker]

Hi Hackettier,

I apologize for the late reply to your question.

If those three wires are left unconnected, the Sustainer will not turn on. In order for the Sustainer preamp to work, the black wires must be connected to ground. It might be a good idea to connect all three wires (two black and battery) to the ground of the Control-X. Also, I would connect the positive battery wire of the Sustainer to the positive battery wire of the Control-X. There are two benefits to wiring it this way:

(1) You only need one battery in your guitar, though the battery life will be significantly lower than running only one preamp.
(2) This is a simple solution to switching the preamp on and off. When the Control-X turns on, the Sustainer will turn on. When the Control-X turns off, the sustainer will be off.

Let me know if this works

[Hackettier]

Im going to conect the battery wires from the sustainer to the control-x as you say, the other ground wires to the ground in the jack (pin number 2 I guess?) and then run everything with a tester.

Im doing it with professional help (im a mess with electronics) so It will be all ready by friday. I will post here if all is Ok, there should be no problem.

[Justin Rucker]

Both pin 2 and pin 9 are ground points on the output jack. Good Luck.