The Sustainer system on a lap steel?

Steinar Gregertsen · From: Arendal, Norway, R.I.P.

Lately I've been fooling around with the idea of having the Fernandes Sustainer system installed on a lap steel,- anyone ever tried it?

In case you don't know how it works, you can say it basically works as an Ebow, only much more flexible. So you can play just like you're used to and pick strings freely. For more technical details go here: http://www.fernandesguitars.com/sustainer/

I have had one guitar with the sustainer, and when I used a bottleneck it gave me some incredible possibilities to play very violin and cello sounding melody lines. I can only imagine what it would sound like on a lap steel......
Only dissapointment was that it is not able to sustain chords, it will gradually focus in on the most dominant tone and sustain it while the rest of the chord fades.

Is this only a wet dream of mine or what do you think?

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"I don't play fast. I'm from Norway."

Russ Young · From: Seattle, Washington, USA

Funny you should mention "violin sounding" melody lines, Steinar.

Thanks to the other thread that's going about Duane Allman's slide playing, I've been listening to "Live at Fillmore East" for the last couple of days. As remarkable as the slide work is on "Statesboro Blues" and "Done Somebody Wrong," I'm really struck by the intro to "Elizabeth Reed" ... which may actually be Dickey Betts on slide (?)

It sounds amazingly like an electric violin to me -- what would it take to coax that sound out of a lap steel? (My 13-year-old guitar-playing son would answer "practice," but I was looking for a bit more detail.)

Steinar Gregertsen · From: Arendal, Norway, R.I.P.

I have to embarass myself and admit that I don't have that recording.....

But my guess would be that he's using an Ebow which was pretty "hot" at that time.
The Ebow/slide solo I know of that is most commonly known is probably the one in Nazareth's "Love Hurts" (

)

The drawback of using the Ebow is that you hold it with your picking hand and balance it over the string you want to sustain, so you're very "crippled" in a way.
The sustainer is a pickup located at the end of the fretboard (usually replaces the ordinary neck pickup on a guitar) so you don't have to make compromises to your playing.

I guess you could find a cheap Ebow at Ebay if you want to give it a try.

[This message was edited by Steinar Gregertsen on 09 March 2003 at 09:37 AM.]

Mike D · From: Phx, Az

Re: the 'Fillmore' comments. I've seen them several times in concert and have a concert video and I'm pretty sure that Betts is just doing swells with the volume knob.
He turned out to be a great slide player in his own right (check out the work on 'Eat A Peach') but to the best of my knowledge never played slide live or on record till after Duane was gone.

Paul Osbty · From: Seattle, Washington, USA

I haven't tried this, but I am aware of the Sustainer. I thought you could also determine what harmonic is sustained. The 5th or an octave of the dominant, I think. I thought I recall the octave was NOT possible. Is this true?

As for the violin sound, I can do this somewhat with just setting up my (Fender) steel, like a typical guitarist would, with a little overdrive/distortion. A little experimentation will give you that rosined bow 'edge'.

Steinar Gregertsen · From: Arendal, Norway, R.I.P.

This is what they say on their website:

"Standard Mode: In the Standard mode the Fernandes Sustainer will continuously vibrate the note.
Harmonic Mode: In the Harmonic mode the Fernandes Sustainer will create string vibration similar to the vibration that occurs when sound waves hit the strings at extreme volumes, generating the 5th harmonic of the note being played.
Mix Mode: Only available on certain models, the Mix mode is a blend of Standard and Harmonic sustain."

I remember getting some very nice harmonic feedbacks, even without distortion, through my POD going directly to the board.
Unfortunately I didn't like the guitar much so I sold it, but the Sustainer idea have "sustained" though.......

I did mention it to Adrian Chandler (they've just shipped a RH2 to me) and I think I will push them a little more to get them to make me one. I'll have to sacrifice some of the fretboard (above the 24. fret) to make room for the extra pickup, but I can live with that.

Zayit · From: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Mike, Russ- Regarding Elizabeth Reed:

Funny you mention that tune. I've been playing that alot recently. Dicky is probably playing either a Les Paul or ES-335 equiped with early humbuckers (PAF?) through a Marshall stack. So he gets tons of sustain & a bit more distortion than most of us are comfortable with. He uses the volume control to reduce his pick attack to near zero.

I've been able to emulate his sound playing my wood-bodied 'Rick' through a Peavey Classic 30 on the 'dirty' channel with the O/D turned almost all the way up. I use my volume pedal to reduce attack to near zero. Zero attack plus maximum sustain gives a sound like a 'bowed' instrument. I've heard Ellen McIlwaine get a similar sound with an "E-bow".

That beautiful, jazzy intro is basically just variations on an Em scale played over the progression Em7, Am7, Em7, Bm7. Typical of Dicky's playing: simple, almost mathematical, yet sublime.

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