[JessThrasher]

I just got a new sustain pedal for playing the Halo 2 theme since I don't have a built in sustainiac. It seems to kill sustain instead of cause it. I heard that sustainers can kill sustain if not set properly or something?

[fly135]

What kind of pedal did you get? I find that most distortion pedals sustain a bunch when you crank the gain all the way up. My Korg AX3G (on certain settings), Big Muff, and DOD FX55 will sustain for a long time. Stand in front of the amp and it never stops.

The down side with tons of gain is you need to develop a lot of control over the strings to prevent extraneous noises.

[JessThrasher]

BOSS Compression Sustainer.

[fly135]

I have a cheap Behringer compressor and I don't really get sustain out of it like I do a distortion pedal. It's seems to provide better sustain when paired up with a OD pedal like my Bad Monkey. In theory it's supposed to provide sustain by lowing the high peaks in the signal after you pluck a note, therefore allowing you to crank up the volume. And then increasing gain as the signal from the pups die out. Which is cool when you want a clean tone. But it seems like a distortion pedal is better for sustain otherwise.

[__tsidewinder__]

I'd love to get a big muff. Anyone have any experiances with them?

[fly135]

I have a Russian Big Muff. You can hear it here...

Easy fun solo - Genesis

[fly135]

Try this... put your compressor in front of a distortion pedal. Turn the gain/drive on the distortion pedal all the way up. You should get tons of sustain.

[Andy S]

Originally Posted by hermanli_ibanezshredder

BOSS Compression Sustainer.

That's not a distortion device, kiddo. That is primarily a compressor.

From the Boss web page, "The CS-3 compresses high-input signals while boosting low-input signals, giving you smooth sustain without degrading the quality of the original sound"

What it does is keep really hot signals down to a specific point, then as it drops on it's own, it boosts the signal a bit. This way, instead of a really hot signal that rings loud & clear , then fades out quickly, it keeps it at one level, then as it drops, it pushes it back up, giving the image of a really long sustain. It is good if you guitar doesn't sustain too well or you are playing at a somewhat lower volume and want to enhance the sustain on your guitar.

So, if you are accustomed to a really sweet, loud distorted tone coming out of your amp, at a pretty hot level, then you plug this in the signal path, yeh, it will clamp down on the volume. And how much depends on how you have it set.

If this was something you just purchased new, and you don't like it, as long as it's in the original box and you have the receipt, etc etc, you can probably take it back for an exchange.

GO to the BOSSUS.COM web site. They have a cool feature that allows you to listen to the effects for each unit. That way you can hear the subtle way the compressor works, as well as hear the distortion units.

You would probably like the DS-2 Turbo Distortion or the MT-2 Metal Zone. Try either of those and you will get some Looong distorted sustained notes!!

Just my opinion, your mileage may vary.