Rockman Sustainor by SR&D

I was a gear freak who was always chasing the perfect guitar tone. I would spend hours trying to mic up different amps, cabinets. I realized there were just too many variables recording guitar in the traditional manner.

I had become interested in the Hughes & Ketner Redbox. This was a device that was basically a cabinet simulator that was supposed to give the tone of a well mic'd cabinet so you could record direct.

One day I was in the music store and somebody was trying out the sustainor. I was very impressed by the tone. By this time the popularity of the rockman gear was in decline. Everybody was rack happy. I then started to read up on the sustainor. In the manual the description of the "phase notcher" caughy my eye. The phase notcher is a special EQ used to mimic the phase cancellation patterns of a miked cabinet.

So I found a used unit for about $40. I was floored when I plugged it in to my recording equipment. It sounded great and was so simple to use.

Another great feature of the unit is the auto-clean function. You can control the amount of distortion by simply adjusting the guitar volume. You are able to do something similar with a traditional tube amp. However with a normal amp the volume changes as you roll of the guitar volume and it does't always work that great over a wide range of distorion settings.

I used to run the rockman eq after the sustainor to boost the lows and roll off the highs.

I since have added the Behringer V-amp for my direct recording needs.

Video Of The Sustainor In Action