Hard Driver is an on-board electric guitar sustainer. It does not simulate sustain with compression or delay. It drives the strings electromagnetically from inside the instrument, feeding energy back into the steel so a note holds for as long as the player wants it.
Hard Driver co-founder Rick Knotts, playing through the system in a guitar shop at ordinary room volume. The note holds for as long as he wants it — no amplifier feedback, no stage volume, nothing on the floor.
There is no edit and no overdub in this clip. What you hear is the driver doing the work.
A note holds indefinitely rather than decaying, at any volume. No amplifier feedback loop and no stage volume required to get there.
The driver and its electronics live inside the instrument. Nothing on the floor, nothing in the signal chain between the guitar and the amplifier.
Player-controlled intensity, with the sustained note able to bloom into upper harmonics rather than sitting on the fundamental.
Hard Driver was developed by working musicians who built, measured and revised the system themselves. These are development instruments from the bench, not product photography.
Installation quality directly affects how the system performs, so Hard Driver is fitted by trained partners: shops already trusted with complex electronics, routing, battery boxes and custom wiring.
Installation partners are supported with full documentation — diagrams, steps and a schematic — and distributor pricing on units. Program details are provided directly to shops we are in conversation with.
Hard Driver has shipped inside production signature instruments for decades. Manufacturers evaluating the system for a production run should contact us directly.
Detailed electrical and mechanical specifications, routing templates and schematics are provided to installers, luthiers and manufacturing partners on request. Tell us what you are building and we will send the right documentation.
