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July 4, 2009 - 00:45
I'm pretty sure most of you are
here because of your interest in Fender® Stratocaster® guitars and also in reference to the Gilmour Black
Strat®. Well, I have something new in store for you. But
I'll get to that in a moment... Most guitarists are
probably already familiar with Gilmour's Black
Strat® and possibly the little recessed mini-toggle
switch pickup selection modification which is recessed
into his pickguard which allows him to select the neck
pickup by simply throwing this switch, so in effect he
can have a total of 7 pickup selections. With this
modification in addition to the typical standard 5
pickup selections you can have two more selections. One
of these additional pickup selections is to have the
bridge and neck pickup selected together, like a
Telecaster, or you can have all three pickups selected
together. It's not a unique or unheard of Strat® modification, it's one that has been around for many
years, but I believe the intrigue behind this particular
modification is how the physical switching mounting is
achieved. Normally when you mount a mini toggle switch
there is a hole that is drilled in the material that it
is to be mounted (in this case the pickguard) in order
for the cylindrical threaded portion of the toggle
switch to protrude through then a flat washer goes on
the top side along with a hex nut to fasten it into
place. But in effect, with the standard mounting of a
toggle switch you end up with a toggle switch that protrudes at least 1/2" above
the pickguard surface. You then have an ugly chrome
flat washer along with the chrome hex nut to secure it
in place all on the top side of the pickguard. So, with
this typical mounting of this switch which is used to
perform a pickup selection modification it is very easy
to bump this switch into the activated or deactivated
position without your knowledge simply by playing
your guitar and accidentally bumping into it with your
knuckle or fingers while strumming away.... Sure you
could use a push/push or push/pull pot for this same
modification and eliminate that problem but were talking
about aesthetics, creativity and uniqueness in the way a
modification is presented. So, to make a long story
short, as Gilmour and/or as his guitar tech Phil
Taylor have devised a little trick to mount/fasten this
mini-toggle switch on the under side of the pickguard
with a unique bracket and then only have a small slot in
the pickguard for the mini-toggle switch lever to
protrude through to the top side for activation or
deactivation by you, the player. By mounting the
mini-toggle switch as such, below the pickguard, you
lower the profile of the switch by at least half, you
remove the ugly chrome flat washer and the hex nut from
the top side of the pickguard. With the mini-toggle
switch mounted below the pickguard you will now only
have about 1/4" or possibly less of just the toggle
lever protruding above the pickguards surface which in
effect basically eliminates the possibility of
activating or deactivating this switch by a bump of a
knuckle while playing, it's profile is just too low to
accidentally switch on or off. With it mounted
underneath the pickguard this switch is only activated
or deactivated when you want it, not on accident, you
won't bump this one... The small slot that the
mini-toggle switch protrudes through in just wide enough
for the width of the toggle lever and just long enough
to accommodate the amount of throw the toggle switch
exhibits. (0.135" x 0.310").
If you don't already know this, we
have been producing custom Black Strat® kits since March
2009, these products include the basic kit for the
do-it-yourselfer which includes a recessed mini-toggle
switch mounting bracket and a mini-toggle switch so you
can route their own pickguard of choice to accept this
bracket. Or for the less adventurous we have a Black
Strat® pickguard assembly kit which includes everything
except the pickups, knobs and switch tip, the 1 ply
black pickguard is already pre-routed for our recessed
mini-toggle switch mounting bracket and includes a
mini-toggle switch along with all the potentiometers,
tone capacitor, 5-way switch, wire, etc. to assemble
yourself, just add your favorite selection of pickups
and knobs and away you go. Then we offer the complete
fully loaded Black Strat® pickguard assembly where you
choose from a number of pickup selection options for us
to assemble for you. This option is for those that
simply want to drop it in, solder a couple wires in
place and start jammin'. We also manufacture a short 4-1/4" Gilmour style tremolo arm, we make
ours out of 303 precision ground stainless steel for strength
and a fine finish. These arms
are very popular with many guitarists, not just Gilmour
fans...
Ok, now with that out of the way,
we're going to provide you with a few quick links to check
out what we've been talking about above in case you are
unfamiliar with some of the products and it will also
help you visualize the features we have built upon for
this new Fat Strat® project.
Item # 4022, "Custom Black Strat® Style Recessed Mini-Toggle Switch Mounting Bracket and
Switch Kit".
Item # 4031, "Custom Black Strat® Style Pickguard Assembly Kit".
Item # 4035, "Custom Black Strat® Style Fully Loaded Pickguard Assembly".
Item # 4027, "Custom Black Strat® Style Super Short 4-1/4" Stainless Steel Tremolo Arms".
Now back to the Fat Strat® Project.... And slightly away from the Black Strat® Project....
Ok, now that you are up to speed
on what we have done to produce a facsimile of the Black
Strat® pickguard assembly we are taking it one step
further... One might ask, how can you take it further,
the Black Strat® stands by itself.... Yes it is most
certainly does, and it is a most wonderful musical tool
that has been used to create some of the most magical
music of the 20'th century by the hands of a master. But
a tool is exactly what it is, and in the hands of one
that knows how to use his tools effectively, creativity can flow and
wonderful things can come about....
Ok, here we go....
What we have done is to incorporate
the feature or characteristic of the recessed mini-toggle switch and
applied it a bit further. With your Black Strat® the
recessed mini-toggle switch is located in-between the
volume potentiometer and middle pickup tone
potentiometer and half way out in-between the 5-way
switch. Now, we have come up with two recessed
mini-toggle switches on a Fat Strat® pickguard, the upper
most recessed mini-toggle switch (closest to volume
knob) will perform the exact same function as the
Gilmour pickup selection modification and the lower
recessed mini-toggle switch (closest to neck tone knob)
will give you a number of different options that are of
your choosing. The most appropriate switching
modification will be to switch your bridge Humbucker to
activate the two coils in parallel with each other for
that great single coil tone and still retaining hum
canceling. You could also use this switch to split the
two coils of your bridge Humbucker into a single coil
pickup, either the north or south coil, you choose. The
choices of this second or lower recessed mini-toggle
switch are up to you and your creativity...
July 3, 2009
I routed the first pickguard
with the two recessed mini-toggle switches, everything
went according to plan. Tomorrow I plan on constructing
the jig required for drilling the recessed mini-toggle
switch mounting bracket which will now mount two
mini-toggle switches. The tolerances are that much more
tighter than with the single mini-toggle switch so
accurate design and construction are critical.
This project guitar is built with a beautiful Candy Apple Red
2002 '62 re-issue Japanese Strat® body (purchased
used) with a Seymour Duncan
SL59-1b ("Little '59") single coil sized
Humbucker
mounted in the bridge position which will incorporate
the lower recessed mini-toggle switch to switch the
bridge Humbucker from series or parallel between the two
coils for that great single coil tone but with hum
canceling. A Fender® Custom Shop Fat '50 middle pickup
(reverse wound/reverse polarity) will be
mounted in the middle pickup position which will offer
additional hum canceling with the 5-way pickup selection
switch position 2 and 4. A Fender® Custom Shop '69 pickup
will be mounted in the neck position. The upper
mini-toggle switch will perform the typical Gilmour type
modification of activating the neck pickup. The
pickguard will be a '62 black/white/black 3 ply and all
pickups will have black covers. All the electronics will
be top of the line with CTS pots, a CRL 5-way switch and
a 0.022 uF Sprague Orange Drop tone capacitor. The neck
will be a wonderful used but in near mint condition 2005 Fender® USA Deluxe
Rosewood fingerboard with a LSR roller nut and Fender® "F" logo locking tuners. The bridge will be a '57/'62
USA Fender® vintage style.
In the coming days when this
project has been completed I will have more details and
photographs to illustrate this new project inside and
out.
July 4, 2009 - 15:25
I just finished the first
prototype pickguard and recessed mini-toggle switch(s)
mounting bracket assembly a few minutes ago for the
double recessed mini-toggle switch modification. It is a
lot harder to get everything all lined up as opposed to
just the single recessed mini-toggle switch. It takes a
lot longer to produce in making sure everything lines up
perfectly, there is absolutely no room for the smallest
variation in measurement. Every measurement, every hole
and every bend in the bracket has to be perfect or it
just won't work and line up correctly with the two small
slots in the pickguard.
July 4, 2009 - 20:45
I just took a few photographs
of the front and back side of the new double recessed
mini-toggle switch modification pickguard. My prototype
was done with a Fender® 3 ply 11 hole Black/White/Black
'62 pickguard with the typical '62 style 0.012" thick
aluminum shielding plate. (photographs below)
July 11, 2009 - 16:08
I finished assembling and
wiring the pickguard this afternoon and took a couple
photographs of the finished assembly. (photographs
below)
July 18, 2009 - 17:43
I finished assembling the
complete candy apple red custom Fat Strat® this
afternoon. I performed all the setup procedures and gave
it test drive and it was good! Both of the modifications
with the newly designed double recessed mini-toggle
switches worked flawlessly. The upper mini-toggle switch
for the neck pickup selection worked as it always does
by activating the neck pickup and adds it to the
selection position of the 5-way switch. The lower
mini-toggle switch for the SL59-1b mini Humbucker in the
bridge worked great too, with the mini-toggle switch in
the down position both of the coils of the pickup are in
series with each other, which is the normal Humbucker
sound and with the mini-toggle switch in the up position
it switches the wiring of the two coils of the Humbucker
in parallel with each other for that great single coil
sound but with hum canceling.
July 18, 2009 - 21:23
Ok, I braved the heat and
finished the photography this evening, scroll on down
for the newest imagery.
The photographs turned out real
nice, but for some reason they just don't portray the
"candy" appearance of the finish, it almost looks like a
solid red color in the photographs, but it
is definitely a candy apple red finish.
July 19, 2009 - 13:33
Well the entire project took
just about two weeks from the time I got the idea in my
head until the final construction and setup. The project
turned out very nice, I'm quite happy with the overall
appearance, it's vintage tone and how it feels while
playing. The neck is a 2005 vintage but has absolutely
no fret wear at all, so it is basically new. The 2002
vintage body is absolutely wonderful, the finish is
superb with only one very small ding on the back side
near the tremolo cavity cover and I've photographed it
and described it on the very last photograph below. It's
basically a non-issue, it's on the rear, but
none-the-less it is there.
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