Fender Stratocaster PCB Switching Mod

dsgb

Although this is a finished project, I am posting it here because it is a modification project rather than a finished full guitar build. It's another of my Brian May projects, but I thought that the pushbutton PCB switching modification and some of the other details might be of interest to some of you. The full details are on the projects section of my website if you want to check it out:

https://dsgb.net/projects/maycaster/

In 2018 I converted my 2012 Fender American Standard Stratocaster to Brian May electronics with three Adeson Tri-Sonic pickups and a custom PCB pushbutton electronics module based on the Guyton RS Transporter unit by Nigel Knight of Knight Audio Technologies (KAT). The aim was to only carry out reversible modifications (i.e. no routing or other physical changes and retain the appearance of the Strat as far as possible). I designed and CNC cut the replacement pearloid pickguard and upgraded the tuners to Fender-branded Schaller locking tuners to bring the instrument closer to the specification of a Fender Deluxe Stratocaster.

The motivations for this project were twofold: I did not have a Brian May specification guitar at the time of the conversion and my Brian May Red Special build project was taking too long to complete. It started off as a more straightforward plan of just using six Switchcraft DPDT parallel slide switches.

Doug

dsgb

I recently returned the Strat to normal spec using some single coils custom wound to 1962 Fender spec by Ade Turner of U.K. pickup maker Adeson. I also made a speeded up video of the pickguard assembly and wiring process. This was my first attempt at wiring a standard Fender pickguard. Details on my website:

https://dsgb.net/2021/01/04/stratwiring/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvf6eBdBohA

Doug

Mike58

Hi Doug
nice work but the grounding on the back of the pots is hard work to look neat.
I recently wired my L/H Strat using a shield plate and tri-star earth lugs under the 5-way switch bolts. So .. not pot case soldering reqd!! 

Looks neat and a small spade connector will be added to trem and o/p grounds for easy scratch plate removal. 

Cap value undecided yet so not wired in.( pic3)

So bare bones , see the small lugs under the 5-way

2 remaining earth lugs for shared trem and o/p and capacitor

Neat look ( even if I say so myself ) ... I hate soldering pot cases and I makes changing pots so easy.

dsgb

Hi Mike.

I completely agree with you on the back-of-pot soldering. I have never got this to work and look neat. I rough up the metal body with abrasive paper (taking care not to contaminate any electronics with the dust) and then degrease it with isopropyl alcohol; I even added extra flux. From previous struggles, I learned that the mass of metal simply conducts away the heat from a small soldering iron tip too readily to make it work. I use high lead content, low m.p. solder and 250 degC iron temperature but this almost certainly isn't sufficient. I don't want to use high iron temperatures because I am concerned about degrading the track.

I'm an amateur and this was a relatively quick assembly job to tide me over until I get an EMG Dave Gilmour loaded pickguard in early February. I got these hand made Adeson pickups in a small job lot from a mate who tests out pickups for Ade Turner and I wanted to use them rather than keep them indefinitely for a special project in the future.

I simply followed Seymour Duncan diagrams and pictures of the pre-wired pickguards that Fender themselves supply. It was actually my first attempt at wiring a standard Fender pickguard. For sure, if I was ever doing this for a paying customer, I would research neater ways of doing it like your example. I did wonder if there was some kind of neat little multi-lug plate out there as you have described. Now I know!

Thanks for your comment and pictures. Much appreciated. Please would you post a link where I can see/buy these little multi-lug grounding plates.

Doug

ICBM

The Brian May PCB is a really a very neat, high-quality solution - a good example of where PCBs make things better, not worse. (For worse, see Gibson .)

You need a really big iron to get the soldering on the backs of the pots really neat, so the whole blob of solder is fully liquid at the same time - at least 50W with a big tip, like the Weller solder station ones.

The separate grounding point is a good idea, but only if *all* the grounds go to it - if you connect the ground path via the shielding you're likely to get noise in the long run, even if not the short term - that's a common problem with old Telecasters and Jazz Basses where they use the control plate as the ground connection.

dsgb

ICBM said:

The Brian May PCB is a really a very neat, high-quality solution - a good example of where PCBs make things better, not worse. (For worse, see Gibson .)

You need a really big iron to get the soldering on the backs of the pots really neat, so the whole blob of solder is fully liquid at the same time - at least 50W with a big tip, like the Weller solder station ones.

The separate grounding point is a good idea, but only if *all* the grounds go to it - if you connect the ground path via the shielding you're likely to get noise in the long run, even if not the short term - that's a common problem with old Telecasters and Jazz Basses where they use the control plate as the ground connection.

I bought a used Weller WD-1 a few years ago on recommendation from Nigel Knight. All professional electronics assemblers seem to use them. It improved my fairly amateurish soldering technique noticeably so it was worth it. The latest ones seem to be 95 W. I imagine mine is the same but I'd have to check.

Doug

Mike58

ICBM, I bow to your extensive knowledge. Initially I was just going to use a small metal plate for pots and switch but I had an older full shield and as my gigging days are over , eventual noise won’t be a problem , cheers John.
dsgb I got these on eBay but they have proven unobtainium to source, I did find an outlet in Germany but min buy was 1000 !!
if you find them, keep in touch and let me know as I only have a few left.
cheers
Mike

ICBM

Mike58 said:

ICBM, I bow to your extensive knowledge. Initially I was just going to use a small metal plate for pots and switch but I had an older full shield and as my gigging days are over , eventual noise won’t be a problem , cheers John.

Actually, you can fix the potential problem by simply soldering a short wire from one of the ground stars to the other. It's only that corrosion can get in between any mechanical joint and cause a tiny bit of resistance, which produces noise.

Mike58

Again, expert advice received gratefully .

dsgb

Bumping to add a short (1m 51s) YouTube video illustrating some parts of this project. A friend of mine, Shawn Leaver, plays an excerpt of Brighton Rock through his Dave Petersen modified Vox AC30 and a Cornish TB-83 style treble booster. This is a relatively pure Brian May signal chain and even though he's playing in his small spare room after a few beers and I recorded it on an iPhone 7, I think that it represents the Brian May tone rather well.

The video has some still images and clips from the pickguard CNC cutting, etc.



Doug

Funkfingers

The PCB looks extremely neat. Certainly, less of a ballache than assembling the Guitar Fetish BMRS kits - especially if some ambitious fecker decides to add parallel mode!

In my opinion, if somebody had the patience to add a 4PDT on/on switch and reconfigure the PCB tracks to permit selectable parallel mode, you'd have a winner.

dsgb

Funkfingers said:

The PCB looks extremely neat. Certainly, less of a ballache than assembling the Guitar Fetish BMRS kits - especially if some ambitious fecker decides to add parallel mode!

In my opinion, if somebody had the patience to add a 4PDT on/on switch and reconfigure the PCB tracks to permit selectable parallel mode, you'd have a winner.

Hi Funkfingers.

Interesting that you should mention a selectable parallel mode!

A custom option on the Guyton RS Transporter is a series/parallel toggle switch. Andy has made two with this option that I am aware of, only from his Instagram feed.

https://www.instagram.com/guyton_guitars/

https://www.guytonrstransporter.com/

http://www.guytonguitars.com/rs-transporter.html

Doug