VSTK-1 Vintage Stratocaster Kit Please Read All Instructions Before Beginning. Tools you will need: Soldering Iron (35 watt preferably) Solder Wet Sponge Wire Clippers Electric Drill 3/16 Drill Bit 11/64 Drill Bit 3/8 Drill Bit Phillips Screwdriver Pliers Cloth (an old T-shirt will work fine) 1/2 nut driver, socket or wrench Small bowl to hold screws and knobs ATTENTION: At the very least basic soldering skills are needed to install this kit. If you do not have these skills or are not confident enough in your skills to install this kit than please take it to someone who does such as a certified guitar technician. Soldering tips: Remember to clean the tip of your soldering iron before soldering each connection, a dirty or bad solder joint can add excessive noise into your guitar, especially when using distortion. Be sure to apply a small amount of solder to your iron before trying to heat a connection, this will help your iron transfer heat better and the solder will flow faster Removing Current Wiring: Step 1. Place your guitar face up on a firm yet soft surface (a couple of bath towels will do) to keep your guitar from getting scratched. Step 2. With the cloth remove the knobs on the guitar. Work the cloth under knob and then work the knob upwards by lifting one side and then lift the other side. Alternate back and forth until the knob has been removed. (Fig. 1) Step 3. Remove the strings from your guitar. Step 4. With the Phillips screwdriver remove the pick guard and the jack plate from your guitar and place the screws in a small bowl so they will not get lost. As you remove your pick guard you should see a ground wire coming out of the body (Fig.2) and soldered to one of the pots. Disconnect this ground wire. Now remove the jack plate and disconnect the hot and ground wire from the output jack( Fig. 3) and remove the jack from the jack plate and set them aside. Once you have finished removing the pick guard, turn the guitar over and remove the tremolo cover. Now you will see the other end of the ground wire coming through the body of the guitar and it is soldered to the tremolo plate (Fig.2). Unsolder this wire from the tremolo plate and remove the wire from the guitar. Your guitar cavity should now be empty.
Step 5. Unsolder the grounds from your pickups (these should be soldered together and connected to the back of a pot) and the hot leads of your pickups where they connect at the switch Step 6. Remove the nuts from the volume and tone controls, and the screws and tip from the 5 way switch. Now remove the controls from the pick guard. (Fig.4) Modifications before Installation Step 7. You may need to enlarge the holes for your pots to 3/8, to do this you will need a 3/8 drill bit but not the drill. Turn the bit by hand and cut through the pick guard, this will not be hard and should take you a few seconds to get through. Do this for all 3 holes. (Fig.5) If you decide to use a drill be very careful. If the bit grabs too much you could end up cutting a deep gouge in your pick gaurd that will not be covered by the knobs. Step 8. To install the new ground wire you may need to open up the hole going through the body of the guitar that you removed the tremolo ground wire from. Use the Electric drill with the 11/64 drill and drill through the same ground hole from the control cavity to the tremolo cavity on the back. Find the black cloth covered wire in your kit that is not connected to anything and feed it through the hole and solder one end to the tremolo plate. (Fig.6) Step 9. You will probably need to widen the hole for the output wire going from the control cavity to the output jack cavity. Use the 3/16 drill bit to open up this hole. Put the bit into the drill with as much of the bit exposed as possible to give you more room to drill without hitting the body. Be careful of the angle you hold your drill to make sure that the chuck will not hit the finished part of the body and mess it up. (Fig.7) Take your time, if you rush here and mess up your finish you will kick yourself later. Installing Your New Kit: Step 10. Remove the new wire assembly from the assembly plate, use the 1/2 wrench to remove the nuts and washers. Step 11. Install the new kit onto the pick guard, put the nuts and screws on and tighten them down so that the controls hold fast to the pick guard. (Fig. 10) Step 12. Now attach the new jack to your jack plate. Step 13. Take the ground wires from the pickups and make sure there is enough separation from the pickup hot wires so they can reach the back of the volume pot while the hot wires will reach the switch comfortably. Then twist the ground wires together and clip the end so that it is an even thickness all the way to the end. Now take the small piece of heat shrink from your kit and put it on the combined ground wires and make sure that you leave enough ground wire exposed to solder to the back of the volume pot. Now take a lighter, small butane torch or a hair dryer and heat the heat shrink to make it shrink and insulate the ground wires. (Fig.8) Step 14. Feed the output wire from the volume pot through the cavity wall and into the output jack cavity. (Fig.9) Step 15. Soldering points. You are now ready to solder your wires to the pots. Please refer to Figures 10 and 11 to see the locations of the numbers in this step. NOTE: When soldering to the back of the pot, first put a small bead of solder on the pot, then place the tinned wire on top of the bead of solder, and then using the tip of the iron heat both the wire and the bead of solder at the same time until the solder flows together and covers the wire. Remove the iron and hold the wire in place until the solder cools and hardens (feel free to blow on it). This will make it quick and hassle free to attach the wire to the pot. You do not want the iron on the components for too long or you will burn up the pot.
NOTE: When soldering the switch do not leave your soldering iron on the pins too long or else the solder will run down the pins and jam up the switch. If this occurs hold the switch upside down and re-heat the pin till all the solder on that pin flows back down to the tip of the pin and then operate the switch to clear the excess solder. Be careful that the solder that is flicked away does not end up somewhere else and cause a new set of problems. Solder the hot wire from the neck pickup to Fig.10 point 1 Solder the hot wire from the middle pickup to Fig.10 point 2 Solder the hot wire from the bridge pickup to Fig.10 point 3 Solder the ground wires from the pickups and the tremolo ground to Fig.10 point 4 Solder the outer ground shield of the wire from the volume pot to Fig.11A point 1 Solder the inner hot wire from the volume pot to Fig.11A point 2 Step 16. Your wiring is now finished and should look something like Figures 12 and 11B. Step 17. Now you can seat the output jack. As you put the output jack plate back in place with one hand carefully pull the excess wire back into the control cavity with the other. Since the wire is so thick you may have to move it around to get the best angle to feed the wire through. Once all the excess wire has been pulled through and the jack plate is seated comfortably go ahead and screw it down. (Fig. 13) Step 18. Carefully place your pick guard in place and screw it down. If you are using a new pick guard then your holes may not line up correctly. Don t worry, just drill new holes where your pick guard wants them and the pick guard will cover the old hole. Put your knobs and switch tip on. Step 19. Before stringing the guitar go ahead and plug it into an amplifier and see if you have a loud hum as if one of your grounds is not connected. Then tap on all the pickups as you go through the switch to make sure that they all are working, if not then you may have hooked up a wire incorrectly or accidentally grounded out when putting the pick guard in. If in either case something is wrong then remove the pick guard again and check all you soldering points in step 15 and watch the wires as you replace the pick guard. Repeat this step until all the pickups are working and there is no loud ground hum. NOTE: Single coils inherently have a hum in them but a ground hum will be very loud and obnoxious. Step 20. You re finished. String up your guitar and take it for a spin. (Fig. 13) Step 21. Take a photo of yourself and your upgraded guitar and send it to customerservice@bcsguitars.com so we can post it on our testimonials page and for rotation in our home page banner. If something is not working properly go over the instructions and your connections again carefully and see if you can find the problem. If you cannot find the problem email us at customerservice@bcsguitars.com and we will get a technician to call you as soon as they are available and try to help you trouble shoot the problem.
Fig.1 Knob Removal Fig.2 Stock ground wire Fig.3 Remove wire from jack
Fig.4 Remove the controls Fig.5 Widen the pot holes to 3/8 Fig.6 Install new ground wire
Fig.7 Widen the output wire hole Fig.8 Combining the pickup ground wires Fig.9 Feed output wire into the jack cavity
Fig.10 Soldering Points Fig.11 Jack soldering points
Fig.12 Connections completed Fig.13 Seating the output jack.
Fig.13 You re finished.