"FAT-O-Caster V.2" Rotary Switch for Strat-type guitars OK, so you'd like to get a little more out of that ol' Strat of yours. How about if I could give you all three pups at once, or the "outside" two (Tele tone!), plus the neck and bridge in series, an out of phase (but still BIG) tone - AND! How about if I give it to you in a switch that requires no batteries or other ad-ons, plus leaves your guitar COMPLETELY stock-looking and doesn't take any of the stock tones away? That's right, NO push/pulls, NO goofy toggle switches, AND NO NEW HOLES!!! It DOES NOT replace the standard 5-way. The 5-way works exactly as it always has. It just ADDS more tones by changing the way the bridge and middle pickups are connected in the circuit. It is completely passive - no batteries or other junk. You get a total of TWELVE pup combos! It's just a creative and brilliant re-think of the wiring of your Strat, if I do say so myself INSTALLATION: ****** Take off your pickguard. To wire your lower tone as a "master" tone (like a Telecaster): 1. Move the lower tone control s lead from the center lug of the tone control side of the five-way over to the common lug on the other pole of the five-way. 2. Remove the lead to the center tone control from the five-way. 3. Remove the grounds from the center tone pot, and clip any jumpers between the center and lower tone pots. Remove the center pot from the pickguard. 4. Remove the capacitor from the center tone pot and wire it to your new MASTER TONE pot, with one leg on the center lug and one leg grounded to the back of the pot. 5. Run an insulated ground wire from the back of the volume pot to the back of your new master tone pot, with enough slack to go around the FAT-O. Mount the FAT-O-Caster Switch in the place of the center tone pot. You will notice that the switch is NOT perfectly round, more egg-shaped - align it so that it's widest parts "point" to the other two controls. If your control cavity is shielded, be sure that the lugs on the switch DO NOT touch/short out on the shielding. NOTE: While the FAT-O-Caster is a "straight swap" on genuine Fender guitars, others may have to slightly enlarge the hole in the pickguard, and still others have reported that the control cavity must be routed a little deeper to accommodate the switch, which is "taller" than a normal pot.
Your stock Strat probably looks like this Remove the center pot and wire the lower tone pot like this for a MASTER TONE CONTROL:
WIRING THE FAT-O-Caster V.2 Switch: The center lugs: Unsolder the bridge pup leads from where they are currently in your guitar and solder them to the center lugs on the FAT-O-Caster. Be sure you get the "+" (positive, hot) side - usually white - on center lug "1" (with the string tied through it) and the "-" (negative, ground) on center lug "2" clockwise (see drawing). Now your bridge pup goes through the FAT-O-Caster V.2. Next, unsolder the middle pup's "-" lead, and solder it to center lug "3" (again, clockwise) on the FAT-O-Caster. NOTE: Sometimes there is not enough wire on the leads to make it to the FAT-O, so just add on a little "tail" to the lead to get there. Be sure you insulate the solder joint on this "tail" to prevent contact with the pots or any other grounded surface in the control cavity. What about THREE-wire pickups? Some guitars and many after-market pickups are wired with THREE conductors: The coil's "+" lead, the coil's "-" lead, and the shield/ground lead. In these cases, remember that the shield/ground STAYS on the guitar's ground, and you will be lifting the coil's "-" lead - which is often "twisted" with the shield/ground lead - to move it over to the rotary switch. How to tell which is the coil's "-" and which is the ground lead? IF you don't have any "paperwork" color-code indicating which is which, a simple test is to use your multimeter. With the two leads/conductors unsoldered from ground (typically the back of the volume pot) and separated, set your multimeter in the 20k ohm range. With one probe on the lead that you know is the coil's "+" lead (it's the one on the pup selector switch), one of the other two leads will show you a 5k -10k reading when touched with the other probe. That's the resistance number for your pup, and that's the coil's "-" lead. It is the lead you will move over to the rotary switch - the other one is soldered back to ground. The same idea works if you have a four-conductor pickup in your bridge spot, like a Hot Rails or single-coil sized humbucker the hot and negative leads go to the FAT-O, the series-pair stays soldered together, and the bare wire stays soldered to ground on the back of the volume pot. The pre-wired leads: The WHITE lead from the FAT-O-Caster goes to the bridge pup s spot on the 5-way - where you just removed its "positive" (hot) lead. The RED lead is soldered to the 5-way switch. It goes on the FIRST lug of the second pole of the selector switch (the side used to connect the tone pots). This is the lug where the neck's tone pot was connected. Run a jumper from this lug to the bridge lug (the third lug) on this side of the 5-way (see drawing). The BLACK lead is added to the neck pup's lug on the 5-way. It's the wire that will route the "negative" lead of the bridge pup back through the neck pup for the "series" settings. The BARE wire is soldered to (any) ground. Put your pickguard back on, and you're ready to rip!
Move the bridge pup leads and middle pup ground lead to the FAT-O V.2, and hook up the prewired leads (and a jumper) like this: The wire colors on the stock stuff might not be the same as the drawing, but the FAT-O-Caster V.2 prewired lead colors are correct.
Here are a few more Strat 5-ways: The 5-way from Stewart-Macdonald and others. Note that the common lugs are at the opposite ends of the switch from the stock Fender 5-way: The MEGA-S switch s lugs are in a completely different configuration: If NONE of these 5-ways matches yours, e-mail me at eb@deaf-eddie.net and we ll figure out a scheme & drawing to git-r-done!
Wuzzit do? Well, for starters, you now can select from 12 different pickup and phasing combinations! Yes, some of the tones are repeated - but that's what makes this thing so darn easy to use So, WHAT are the new tones, and WHERE are they? I like to count the settings this way: the FAT-O-Caster V.2 switch has notches we'll call 1, 2, 3 and 4, numbered as you turn the switch COUNTER-CLOCKWISE. So, if it was a tone control on 10, you would be at notch 1. As you turn the control down, like from ten to, say, six, you go through the notches 1 through 4. Remember that even though the bridge pup now goes completely through the FAT-O-CASTER V.2 switch, the 5-way still controls the tones - here's what to expect from the 5-way at each FAT-O-CASTER V.2 notch: Notch 1 ( tone knob on 10 ) is just Normal Strat tones. NOTE: As a reference for the rest of these instructions: Throws on the 5-way: 1=neck, 2=middle and neck, 3=middle, 4=middle and bridge, 5=bridge Notch 2 ( tone knob on 9 ) is the "BRIDGE with NECK" setting the bridge pup is ALSO routed to the neck end of the 5-way switch. The combos are all wired parallel. As you throw the 5-way in this setting, you get (from 1 to 5): 1 = neck and bridge 2 = neck, middle, and bridge 3 = middle 4 = bridge and middle 5 = bridge There now, isn't that what you've always said you wanted your Strat to be able to do? Notch 3 ( tone knob on 8 ) is the "all three SERIES" setting. In 1 and 2, it's the neck pup alone. In 4 and 5, you get the bridge and neck in series - it's as Gibson-y a tone as yer Strat ever gets without a pup-swap, IMHO. In 3, you have all three pups in series. This is as FAT as a Strat gets without a pup-swap! Notch 4 ( tone knob on 7 ) is the both series with neck, bridge out of phase" setting. In 1 and 2, it's the neck pup alone. In 3, you have the middle pup in series with the neck pup. This is another FAT tone. In 4, you have the middle pup in series with the neck pup parallel to the bridge and neck in series/out of phase. It s a little twangy, a little middy In 5, you get the bridge and neck in series/out of phase. It s not your typical thin out of phase this one has some bite because it s in series. To me, it strongly recalls Albert King s tone Hey, e-mail me with any questions, comments, or suggestions! EB@deaf-eddie.net
FAT-O-Caster V.2 TONE CHART NOTCH NAME Neck with Bridge Bridge SERIES Neck/ out Normal (10) All Three SERIES (8) (across) (9) of phase (7) 5-way (down) (1) neck n B+N n n (2) middle+neck m+n B+N+M n n (3) middle m m B*M*N M*N (4) bridge+middle b+m b+m B*N -B*N+M*N (5) bridge b b B*N -B*N The FAT-O-Caster changes the way pickups are wired into the circuit. The NAMES of the NOTCHES describe HOW the pickups are wired... KEY: + = wired parallel * = wired in series -B = Bridge wired out of phase lower case letters = "stock" strat tones UPPER CASE BOLD = new FAT-O-Caster V.2 tones