I'm on a roll now. This rotary tool is my new best friend!
So the issue with the Clapton electronics is that it is designed for a specially-routed strat body. It doesn't drop-in to an American deluxe body. There are resources on the net that help: here is a brilliant page with fantastic instructions that I used as a starting point.
Here's a pic of the problem. The pc board is just a few mm too big for the available space.Rotary tool to the rescue!
I again used the sanding drum to open up a few mm in the cavity to accommodate the pc board.
Next problem: space for the battery. The Clapton strat body has an interesting solution, but I am not ready yet to put the rotary tool to the test of routing out space somewhere else. I opted for the old "cram the battery under the pickguard wherever you can get it to fit" trick. Mentioned many places, and I used it successfully in the past with active EMGs. (BTW, I will never use EMGs again).
I spaced everything out on the pickguard to make sure it would work. No problems.I originally had a superswitch for this project, but there was no way it was going to fit. I ran to the closest music store for a regular switch (I didn't have any spares of a high enough quality). All they had was a single wafer double-pole Oaks-Grigsby switch. As it turns out, it was exactly what I wanted! Here's why...
A standard five-way switch for strats has the following pickup options:
Neck / Neck & Middle / Middle / Middle & Bridge / Bridge
On previous strat-ish projects, I put the Neck pickup on a toggle so I could add it to the Bridge and get tele-ish tones. I knew the superswitch would eliminate the need for the toggle and give me the the following options:
N / N & M / N & B / M & B / B
Well this double-pole switch does it too! It took me hours of trolling on the net to find this wiring diagram, but it was worth it! I now have the pickup config I want with no added switches.Next up: soldering!
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