The Chromacaster User`s Manual & Guide THE NECK
Contents
1. bridge lug of the second pole of the selector switch the side commonly used to connect the tone pots or run the auto shunt Run a jumper from this lug to the neck lug on this side of the 5 way see drawing The bare wire is soldered to any ground Put your pickguard back on and you re ready to rip bridge amp mid pickup grounds mutar string ground jack ground jack hot PUP HOTS neck pup hot neck pup ground page 5 How it works Basically the Neck Reverse Chromacaster re routes the leads of the neck pickup to various places in the guitar s circuitry Each of its six clicks connects the leads to a specific point in the circuit to get the desired combination of phase series or parallel wiring These clicks called the NOTCHES are named for how they route the pickup into the circuit To reference these instructions we ll say that the pickup selections on the 5 way are 1 neck 2 neck and middle 3 middle 4 middle and bridge 5 bridge NOTCH ONE tone knob on 10 is NORMAL With the Chromacaster turned completely clockwise it routes the Neck pup s hot to the 5 way switch where it would be stock and its ground to the guitar s ground Plain ol Strat combos with the bridge as a humbucker The difference is that you now have a master tone control NOTCH TWO tone knob on 9 is NECK on with BRIDGE It is the first click as you turn the knob COUNTER C2. 1 Neck 2 Neck out of phase with Middle 3 Middle 4 Neck out of phase with lt Middle and Bridge gt 5 Neck out of phase with Bridge ne oo cae A Ard EEA ell ks ge ae ge on Bridge out o eel on eae Bridge Tone knob lt _ lt a S bridge Nee o The Chromacaster changes the way the NECK pickup is wired into the circuit The NAMES of the NOTCHES describe HOW the bridge pickup is wired KEY wired parallel wired in series wired out of phase lower case letters stock strat tones UPPER CASE BOLD new Chromacaster tones Questions comments or suggestions E mail me at eb deaf eddie net Here are a few additional common Strat 5 ways A common import in line 5 way drawing for IMPORT 5 way pup selector STOCK bridge pup hot mid pup hot neck pup hot to volme pot Chromie leads to mid tone control jumper gt to neck tone contrat The non CLR 5 way from Stewart MacDonald and others Note that the common lugs are at the opposite end of the switch from the stock Fender 5 way STOCK i Neck Reverse Chromacaster ridos pup hot output to volume mid pup hot neck pup hot The Mega S switch s lugs are in a completely different configuration STOCK Neck Reverse Chromacaster output to volume bridge pup hot output to volume bridge pup hot neck pup hot Jumper mid pup hot c master tone neck tone Chromacaster leads mid to
3. LOCKWISE 10 to 9 indicated on the old tone knob This re routes the neck pup s hot lead to the neck AND bridge ends of the 5 way so that when you play the Bridge pup you get the Neck pup too giving you the missing two tones of the magnificent seven all possible parallel in phase combos As you work the your Strat s 5 way pup selector switch from neck to bridge here s what you will hear at each 5 way throw 1 Neck 2 Middle and Neck 3 Middle 4 Neck Middle and Bridge 5 Bridge and Neck Those last two tones are the tones EVERY Strat player sez they wish they had NOTCH THREE tone knob on 8 is NECK SERIES with BRIDGE At the next click counter clockwise when you select throw 1 Neck pickup or 4 Neck and Middle on the 5 way instead of just the Neck pup you will get the Bridge and Neck pup in series This is fattest and warmest tone in the scheme and you may notice a slight boost in gain As you throw the 5 way back from the Neck position you will get 1 Neck SERIES Bridge 2 lt Neck SERIES Bridge gt parallel to the Middle 3 Middle 4 Middle and Bridge 5 Bridge page 6 NOTCH FOUR tone control at 7 is NECK SERIES with MIDDLE amp ON with BRIDGE At the next click counter clockwise when you select throw 1 on the 5 way instead of just the Neck pup you will get the Neck and Middle pups in series The Middle and Neck coils become rather like a single humbucker but the dis
4. Page 1 The Chromacaster User s Manual amp Guide THE NECK 7REVERSE MODEL What it is The Chromacaster is a six position ROTARY switch that expands the potential pickup combinations available in your Stratocaster or other S type guitar It installs where one of your old tone controls was The Chromacaster does NOT replace your 5 way pickup selector switch your 5 way still works just like it always did The Chromacaster works in conjunction WITH the 5 way to give you new combinations You lose a tone control but gain a lot of tones The Neck Reverse scheme is the same switch as the regular Chromie but the installation instructions have been changed so that it runs the neck pickup instead of the bridge pickup The traditional Strat 5 way selector gives you only five of the seven parallel combinations possible and no series or out of phase connections With a Chromacaster you can all possible parallel combos plus some series and out of phase combos The Neck Reverse model is designed to ALSO give you the other two aside from the bridge humbucker solo Gibson esque combos that your HSS Strat is capable of The Neck Reverse Chromacaster scheme will work with any HSS Strat including those with a two conductor bridge humbucker even if it has the vintage style braided shield lead In fact it will work with any three pickup Strat that has a compatible neck pickup NOTE The Neck Reverse Chromacaster scheme does not have a provision to coi
5. hose superswitch models or are using a superswitch contact me and I will supply instructions on how to rewire the superswitch so that it can be used with the Neck Reverse Chromacaster page 3 Wiring the neck pickup to the Chromacaster Switch THE NECK REVERSE MODEL Unsolder the neck pup leads from where they are currently in your guitar and solder them to the center lugs on the Chromacaster Switch Be sure you get the positive hot side usually white it is the lead soldered to the five way pickup selector on lug 1 the lug with the string through it The negative aka ground usually soldered to the back of the volume pot goes on lug 2 see drawing Now your neck pup goes through the Chromacaster Switch NOTE Sometimes there is not enough wire on the leads to make it to the Chromie 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 black electrical tape or heat shrink tubing will do the trick 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 r
6. l shunt the pickup However if you have a four conductor bridge pickup the scheme is fully compatible with a coil shunt on an additional switch usually a push pull or mini toggle Add a coil shunt switch and you can expand your tonal palette by another eleven nuances If you use a mini toggle for the coil shunt option wire an on ON on 3 way with Seymour Duncan s series shunt parallel wiring which adds an additional eleven nuances over the simple coil shunt option That s a lot of tones BEST OF ALL NO NEW HOLES Just put your old tone knob back on the Chromacaster switch and your Strat looks completely stock Your stock wiring probably looks like this pickup grounds guitar string ground QA output jack ground output jack hot PUP HOTS bridge i stock jumper mid fe between commons Fo neck al page 2 INSTALLATION Take off your pickguard Start at the 5 way wiring for a master volume and tone 1 If necessary remove all the leads from the second pole of the 5 way NOT the pole side with the pickup hot leads See drawing 2 Solder the lower tone control s lead to a common lug on 5 way and run a jumper between the 5 way s common lugs Run a jumper from the other common lug to your master volume 3 Remove the grounds from the center tone pot and clip any jumpers between the center pot and anything else Remove the center pot from the pickguard 4 IF NECESSARY remove the capacitor from the center tone pot a
7. nd 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 some HSS Strats have separate tone caps making this step unnecessary 5 Mount the Chromacaster switch in the place of the center tone pot 6 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 Chromacaster bridge and neck pickup grounds guitar string ground output jack ground output jack hot DO NOT OVERTIGHTEN THE MOUNTING NUT 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 my rotary kits are 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 deeper than a normal pot YMMV NOTE These instructions assume that you have a working Strat with a standard 5 way switch same as used in most Fender Strats including the MIM FAT Strat which is the most common five way for scratch builds or conversions from SSS to HSS This is NOT the five way superswitch that is used in the Fender Lonestar or American Deluxe models If you have one of t
8. ne bar ae jumper o ma If NONE of these 5 ways matches yours e mail me at eb deaf eddie net and we ll figure out a scheme amp drawing to git r done
9. otary 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 bridge amp mid pickup grounds guitar string ground jack ground jack hot neck pup hot neck pup ground page 4 The Chromacaster s pre wired leads The Neck Reverse Model The WHITE lead from the Chromacaster Switch goes to the neck pup s spot on the 5 way where you just removed its positive hot lead The BLACK lead is added to the bridge pup s lug on the 5 way It s the wire that will route the negative lead of the neck pup back through the bridge pup for series settings The GREEN lead is added to the middle pup s lug on the 5 way It s the wire that will route the negative lead of the neck pup back through the middle pup for series settings The RED lead is soldered to the 5 way switch It goes on the
10. tance between the coils makes for a little Strat Quack rather than just being Gibson y to my ears As you throw the 5 way back from the Neck position you will get 1 Neck SERIES Middle 2 Middle ONLY 3 Middle 4 Middle and Bridge 5 lt Neck SERIES Middle gt parallel to Bridge As you can see throw 5 is rather like a Gibson dual humbucker axe with the pup selector toggle centered playing both pickups It won t sound like an SG but this is as Gibson esque as an HSS Strat can get NOTCH FIVE tone knob at 6 is NECK OUT OF PHASE in SERIES with BRIDGE Here the Neck pup is again wired in series with the Bridge pup but out of phase This gives you 1 Neck out of phase series with Bridge 2 lt Neck out of phase series with Bridge gt parallel to Middle 3 Middle 4 Middle and Bridge 5 Bridge When one pickup is out of phase with another a lot of frequencies are cancelled out the positive voltage one pickup creates is negated by the negative voltage the other creates Usually lots of the fundamental is cancelled out and the only frequencies that escape to be heard are the frequencies that are harmonically different between the two pickups so you usually get thin and nasally tones NOTCH SIX tone knob at 5 is NECK OUT OF PHASE ON with BRIDGE Here the Neck pup is again out of phase with the other pickups but played parallel and is on with the Bridge pup This gives you
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