Strat Stompbox Mod: More than just overdrive

[Bakkster]

So, I eventually got tired of trying to switch effects using the 5-way switch. It's well positioned on a full sized Stratocaster, but when it shrinks to 3/4 size, it tends to get in the way. So how do most musicians select their effects? With a stomp-box!

http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd300/Bakkster/Guitar.jpg

It may not be the best looking mod, but it does the job. The three buttons on the right control the effect selection, and the far left button activates Overdrive. The top right toggles bypass, and the two in the middle are used to toggle between the 4 effects. The banks are Wah and Flage, or Chorus and Echo. Select chooses between the effects in each bank.

http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd300/Bakkster/BoxCloseup-1.jpg

So how does it work? Beautifully! I'll post a video later, hopefully this week. Let me know if you have any questions about the mod.

[Bakkster]

You may be surprised to learn that the 5-way switch, isn't actually a switch. It's actually a potentiometer (just like the whammy bar) with positions notched into the casing, so it only has 5 positions. This lets it act as a voltage divider (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voltage_divider), and use only a single input, as well as being a much cheaper component.

http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd300/Bakkster/Strat.jpg

The new version of this circuit was a simple resistor chain with multiple positions to select for the voltage divider.

http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd300/Bakkster/StratMod.jpg

Bypass grounds the input pin, and Wah is the highest voltage. I used an RJ-45 connector and Cat-5e cable, but this caused some issues. Cat-5e cables don't connect their wires in a simple manner and not all cables even connect in the same way. This is because Ethernet doesn't use all 8 wires, so the remaining wires can be up for interpretation. Basically, this just meant I needed to take a lot of time figuring what was actually connected with a multimeter. All you need to do is make sure that pin x on one side goes to pin x on the other side, and you're golden.

Also note that the potentiometer is still connected to the cable, but not to the board. If you build the circuit like this, and connect pins 5 and 7 outside the guitar, you will re-enable the 5-way switch. Or, you can do like I did and completely disconnect the 5-way switch.

http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd300/Bakkster/GuitarInternals.jpg

The board and jack were placed in the top corner of the body. I used a Dremel to cut out a RJ-45 sized hole for the jack and hot glued it into place. There is electrical tape over the solder joints to keep them from getting shorted by a loose wire. I also used shrink tubing on any connected wires to insulate them.

http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd300/Bakkster/CircuitBoard.jpg

These are the connectors that get used by this mod. All the wires with long bars on them are ground. Most are labeled on one end of the board as well. Just cut the wires you need, strip them, and solder to a wire that goes to the board.

[Bakkster]

Any other info goes here.

[CM_Drunk]

^_^


Im interested in reading how you did it. Nice work!

[Darkfire]

Very cool man. I'll be checking back after when more info gets put in.

[moshun]

That's pretty cool. Waiting like everyone else for you to post how you did it... even though I don't think I'd do this myself.... not yet, anyway. :p

[karmajack]

I love this mod. Great job. I've been contemplating doing this myself for a while but decided it was a bit out of my know how. I still may make a stomp box for just the Overdrive as that would be more within my abilities. I just have yet to find a box or pedal that I would actually want to use that doesn't look too cheap and works with ease.