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| In Strat® Prewired Assembly - Click to Enlarge |
In Strat® Prewired Assembly - Click to Enlarge |
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We think this is the coolest thing! Check out the images above, showing the unit wired into a Strat pickguard. You can see that from the front is very low-profile and unobtrusive. On this particular pickguard, had we installed the black switch cap it would have all but disappeared against the pickguard.
By the way, the images above also show the unit used in conjunction with our narrow superswitch. If you buy one of these pushbutton switch units for use in a wiring scheme that also requires a 4-pole superswitch, you'll need our narrow one, as the pushbutton switch won't fit with the normal (wide) superswitch that you find elsewhere.
The pushbutton switch is a DPDT push/push switch, mounted onto a 250K audio-taper CTS pot, with your choice of a solid or split (knurled) shaft. The pot mounts to your pickguard or control plate, and provides the platform for the DPDT switch, which is attached to the pot via a circuit board. The DPDT switch can perform many tasks, such as coil-tap, series/parallel, phase-switching, etc. Anything that a push/pull pot or mini-toggle DPDT switch will do, this will do.
The pot can be used as either a volume or tone control. If you choose to use it as a volume control, you'll find a volume kit built in, which can be turned on or off to suit your preference. If you use it as a tone control, you'll find three capacitors built in, which can be individually selected, or combined, via the mini-DIP switches. This gives you seven different values to choose from, which allows you to dial in the tone control to your liking.
The unit is solderless, so all nine terminals (six for the switch, and three for the pot) are accessed via a solderless terminal block. The centerline spacing (switch-tip to pot-shaft) was determined by the Tele's control spacing, so that the switch lines up precisely in the middle of the two pots when the unit is attached to a Tele® control plate, regardless of whether it's used as a volume or tone control. This also provides a convenient spacing when used on a Strat®, as can be seen in the image above. Once the knobs are mounted, the switch is perfectly centered between the first two knobs and the switch. You will have to drill a hole in your pickguard or control plate for the switch to poke through (Callaham stainless Tele® control plates are available here, with the holes pre-drilled by Callaham).
The unit is very low-profile, and there is some limited amount of height adjustment available to compensate for the thickness of various pickguards, by playing with the washers underneath the pot. Typically, the pushbutton is nearly flush with the mounting surface when in the down position, and sticks up just slightly higher than that when in the up position. Hence it is out of the way, yet very convenient and accessible. The unit ships with both parchment (off-white) and black switch tips so you can use whichever is more visually-appealing.