FAT-O-Caster TONE CHART - Deaf Eddie

Your stock Strat probably looks like this…Remove the center pot and wire the lower tone pot like this for a MASTERTONE CONTROL:

Move the bridge and middle pup ground leads to theFAT-O-Caster and hook up the prewired leads like this:The wire colors on the stock stuff might not be the same as the drawing, butthe FAT-O-Caster lead COLORS (red and black) ARE CORRECT.

How it works:To reference the rest of these instructions,we'll say that the pickup selections on the 5-way are numbered like this:(1) = neck; (2) = neck and middle; (3) = middle; (4) = middle and bridge; (5) = bridge.Basically, it re-routes the leads of the pickups to different places in the guitar's circuitry. Each ofthe three "clicks" connects the pickups' leads to a specific point in the guitar's wiring to get thedesired combination of pickups and series/parallel wiring. These "clicks" - I call them"NOTCHES" - are named for how they route the pickups into the circuit.The NOTCHES: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=bridgeNotch 2 (“tone knob” on “9”) is the "NECK on with BRIDGE" setting –the neck pup is ALSO routed to the bridge 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 = neck2 = neck and middle3 = middle4 = bridge, middle, and neck5 = bridge and neckThere 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 “SERIES with Neck" setting.In 1, and 2 it's normal Strat neck only.In 3, you have mid in series with neckIn 4, you have (mid parallel to bridge) in series with the neckIn 5, you get bridge in series with neckPickups wired in series make the current flow through first one coil and then the other,effectively doubling the resistance/impedance of the circuit. In a very real way, the Neck andBridge (or Neck and Middle) coils become rather like a single big humbucker! This is usuallycharacterized as a "fatter" or "thicker" sound than that produced by a single-coil pickup (orpickups paralleled) - FAT Strat!Please e-mail me with any questions, comments, or suggestions: EB@deaf-eddie.net

FAT-O-Caster TONE CHARTNOTCH NAME (across)Normal Neck with Bridge Series with Neck(10)(9)(8)(1) neck n n n(2) middle+neck m+n m+n n(3) middle m m M*N(4) bridge+middle b+m B+N+M (B+M)*N(5) bridge b B+N B*NThe FAT-O-Caster changes the way the pickups are wired into the circuit.The NAMES of the NOTCHES describe HOW the pickups are wired...KEY:+ = wired parallel* = wired in serieslower case letters = "stock" strat tonesUPPER CASE BOLD = new FAT-O-Caster tones