hi all been looking at the wiring diagrams on here and i seem to have a different 5 way switch to others ive seen has anyone put this kit in a lonestar with the duncan pearly gates humbucker also fitted are 2 single texas specials the diagrams sent with the kit from fender is not clear and im wanting to get this fitted will add pic of what i mean cheers folks

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk15 ... ots013.jpg

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk15 ... ots010.jpg

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk15 ... ots012.jpg

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk15 ... ots011.jpg

also it does not give any indication of how to wire the pcb

Lonestar

Ignore your pickups, though you may well want to swap those singlecoils at a later date due to the noise they are going to give.
All you are going to do with the EC boost install is change the pots, and put the circuit onto those new pots.

The common + that feeds off the switch to your volume pot now feeds off the switch to the TBX control in this diagram. The ground wires from the the switch go to the back of either the TBX or the volume pot. Ignore the individual wires from the switch to the tone pots that you have now. Cut em out.

http://support.fender.com/service_diagr ... 1_SISD.pdf

I really suggest you use the 50K volume pot. 250/500K and 1Meg pots howl like banshees when used with that EC circuit. The noise from the middle and neck pickups will be really bad (Why EC guitars use noiseless pickups) the humbucker will be utterly fierce sounding. But too undefined for any serious use.
I did exactly the same thing for a while using a Dimarzio FS2 in the bridge.

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No no and no

+1 on the Ninjas advice.

This may also help...



Andy

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Pending Greatness

which pups do you recommend .
as ive just really started to do my own work as its very costly over here to have things done now and thanks for your advise Mark

cheers Andy great diagram on fenders diagram they have the TBX as the last tone pot and also on my pre amp pcb the purple and brown are the other way round [ you can tell i know nothing about pcb's lol do i wire up as per your diagram or as per the wire colors thanks Mark

Mark I had exactly that problem with my PCB. So what I did was locate the battery wire to the PCB. Then work from the left and right of that. Colour may change, placement of the wires stays the same. So second wire to the left of the positive lead from the battery clip goes to lug2 of the TBX pot, and so forth. Easy that way. Just remember you've switched positions of the pots. (I made that mistake and nearly crucified myself trying to find the problem )

There are a whole load of pickups to choose from that are noiseless, or very low noise.
EMG, Dimarzio Area pickups, Lace Sensor (most Clapton freaks love the Lace Gold's with the boost. I prefer them to Vintage Noiseless which currently feature on Clapton guitars), Fender Lace, Vintage Noiseless, Hot Noiseless, SCN's.

I have SCN's in the Bridge and Middle positions with a Vintage Noiseless in the Neck position of my Claptonized strat at the moment. The VN does work well in that position. The SCN's kind of work well in the mid/bridge. But you have to watch the mid boost on those pickups. They have plenty of mids anyway. The sound of them becomes undefined when the boost control is on ten. Not quite as bad as a humbucker would do, but not far off.
I'd be interested to try the EMG's. Because EMG were made for active electronics.

You could install a dummy coil on the singlecoil pickup side of the circuit (isolate it from the humbucker or it's really going to mess with the sound of it). But I think you've run out of room in the control cavity. Andy being the gracious genius he is will no doubt drum up a diagram for that.

Finally if you're following this http://areyouexperienced.net/fender_clapton_mid_boost_kit.htm, there are a few questionable areas to be aware of.
No1 I couldn't get the battery and the circuitboard in the control cavity. It was one or the other. So I opted for jamming the battery inbetween two of the trem springs. Meaning you have to de-solder the positive lead of the battery terminal (do it at the clip not the board). To run the wire through the hole where the ground wire goes from the volume pot to the trem claw. No biggie.
Housing the circuitboard in the control cavity does make the thing prone to noise. You'll hear thunks and thumps if you touch the scrathplate in the wrong spot. I ended up routing a cavity solely for the circuitboard.
No2 if you're using noiseless pickups (of any kind) then you are completely wasting your own time by shielding the inside of the control cavity. Further more you risk shorting out the circuitboard. Not good, don't do it. If your guitar is already shielded in there (with paint or tape. You need to wrap that circuitboard in something to shield it from the shielding paint/tape. I used a little plastic bag. That is worth doing anyway to stop the thing shorting on the bases of the pots or the switch.

Hope that helps.

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No no and no

Oh and Mark, bring the thing to my house in Lincolnshire and all it will cost you is a packet of biscuits to dunk in my tea whilst I work.

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No no and no

Mate your on!!! i'll get you a box , chocolate digestives ? think i will take you up on your offer worth the trip . iI did have a look at the link your on about it was good but like you i think the shielding doesnt need doing it aready has it painted etc , ive just noticed that the tbx pot seems very stiff after mid position and notchy not smooth ,i got this kit from the states im thinking it might be a damaged track on the 1 meg pot should have checked before i started think i will order another one to be sure it just dont seem right pm me your number and i will give you a ring think this is best left to someone who knows what theyre doing lol ie NOT ME !!!! but i do need to get to grips with this at some point as i would like to learn more instead of justplaying . cheers Mark

This would not happen if you install a dummy pickup beneath the pickguard to reduce the buzz.

The original Sambora Strat uses two Texas Specials, which are regular passive pickups. These gritty-sounding single-coils work fine with the TBX and MDX tone controls, delivering the traditional blues-rock sounds Richie is craving for.



Not sure if the guitar ever had a dummy coil for noise cancellation.

Not to derail the thread but chromeface is that your own Sambora USA strat? Also is that a cherryburst finish or is that a regular sunburst finish? I didn't know they were made ina regular sunburst finish if that is indeed the finish in the pic.

No, this guitar is not mine.



I believe it's probably a transitional model manufactured a couple of months before the newer Samboras with the dual-coil ceramic pickups, 12dB boost and american vintage hardware came out (though I'm not certain as 100% about).

This guitar was a "one-off", as all original USA Samboras were available only in Olympic White and Cherry Sunburst, not to mention the USA Custom Black Paisleys which were made for Richie himself.

Never seen an original USA Sambora in 3-colour burst. This finish was only available on the post-1999 models.

I find it interesting that both Chromeface and nikininja advocate using only noiseless pickups with the EC boost kit. I seem to remember Mike Eldred making the same recommendation. I have done the same on other forums where this question has come up and been shouted down that the EC boost works great with regular single coils and that noise is not a problem. I still think noiseless pickups should be used for best performance.

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Bill

For what's it's worth, the PowerHouse Deluxe strat has the same circuit board as the Clapton, and while they have something called "vintage single coil" pickups instead of the Noiseless Vintages, they also have a dummy coil for noise suppression.

So I'm guessing the Fender guys knew they'd designed something that needed noise control. . .

The Powerhouse has 12dB of boost instead of 25 on the EC model. Also, the guitar features a no-load tone circuit instead of the TBX.

From what I've heard the circuit boards are identical, with the only difference being a pair of resistors on the boost pot.

Simply remove them to "unlock" the 25dB boost.