Tone From Heaven

1 - Get a toggle switch. Any should do if you are using passive pickups. Check Radio Shack or the like. I got a standard 4 amp switch with three solder points on the bottom. Also if you are worried about your existing pickguard, get a new one to deface because you'll need to drill a hole in it.

3 - Drill hole somewhere between the Volume pot and the 5 way switch. I flipped my pick guard over and placed it over one of the routed holes in the body of the guitar. I did not disconnect the ground wires or anything like that. I wanted to keep it as simple as possible. By doing this I was able to see that I wasn't going to drill through any wires, but take care not to go full bore with the drill and have it go through the pick guard and into the body!!!!

4. I attached the toggle to the pick guard then measured the correct lengths of the wires I would need. You only need two wires for this mod. Once I did this I removed the toggle switch and soldered the two wires to the outside soldering points on the switch - IE Top and Bottom points. The middle point is for the neck Pickup.

5. Look at the switch and follow the wire from the neck pickup to the 5 way switch. Looking at the wiring inside the pick guard, it should go to the left side of the switch third wire up from the top. Unsolder it from the switch. Clean off old solder and if you have enough wire from the pickup strip a clean connection from the neck position wire.

6. Now install the toggle switch back into the pick guard with the two wires you soldered to it in step 4. Solder the wire from the neck pickup wire to the middle solder point on the toggle switch. This will be the last thing you solder on the toggle switch.

7. Now take the wire on the bottom of the Toggle Switch and Solder it to the left side of the 5 way switch where you removed the Neck Pickup Wire.

8. Now take the top wire from the Toggle Switch and connect it to the top most solder point on the right side of the Toggle Switch. On this point you will also see the hot wire leading to the Volume Pot and the Jumper Wire from last solder point on the left side to the first solder point on the right side. So you will now have three wires on that first point, Toggle - Jumper - Hot to Volume. Make sure you have a good connection here. You can braid all three of the wires together and solder them to the solder point. (See top picture for how it should look)

9. After you are done, put the pick guard back in and use three to four screws to keep it in place. Don't string it up yet. Plug it into the Amp as is. Run through your switch in each position to make sure that you have sound coming from each position and pickup. Position 1 (up) Neck, 2 Neck and middle, 3 Middle, 4 Middle Bridge, 5 (down) bridge. Tap on each pickup and you should hear the tapping come through the amp. The pickups that shouldn't be active with the switch position you will hear nothing from the amp. Once you determine that all the pickups are working properly, leave the guitar in position 5 (Bridge pickup).

10. With the guitar switch in position 5 (Bridge Pick Up) flick the toggle switch. With mine, with the toggle switch up towards the neck the mod is off and I have normal Strat combinations. With it down I have the neck and bridge combo. Flick the toggle and test the neck and bridge pickups. You should hear the tapping on both with nothing on the middle. This will only work with the 5 way switch in position 5 (bridge position)

There you have it! A very simple mod. From the outside your mod should look like the picture below. I would not try this mod with the DG-20 EMG system. I contacted them about it and the tech told me he had never heard of doing this. Since it is a 9v powered system, you would need to use a beefier switch.

I take no responsibility for any damage that you may do to your equipment. If you are unsure of what to do, take the directions to a professional and have them mod it for you!

I've included here a very short demo sound file of a Clean Strat with the Mod in effect......Neck/Bridge Mod