INSTALLATION INTO GUITARS WITH PICKGUARDS

A list of ELECTRICAL CONNECTION DIAGRAMS for various pickguard guitars is located down near the bottom of this page.

These guitars include mainly Fender Stratocasters® (and copies), and Ibanez Jems®. Ibanez also makes some RG models that are similar to the Jem. The Parker Nitefly® is also in this category.

ABOUT PICKGUARDS AND THE STEALTH PLUS: The pickguard is both a blessing and a curse for doing installations. The good part is that it makes it easy to wire. The hard part is that multiple trips in and out of the guitar are usually necessary to get things tweaked up. If you make a mistake and things don't work, it can be very frustrating indeed. Plus, each assembly/disassembly cycle adds stress to the guitar and strings.

Shielding foil and uncontrolled squealing (oscillation) The pickguard foil must be removed from the pickup area for the sustainer to work properly. (Mirror pickguards have the same problem.) Otherwise, the symptom is poor performance, particularly in Harmonic Mode, and squealing (uncontrolled oscillation). Technical explanation: The driver radiates a pulsating magnetic field in response to the Sustainiac input signal (bridge pickup signal). This pulsating magnetic field induces pulsating electrical currents to flow in the conductive metal. These pulsating currents then in turn radiate their own pulsating magnetic fields which are received by the bridge pickup. The result is that the magnetic balance that is carefully designed into the Sustainiac driver no longer works. The only way to stop the squealing is to turn the sustainer gain down, which pretty much defeats the purpose of having one. Allparts.com has replacement Strat pickguards at reasonable prices, with no foil around the pickup area.

However, if you have the Ibanez Jem "MIRROR" guitar, it works fine. The reason for this puzzling contradiction is that the all-mirror finish has SO MUCH conductive metal that the stray magnetic energy gets effectively dissipated before it reaches the area near the bridge pickup.

FENDER STANDARD STRATOCASTER®: The Stealth PLUS was designed so that it would fit into the Strat electronics cavity, with no routing required. This was a prime requirement. The circuit board fits in between the pot controls and the selector switch. The Strat volume control is not altered. The middle tone control is replaced by the Stealth PLUS Harmonic Mode control. The bottom tone control is replaced by the Stealth PLUS ON/OFF control. The tone control function remains, but it becomes a MASTER tone control. The pickguard wiring goes pretty quickly, 1 to 3 hours depending on skill and experience. We usually take off the neck (after capo-ing the first fret to keep the strings from flying away) to access the pickguard. Much faster than re-stringing.

SEMI-INSTALL KIT FOR STRATS®: For $65 extra, we will send you a kit that has been pre-wired to a Strat pickguard. This includes all the guitar controls plus the Sustainiac controls pre-wired. This takes 90% of the work out of the installation. All that remains to be done is to connect the pickups, driver, output jack, and battery.

OTHER STRAT VERSIONS;: The Stratocaster line has been expanded to include many variations on the basic guitar. There are versions with HSS and HSH pickup configurations, "Roland-Ready" versions with the GK-2S hexaphonic synth pickup, versions with their "S-1" push-push switch for coil-tapping etc. We have done useful and successful installations on numerous Strats with these options. The models having bridge humbuckers and bridge/neck humbuckers have built-in coil-tapping functions. Some have the 4-section Superswitch, with 24 contacts (the same switch that we sell for $18). On Strats with this switch, the Stealth PLUS circuit board will not fit into the cavity unless the Superswitch is turned around. But then, the switch contacts face the outside of the cavity, and routing will be necessary to make it fit. The only way we can retain the bridge humbucker coil-tap function is to do this. The easier installation option is to replace the Superswitch with a CRL selector. Then, you can replace the Strat volume control with a push-pull switch for coil-tapping. If a HSS Strat has their normal 2-section "CRL" switch, the coil-tap function will go away unless you put a Superswitch in there or a push-pull tap switch.

IBANEZ JEM: The Jem installation is similar to the Strat. We used to route a new cavity into Jem guitars because of the rather small electronics cavity in these guitars. Now, we fit the Stealth PLUS board into the Jem electronics cavity like we do a Strat. This does require a couple of "mini-routes" inside the Jem cavity to make room for the connectors of the circuit board. These are really cavity "bump-out" routes only take a few minutes and are covered up by the pickguard.

COIL-TAPPING and IBANEZ JEM: Most newer Jems use a special pickup selector switch having four independent sections that are all actuated by the 5-position lever. Click here for a PDF drawing of this "VLX-91 switch". This drawing also has the SUPERSWITCH on it for comparison. There are 24 contacts on this switch, six for each section. This arrangement is connected so that the bridge and neck humbuckers are "coil-tapped" in positions 2 and 4 of the selector. Position 2 is the blend of neck and middle pickups, position 4 the blend of bridge and middle. These blends with coil-taps are both hum-cancelling, and yield rather good "Strat-quack" sounds. Using this switch with the Sustainiac installation, you can retain the position 4 bridge/middle blend with the Sustainiac installed. With the sustainer ON, you only get the bridge tap in position 2 because the middle pickup is automatically switched out. This is because the sustainer won't work right with the middle pickup on.

Older Jems do not use this VLX-91 switch. They use an 8-contact, 2-section switch. This switch also has the coil-tapping function in positions 2 and 4. But, when you install the Sustainiac you have to delete the coil-tapping function unless you replace the 2-section switch with a 4-section switch. We sell such a 4-section (also called "4-pole) switch. We sell this "Superswitch" for $18. Click here for a PDF drawing of this "Superswitch". This drawing also has the VLX-91 switch on it for comparison.

JEM "MIRROR" GUITAR : As we explain near the top of this page, this guitar works great with the Stealth PLUS. And, you don't have to remove the aluminum coating from the pickguard. There is so much conductive metal on the guitar that the magnetically-induced currents are so spread out that by the time they reach the bridge pickup, they are effectively dissipated.

TOGGLES VS. PUSH-PULL IN STRAT AND JEM : The best way to install the Sustainiac Stealth PLUS into these guitars is to use our push-pull pot/switch controls. On Strats, this yields an installation that retains the original appearance. On 2-pot Ibanez guitars, you will lose the tone control unless you are willing to drill for a third control (Sustainiac Harmonic Mode control) in between the two original controls. Adding the third control in the middle is the way we now do most of our Ibanez Jem installations.

You can use the optional toggle controls. Two toggles will fit nicely on the Ibanez guitars in between the two knobs. But, in a Strat, you will have trouble getting them squeezed in there in a way that makes them easy to access, without removing the middle control. We have put one toggle between the top and middle knobs, and the other toggle between middle and bottom knob.

FURTHER INSTALLATION NOTES, BATTERY-MOUNTING, ETC: Go the INSTALLATION SECTION for more general info on installing the Sustainiac Stealth PLUS sustainer.

Stealth PLUS installed in a Strat type guitar

Strat pickguard wiring

LIST OF PDF INSTALLATION DRAWINGS FOR STRATOCASTER AND JEM GUITARS This list is for the most popular installation plans for these guitar types. We have other drawings not contained on this list. If you don't see what you want, send us an email. We have a large library of installation drawings. Once in a while, someone comes up with a request that we don't have. Then, we create a new drawing.