The Making of the Misfit Karmacaster

Hi Folks!  Been a while since I've gotten a really "Cool" Guitar reapair to talk about.
First, the story of the name.  A good friend, talented, dedicated musician's coming up the ranks here in the Finger Lakes of good ole New York, fronts a band named "Misfit Karma."  He started the band, playing acoustic guitar and singing lead.  As the years flew by, lo and behold, he has become a very worthy lead picker in the process.  Reciently, he brought me his acoustics to fix and this knock off "Strat" somebody put together for him.    Right off the bat, it sounded bad;  Just not like a Strat should.  The bridge pickup seemed to be out of phase with the other two, which just sounded wimpy anyway. 
I called him and advised him that we should change out the pickups with a new matched set.  He said "Sure."  I said "While I'm in there, let us install the Eric Clapton Mid-Boost board" which turns the bottom tone control over to a mid boost gain up to 25Db.  It's nice, right on board so you can dial it up for a lead and back off at will.  He said "Sure!"


 As I have been ordering tools and guitars parts from Stewart McDonald Supply for probably 30 years, I suggested their line of Vintage Vibe Golden Age Strat pickups.  The Clapton Mid-Boost Mod's, attainable on Ebay.








Armed with diagrams, schematics, I was ready!

   













The first step was to remove the strings and neck for routing my cavity to house the circuit board.

Above, we have the pickguard removed and ready to gut the old pickups and controls out.  The only component I'm keeping, is the five way switch.  All the remaining electronics have to be switched out and are supplied with the boost kit.

          I decided to rout my circuit board cavity to the left of the original cavities, as you can see by my light pencil marks.  Of course, the pickguard will cover everything.

And,I know I'm not to begin a sentence with and.........Here we have the routed cavity.

There, cozy as a flea in a rug!        

Here we have the circuitboard wired up with all the new controls.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

I decided to mount the 9V battery in the back tremelo cavity.  The "Skinny" guy wants the all the springs in and the trem block blocked off like Eric.  I extended the wires to the battery. 

I recieved a bit of shock after wiring up the new 3 conductor jack.  I mounted it in the flange and found out it will not fit into place!  The new replacement jack protruded farther out then the winpy original jack!  I had to open up the chanel so the new jack would fit.  I could not rout the cavity, but I had to channel under to open up room.,without disturbing the flange mount screw hole.  I used a hand held drill to create a pilot hole, followed up by a large countersink bit.  It worked perfect!

 

I got her all buttoned up and pluged a battery in and a cord to the amp.  With the neck and strings still off, I did a tap test on the pickup pole pieces. 

 

All righty, it looks as though we can string her up and continue with a set up.

 

I highly sing the praises of this little mid boost kit.