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I bought one of these Deaf Eddie switches about 15 years ago but couldn't remember all 30*** switch positions which include series and parallel linkages of 2 or 3 pickups, some with the bridge pu out of phase.
Besides I've always been mainly a Gibson guy and was still waging war against those damn Strats with their long scale neck (w/ only 21 frets!) and the warbly tuning of an unblocked trem bridge... Well, I have finally settled my feud with the Stratocaster family, in part due to the expanded selection of sounds from the Chromacaster. Here is the link to Deaf Eddie's website:
Deaf Eddie - Guitar Whacko!
My playing technique has changed radically since learning to fingerpick during my temporary switch to lap steel between 2010 and 2014 due to medical issues (two fingers on my fretting hand went numb due to pinched ulnar nerve.) I unbagged one of my many guitars the other day and discovered a 2002 MIM strat with a Chromacaster switch and Lindy Fralin Blues Special pickups.
These days I'm always playing with just my fingers unless the one of my fingertips or nails is in less than tiptop condition in which case I'll grab a V-Pick (usually a Traditional model but rotated 120° so that one of the round "shoulders" is plucking the strings.*****) On this strat my fingers and nails were catching on the raised staggered pole pieces on the middle pickup. I was going to check here to see if anyone makes a low profile middle pickup but decided instead to carefully push the pole pieces in so that they were unstaggered. Voila! I did have to lower the pickups a bit because my fingertips were still catching on the edge of the covers.
Here is a chart of the available linkages of the stock Chromacaster switch (he also makes other variations along with his Fat-O-Caster switch):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/80czq26dwu...4102439646.jpg
Steve A.
P.S. With Photobucket now charging $399.99 for remote hosting of your pix on forums, etc., I used my Dropbox to host the image of the Chromacaster chart. You need to navigate their menus to finally create the share link which then needs to be edited manually. There is a "?dl=0" tag at the end of the link which needs to be changed to "?dl=0" to work properly. But with 2GB free space on the Cloud you can upload tons of images (if you check their help pages you can increase the free space up to 7.5GB or possibly even more.)
P.P.S. Sound samples to follow!
*** There are many duplicates so there are a total 16 unique linkages.
***** The Traditional V-Pick is shaped like a regular pick — like my old favorite, the Clayton 1.0 or 1.5mm. This makes the tip more like the original medium symmetrically rounded V-Pick but with more "meat" to hold between my thumb and middle finger. It never felt right for me to hold a pick using my index finger — I read that Santana uses his middle finger, too, and not just when saluting our new presidente.
Besides I've always been mainly a Gibson guy and was still waging war against those damn Strats with their long scale neck (w/ only 21 frets!) and the warbly tuning of an unblocked trem bridge... Well, I have finally settled my feud with the Stratocaster family, in part due to the expanded selection of sounds from the Chromacaster. Here is the link to Deaf Eddie's website:
Deaf Eddie - Guitar Whacko!
My playing technique has changed radically since learning to fingerpick during my temporary switch to lap steel between 2010 and 2014 due to medical issues (two fingers on my fretting hand went numb due to pinched ulnar nerve.) I unbagged one of my many guitars the other day and discovered a 2002 MIM strat with a Chromacaster switch and Lindy Fralin Blues Special pickups.
These days I'm always playing with just my fingers unless the one of my fingertips or nails is in less than tiptop condition in which case I'll grab a V-Pick (usually a Traditional model but rotated 120° so that one of the round "shoulders" is plucking the strings.*****) On this strat my fingers and nails were catching on the raised staggered pole pieces on the middle pickup. I was going to check here to see if anyone makes a low profile middle pickup but decided instead to carefully push the pole pieces in so that they were unstaggered. Voila! I did have to lower the pickups a bit because my fingertips were still catching on the edge of the covers.
Here is a chart of the available linkages of the stock Chromacaster switch (he also makes other variations along with his Fat-O-Caster switch):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/80czq26dwu...4102439646.jpg
Steve A.
P.S. With Photobucket now charging $399.99 for remote hosting of your pix on forums, etc., I used my Dropbox to host the image of the Chromacaster chart. You need to navigate their menus to finally create the share link which then needs to be edited manually. There is a "?dl=0" tag at the end of the link which needs to be changed to "?dl=0" to work properly. But with 2GB free space on the Cloud you can upload tons of images (if you check their help pages you can increase the free space up to 7.5GB or possibly even more.)
P.P.S. Sound samples to follow!
*** There are many duplicates so there are a total 16 unique linkages.
***** The Traditional V-Pick is shaped like a regular pick — like my old favorite, the Clayton 1.0 or 1.5mm. This makes the tip more like the original medium symmetrically rounded V-Pick but with more "meat" to hold between my thumb and middle finger. It never felt right for me to hold a pick using my index finger — I read that Santana uses his middle finger, too, and not just when saluting our new presidente.