Guitar Killswitch

Step 3 Opening the guitar

First, cut all of your strings off. Then unscrew all the screws holding the faceplate to the guitar.

Note: If you never took the faceplate off your guitar, the screws near the pickups and pickup selectors should not be unscrewed.

If you want, you can flip your faceplate upside down so that the components are showing. Be careful as there are 2 wires (one going to the output jack, and one grounded to the bridge) connected to other parts of the guitar, so don't yank too hard.

Comments

[kobezbro]

where do you open a telecaster?

[itsachen]

 I've never owned a tele-type guitar, but the telecaster has a front plate that you can remove, similar to the strat. The electronics should be housed inside.

[kobezbro]

oh ok, all the guts inside your strat startled me!  i thought that under the pickguard was just a flat guitar with pickups sticking out, do you know what i mean? but i opened 'er up and found the pickups and whatnot. i just gotta go to radioshack and get a button.

nice strat by the way, where did you get that pickguard?

[itsachen]

 Thanks.
Actually I get that question alot, but my pickguard came with my strat.

[kobezbro]

duh! the knobs and whatnot are silverish



is that an ibanez?

[itsachen]

 Nope. Its a "Made by Fender" Starcaster S2.
The sticker is from a sheet of Ibanez stickers my friend gave me.

[Glockenator]

theres an easier way of doing than taking apart your guitar
http://www.instructables.com/id/easy-killswitch/

[itsachen]

 Yeah, but this Instruct able is for the player looking for a more permanent installation. Plus its much more compact compared to the other one. Plus, Super Cameraman made the first easy-killswitch:
www.instructables.com/id/Removable-Guitar-Killswitch/

For the player looking for a permanent killswitch, I don't think a box taped to the profile of their guitar is the solution. Seriously.

[Glockenator]

well,yeah. but im not taking apart any of my guitars.except maybe to scallop it

[iceman45]

hi, how do you open up your guitar and do all this killswitch installing stuff if you dont have a faceplate? hehe im inda lost abt that

[itsachen]

I actually have gotten this alot so I'll copy and paste a previous response. acutally ive never done it before, but people who have used this instructable have on the back of your guitar there should be a couple of protective plastic plates. Unscrew the plate that is closest to the volume knobs and such on the other side. From there, you can drill a hole, through the back of the guitar to the front. A nice and easy place to put the switch could be between the knobs. Keep in mind, the switch attaches itself to something by friction fit via a nut, if u have a long channel (drilling through the back of the guitar) u might have to glue it or something. Any other questions just ask.

[oweng4000]

Drill A hole in your guitar that will fit the switch and then wire the rest.

[iceman45]

it's a Laguna LE524 HH.. actually, ive started to work on that killswitch, but have been too busy to finish it, so it's just a guitar with a hole... ive got it down now.. thanks, pandaman!

[itsachen]

acutally ive never done it before, but people who have used this instructable have on the back of your guitar there should be a couple of protective plastic plates. Unscrew the plate that is closest to the volume knobs and such on the other side. From there, you can drill a hole, through the back of the guitar to the front. A nice and easy place to put the switch could be between the knobs. Keep in mind, the switch attaches itself to something by friction fit via a nut, if u have a long channel (drilling through the back of the guitar) u might have to glue it or something. The included pic illustrates the back plates of a guitar with no faceplate. In this case, you wanna unscrew the bottom left plate. Any other questions just ask.

[HAL 9000]

 Is that a takamine gx-200, in sunburst finish?

[itsachen]

I'm actually not sure, I pulled it from Google images.
But the gx-200 has a glued in neck, not a neck through like the picture shows.

[cdousley]

yea i had o work on the jack on my les paul

[brytank01]

pandaman what kind of guitar is that exactly

[itsachen]

Its a Fender Starcaster S2

[brytank01]

how much did it cost

[itsachen]

100 bucks at my local best buy its actually not that bad if you adjust it and tweak around with it

[brytank01]

what do u mean by tweaking it? how did u adjust it

[itsachen]

truss rod adjustments to get rid of fretbuzz the action was alittle too high for me so i adjusted that plus the stock strings r crap... also i scalloped my fretboard (after i did this tutorial though)

[iceman45]

thanks so much.. haha, i totally forgot about those backplates

[TheMadScientist]

aha, so people other than me have accidentally unscrewed multi-position switches and pickups from their faceplate too.... HA