Dan Armstrong Series/Parallel Blend Pot Mod | Part 2

◀ Part 1

A Schecter Gets the Mod

An MIJ Schecter S-Style was in the shop recently to have the Dan Armstrong Series/Parallel Blend Pot Mod installed. This particular guitar featured three ceramic single-coils, a CRL five-way selector switch, a treble bleed circuit, three full-sized 500K pots, a generic output jack, and copper foil shielding. 

My instructions were to install the Armstrong mod with Gavitt Wire, retain the treble bleed circuit, and replace the tone cap with a 0.022uf K73-16. And so, after verifying the integrity of the existing electronics, I went to work with my soldering iron, solder sucker, and desoldering braid. Clearing excess solder from pot/switch lug eyelets and the backs of pots proved to be a daunting task indeed. Once desoldering had been taken care of, a casualty was discovered, namely, the treble bleed circuit. I guess the heat was a little too much for the tiny ceramic cap to bear.

Damaged Treble Bleed Capacitor

Installing the Armstrong Mod had its fair share of challenges, especially when it came to cramming more than one component into a lug eyelet, and soldering them in place. Another issue concerned the negative leads of both the neck and bridge pickups, which were way too short to reach the blend pot. The only solution was to splice both leads to a length of wire, solder them together, insulate the joint with heat shrink tubing, and solder the free end to lug L2 of the blend pot. After the mod was fully installed, the final step was wiring in a new treble bleed circuit between the input and output lugs of the volume pot. 

Wiring Diagram

Rewired Output Jack

New Trem Claw Ground

Rewired Five-Way Switch

Spliced Neck and Bridge Negative Leads

Tone Pot, K73-16 Cap, Blend Pot

Volume Pot and Bridge Pickup

New Treble Bleed Circuit

I'm pleased to say that the installed Dan Armstrong Series/Parallel Blend Pot Mod worked as it should on this MIJ Schecter S-Style. With the blend knob turned down, the five-way switch operated in the usual manner. However, when the blend knob was maxed, these were the results:

• Position 1: Neck/Middle Pickups in Series
• Position 2: Middle/Bridge Pickups in Parallel/Out of Phase
• Position 3: Middle Pickup Only
• Position 4: Neck/Middle Pickups in Parallel/Out of Phase
• Position 5: Middle/Bridge Pickups in Series