Idea for Onboard Effects

[GreenEye]

Stew Mac, in the town of my alma mater Ohio University, has a new body style they sell with a "universal" pickup cavity.  Using say, one humbucker in the bridge, you could house several onboard effects, a preamp, or even a tiny power amp in the extra space under the pickguard.

You could use ROG's fetzer/gem or ruby and actually have a guitar with its own onboard amp, you just plug into a board or cabinet.

Link:
http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Bodies,_necks,_wood/Bodies/Strat_Bodies.html

As an aside, I built a guitar with one of their flame-tops (tobacco burst), and it plays great.

[Fret Wire]

It's referred to as the "bathtub rout". It allows a manufacturer to save time and money by using one rout for all their different pick-up combo's. Yes, you put some electronics in there if all you were using was a bridge pu. You'd have to use rear access panels to change batteries. And you could use toggle switches or push-pull pots to activate.

[Mark Hammer]

I wish they would carry two-piece pickguards for Strats that would allow you to work on the electronics without having to remove EVERYTHING.  Once you've worked on a Tele, you realize how much a two-piece covering makes life easier.

[Fret Wire]

A body like Greeneye is talking about isn't drilled yet for a pickgaurd. You could take a one HB pickguard, and cut it in two. Drill added pickguard holes for support. If you cut it straight, and cleaned the cuts, it could meld together pretty good. The upper half could be removed without removing/detuning the strings.

[Fret Wire]

How about a Fetzer and Fuzz Face. With push-pull level pots instead of the tone controls. FF is set for max gain with a onboard trimmer. Volume on the guitar does the usual FF roll off. The Fetzer would be easy, pull up on the tone control to turn on, and set the level. No tone adjust for the bridge HB? Use the 5 or 3 way strat switch to select pre-determined value tone caps. It would look basically like a single HB pick up Strat with normal controls.

[nero1985]

i have an ONBOARD PREAMP wich is a J201 based, and i also have a WILD MOUSE from small bear on it too, i have a les paul and it has just enough room to fit both circuits with the 5 position rotary and the true bypass (toggle)

[Renegadrian]

It's referred to as the "bathtub rout".

Usually they call this one "the pool" - another way to call it...