Looking for solutions for a guitar body which is too thin?

[txspecial81strat]

Hey guys,
   For the first time i have a customer who wants some mods done to his guitar that honestly are impossible due to the thickness of the body. Its a Tele, but has been taken down to bare wood at some point, and now, When i tried to install the fender super switch, the wafers make botttom out leaving a 1/8 gap between the plate and the body. 

The only solution i have been able to come up with is cutting some type of spacer (of wood most likely) But i am not sure how it would look/feel to the player. Before i wasted time, I was just looking to see if anyone else has encountered this problem and what solutions were you able to come up with to resolve this? Thanks guys/ 

Edit:also, i have taken as much wood out of the bottom of the cavity as low as possible without causing problems already

[thetragichero]

how much clearance from the body to the fingerboard? enough to add a 1/8-1/4" cap to?
could also do both sides, although I'd do one at a time to ensure that you get all holes/routs correct
if not enough to do on the front, could add wood just on the back, and you can get as figured and fancy as the client's budget allows
great thing about a flat slab body, eh?

[frets]

Hi Txspecial, I am so sorry you’re stuck in this dilemma.  I have done this in the past and it will get you at least an 1/8th of an inch.  It’s a bit radical though.
On each wafer, the Switch lugs are physically attached whereby each lug attachment is protruding from the other side of the wafer(s); i.e., the little prongs holding the lug on the wafer. For clarity, I use a regular switch to illustrate what I’m talking about. The red arrow is pointing to a set of prongs for a lug. On a Superswitch you just have another wafer with the same.




You cut the lugs, sand the wafers down by a 1mm or so. You then use a thinner wire like a 26 AWG and solder your wires directly to the protruding lug prongs (cloth wire will not work). So, to recap, lugs are cut, wafer sanded down a bit, and wiring is done on the exposed prongs.  It’s a tricky solder but can be done.

[newey]

How about a 1/8" shim under the control panel, wood or metal?

[reTrEaD]

Hi txspecial81strat

I don't know the depth of the Superswitch, but since you have one in hand you could measure from the top of the mounting flange to the deepest part of the wafer.

The Schaller Megaswitch M performs the same switch functions. Its depth is 30mm (1.182 inches). That might be shallow enough to fit.

schaller.info/en/megaswitches-preamp-pickups/420/megaswitches?number=15310006&c=19

[Jaga]

Schaller also has Megaswitch Rotary which might help in this situation since the orientation of the switch is different.

schaller.info/en/megaswitches-preamp-pickups/306/megaswitch-rotary

[txspecial81strat]

Thank you

[txspecial81strat]

Thanks, I actually did do something similar to this before i read the post, but it wound up working out , i also bent the metal part of the swith that has the screw holes in it, i bent it to where the metal was touching the wafer and there was no gap on one side. Looking at the switch it will be bent on the top sidebut the part that butts up to the control plate is still squared. Doing this actually did create more room, both by closing the gap, and it also caused the witch to mount at a slight angle inside the cavity. BE it just a few degrees..it seemed to really provide alot more clearance. Just had to make sure to re route the wires behind the switch. Worked out great IMO.