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General
These instructions should help to guide you in installing our onboard guitar effects. These instructions are not compressive. If you have questions specific to your guitar or need more support, please use our Contact Us form to reach us. As always, we recommend professional installation.
Working with electronics, like those found in our effects, poses the risk for injury or property damage. Please follow all safety practices for any tool, material, or equipment (such as screwdrivers, soldering irons, various cutters, and glues or solvents, etc.) used in installing or operating our effects. By using our effects, you accept and agree to all the terms on this page.
Our FAQ page lists the dimensions of our effects and their onboard battery. Your first step is to ensure your guitar has enough available space to secure an effect and a battery. You may also decide to make modifications to your guitar to make room for an effect and a battery.
We cannot suggest that permanent modifications are a good choice for everyone. Such modifications could devalue or damage your guitar. If you decide to permanently modify your guitar, you do it at your own risk. Please use our Contact Us form to reach us with any questions about modifying your guitar.
We label all connections on our effects as follows: I (input), O (output), G (ground).
We suggest that when installing our effects you follow these general guidelines.
Complete as much work outside of and away from your guitar as possible. This minimizes the risk of damage.
Start by removing any components (pots, jacks, etc.), and disconnecting any necessary wires to make room for the effect.
Make all new ground connections first.
Connect the signal from your pickups or switch (hot out) to the input (hot in) of the effect.
Connect the output of the effect, either directly to the output jack or to the output side of the switch you use to select between the effect and bypass.
Connect the battery's the negative (ground) side, preferably to one of the two ground connections of a stereo output jack.
Whenever possible, we recommend testing any effect installation to ensure the effect works as intended before closing any control cavity or setting up your guitar.
Tone Filters
Our tone filters can be installed with or without a switch.
To wire a filter without a switch, we recommend wiring it directly to your guitar's output jack (as long as you have space). Connect the ground to the ground side of the jack first. Then, connect the output side of the filter to the hot side of the jack. This allows you to connect the hot signal (coming from your switch or volume control) to the input side of the filter.
To connect our filters to a switch (a mini toggle or the kind found on a push-pull pot), we recommend connecting the filter input and output to lugs one and two of a DPDT switch. Lugs three and four become the hot in (from your pickups or switch) and hot out (to the jack). Lugs five and six are connected with a jumper as shown below.
Tone filter attached to a jack.
Switch wiring for filters or effects.
Clean Machine and Mini Clean Machine
The Mini Clean Machine is designed to be installed directly into your signal path. In guitars with a primary volume control, we recommend installing it in between your hot signal and the primary volume control.
The Mini Clean Machine can also be installed, via a mini toggle switch or push-pull pot, between your guitar's signal and its output jack as the last component before the jack.
In either arrangement, we recommend the same switch wiring as for our tone filters. Connect the ground wire from the effect to the back of the nearest pot. Connect the ground wire from the battery to the ground on your jack as shown below.
The Clean Machine, with its tone control, may require a more involved installation.
Our most popular, and one of the simplest, involves reserving one tone knob specifically for the Clean Machine. In S-type guitars, this leaves you with a primary volume, primary tone, and Clean Machine active tone. In two-humbucker-type guitars, this leaves you with volume controls for either pickup, primary tone, and Clean Machine active tone. Guitars with four or more control knobs also have the option to isolate the effect's volume and tone, which allows for independent settings of the effect and your guitar's bypassed signal.
Upon request, we can ship your Clean Machine with a mini trimpot mounted to the effect instead of an externally controlled tone pot. This arrangement allows you to preset the Clean Machine tone while preserving your guitar's original controls. Please use our Custom Effects Order Form to order this modification.
In any installation, the switching between the Clean Machine and bypass are the same as for the Mini Clean Machine and our tone filters.
Switch wiring for filters or effects.
Wiring Battery ground to output jack.
Stereo shown; mono jacks wire battery ground to sleeve*.
Custom Wiring Harness
Our custom harnesses are intended to replace all of the components in your guitar. We recommend following the general guidelines above. Should your harness need special instructions, we'll provide those to you directly.
Last Updated: May 1, 2023