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The following FAQ information is available:
Placing Orders
How do I make payment?
Can I exchange an item?
What is your refund policy?
What warranty do you provide?
Can I get an Extended Warranty?
U.S. Shipping Notes
When do you ship orders?
Do you backorder items?
International Shipping Notes
International Orders (We do NOT ship to China)
Miscellaneous
How can I contact you?
Do you have metal control plates or gold plated switches?
Are your products for a left-hand player?
My 4 wire humbucker also has a thick bare wire in addition to the four different colored wires. Where should this bare wire go?
Why do you use 500k potentiometers?
What are the best pickups to use?
What is the maximum number of pickup tones that are available?
I have two 4-wire humbuckers and your T4-Switch. How can I connect one of the neck coils in series with one of the bridge coils to get that "wide" humbucker effect?
Can I use the T4-Switch product with three pickup coils?
Can I use the T3-Switch product with two pickup coils?
My dual-rail single coil size Strat humbucker loses volume when the two coils are in reverse-phase. Why does this happen?
We exclusively use PayPal's shopping cart system because it is secure.
You do NOT need to be a member of PayPal to make purchases.
You can make payment using any of the options that are available with PayPal.
If you make payment using "pay by check", your item will be shipped after PayPal confirms that payment for your check has cleared.
Within 14 days of the purchase date, products with packaging in unopened and unused condition that were purchased directly from our website (AweSome-Guitars.com) can be returned at the purchaser's expense to exchange for other product(s) that are listed on our website. To return any product for exchange, you need to use our website Contact Form to request a RA (Return Authorization) number and and be accompanied by a copy of your PayPal-generated proof-of-purchase receipt. The RA number must be on the returned container shipping label otherwise it will be refused. Enclose a note that states the item part number you wish to receive in exchange.
If the desired exchange product is of equal or larger value than that of the item(s) returned, there is no restocking fee. If the desired exchange product is of lesser value than that of the item(s) returned, a 15 percent restocking fee is applied to each returned item. The amount due (if any) for the exchange item to be received will be sent to you as a PayPal payment request and must be paid prior to shipment of the exchanged item.
The following published refund policy applies to all refund requests.
All AweSome Musical Instruments products purchased directly from our website (www.AweSome-Guitars.com) automatically come with an hassle-free, unconditional limited 14-day money-back warranty. If you receive a product that is broken and will not work as stated, we will either take it back and give you a replacement or a full refund — at your request (see "What is your refund policy" for details). You have our personal guarantee that you never have to worry about being stuck with a defective product purchase. All AweSome products are completely and lucidly described on our website and include adequate product photos. In addition, you are encouraged to ask questions before making any purchase. If the product you purchased is not defective, but is just not what you wanted, it's yours. You were given clear opportunity to ask questions before your purchase. This is a business, not a government social service agency that addresses buyer remorse issues.
Defective products that are covered under our limited 14-day money-back warranty can be returned at the purchaser's expense to receive either a replacement or refund.
To return any product for replacement or refund, use the following procedure:
You should use our Contact Form to ask questions before purchasing any of our products. Purchaser assumes all risk of liability with respect to the installation and use of these products.
All products purchased directly from our website (www.AweSome-Guitars.com) automatically come with a manufacturers 14-day warranty. You can also purchase Extended Warranty coverage specifically for our Pickup Switch UpgradeTM products (either T4-Switch, T3-Switch or T2-Switch products) or any product that that contain these switch products. An Extended Warranty can be purchased only at the time you purchase the applicable product at the published MSRP, for either a one-year or two-year period. The receipt for the Extended Warranty must be the same date as the receipt for the applicable product or the Warranty will not be honored.
The following published Extended Warranty policy applies to all applicable products.
Orders are normally shipped within three business days (between Monday to Friday). We currently only ship using the U.S. Postal Service. Our first class shipping to U.S. addresses includes insurance and delivery confirmation.
Although rare, there are times when we are in an out-of-stock situation for a specific product. This can occur when we have a special incentive or advertising that results in more sales than normal. We ship your order with currently stocked products and your backorder product(s) are shipped when they are in stock.
International orders are only shipped via the U.S. Postal Service. USPS does not provide tracking information for shipments outside the United States. Because your shipped product will involve the customs agencies of both your country and our country, it may be as much as six to eight weeks (information directly from USPS) before you receive your item. This is something over which we have no control. Rest assured that you will receive your order. No shipped items have ever been lost.
Import duties, taxes, and charges are not included in the item price or shipping charges. These charges are the buyer's responsibility. Please check with your country's customs office to determine what these additional costs will be prior to bidding / buying. These charges are normally collected by the delivering freight (shipping) company or when you pick the item up - do not confuse them for additional shipping charges. We do not mark merchandise values below value or mark items as "gifts" - U.S. and International government regulations prohibit such behavior.
We do NOT ship to China or it's territories/provinces (e.g., Hong Kong, Singapore, etc.), whom we blacklist because they do NOT have a track record of respecting the intellectual property and patent rights of other people on the planet. The piracy of intellectual property by hords of Chinese firms (with the complicit support of their government) has become a HUGE problem to every value producer on earth. Because of this, we REFUSE to sell to anyone in China.
The government of China actively suppresses freedom of speech, freedom of the press, internet freedom, freedom to worship, procreation freedom — but say that they are powerless to stop counterfeiting activities in their own country? "Harrow!" Until the government of China changes it's attitude about this very serious worldwide problem, it is this company's policy to prevent agents of this evil empire from ripping us off. It behooves the ripoff nation government of China to quickly clean this up if they want to integrate into the global economy.
Until China's government and its businesses start behaving in a responsible way by respecting the rights of other value producers, this business considers them to be a pack of lying thieves that have no credibility.
Warning: If you are located in China or it's territories/provinces, Do NOT Order From Us. If you do, your payment will be designated and accepted as a non-refundable "attonement reparation payment gift" for your country's decades of theft and counterfeiting. This company does NOT want your business. Go away.
We are exclusively an online business. We have no retail store, no salespeople and no telephone staff. But we support our customers 100% and are more than happy to answer any of your questions via email. You can use our Contact Form to send us your questions or comments. Emails are answered when time permits during normal business hours: M-F/ 9am-5pm E.S.T.
We only offer black plastic control plates for our Telecaster and Jazz Bass products. Making a custom stamped chrome control plate (for either the Telecaster and Jazz Bass) incurs a $5,000 die charge, either initially, or each time a change is made. Based on customer feedback we have already made four changes to the Tele plate and two changes to the Jazz Bass plate. It is not a wise business decision to expend $30,000 on a product that does not have the volume to warrant this cost. If you want a metal control plate, you can always purchase one of our products and use the plastic control plate as a pattern to have someone make a metal control plate. You then simply transfer the parts to a specially made control plate.
We only use standard chrome mini switches because it conveys a professional look. We also use nautical grade stainless steel flast washers under the mini switch lock nuts to prevent the lock nuts from gouging your pickguard or guitar finish. In addition, the stainless steel washers will not rust over time from sweaty hand exposure. With the KIT version you can replace the standard mini switches that we provide with your gold plated versions.
We have upgrade products for right-hand Stratocasters with either an SSS or HSS pickup configuration. Customers with different needs (either any left-hand pickup configuration, or any right-hand non-SSS or HSS pickup configuration) can directly contact Virgil at WD Music products custom pickguard department (wdmusic.com) at 1-800-449-9348 and have them make a custom pickguard made to your specifications using the AweSome Musical Instruments template. You can purchase our Stratocaster Upgrade product (item #31 and #32) from AweSome-Guitars.com (which includes our T3-Switch or T4-Switch product and wired volume/tone controls with plastic knobs) to populate your custom pickguard. Our Telecaster and Jazz Bass products can be used in either right-hand or left-hand instruments. All of our Pickup Switch UpgradeTM products (either the assembled versions or KIT versions) can be used in either right-hand or left-hand electric guitar or bass instruments.
The fifth thick bare wire is intended to be a ground wire for the metal pickup housing. Normally, this will be connected to a suitable electrical ground location, such as the back of potentiometers with existing soldered grounding connections or the ground lead coming from the input jack. One caveat: use an ohmmeter to make sure this fifth wire is not electrically connected to any of the four pickup coil wires. If you read any continuity (e.g., a resistance of 3K to 12K) between this fifth wire and any of the four pickup coil wires, then do not connect this lead to ground. Tape it off so it is insulated or the Pickup Switch UpgradeTM product that you purchased will not operate correctly.
We use 500K potentiometers because most people want to get the maximum 'ring-in-a-bell' brilliance out of their instrument. You can always turn down the tone control on a 500K control to electrically appear as a 250K control, but you can't turn up "an additional 250K resistance" with a 250K control. I am sure that you know that the 250K tone control will bleed more of the brilliant high tones to ground through the RC circuit than the 500K tone control and will result in a less brilliant sound. Customers who prefer 250K controls are free to replace our controls with the ones they want.
Our Pickup Switch UpgradeTM products work best when you have a 'diversity' of dissimilar pickups because this will produce lots of unique tone surprises. This is one of the strengths of our products. You can cobble together an instrument with a hodge-podge of different pickups and come up with an instrument that has no equal (tone-wise). Conversely, instruments with pickups that are almost identical in specification (i.e., same number of windings, same magnet type) will provide you with 35 or 76 pickup tones. However, the 'range' of pickup tones (from muddy/dirty blues to tin-canny) will be somewhat narrow. By replacing one pickup with another one that has a different characteristic (e.g., different coil impedance or different magnet type), you will experience a much wider and richer range of pickup tones. By using our products, multiple pickup tone variations can be unlocked – and this is before your analog or digital processing unit(s) get the chance to add even more flavoring to your output.
A previous T4-Switch customer and guitar fanatic was doing research work in the local university's Autology (hearing) department. He said that when you map out the range of pickup tones from Blues to Tin-Canny and start carving that range into smaller and smaller equal tone segments, the maximum number of pickup tones that the average human ear can distinguish is 72. In other words, if you took one of these 72 tones and split it in half - then played one half of the tone followed by the other half, test subjects couldn't tell the difference between the two halves. Granted, it's not published science, but very telling and useful. Taking into account that there will always be several pickup tones that will be so close together as to be virtually identical (it's inevitable when combining multiple pickup coils), our T4 Pickup Switch UpgradeTM product is a practical, simple and powerful compromise. This also means that it is pointless to come out with a "T5-Switch" to produce more pickup tones. We have hit a wall (from a purely physics standpoint) and simply cannot make our products any better. This is as good as it gets. Fancy that!!
The T4-Switch product controls four separate pickup coils in two separate banks. The design was to keep it as simple as possible but also provide a jaw-dropping number of subtle pickup tones. The final design didn't permit 'spanning' a coil from one bank with a coil of the second bank to put them into series. However, our website's Document Library contains document titled "How To Span a Bridge coil with a Neck coil so they are in series" to augment the T4-Switch capability. By adding a 'spanner' switch (either the mini-toggle version or the push-pull potentiometer version) you can span coils from separate humbuckers - putting them into a series circuit - as well as get a total of 94 total pickup tones (with some limitation.) Although the 'spanner' switch (when used with the T4-Switch product) gives you access to more pickup tones, you will only have a 'different' subset of 72 tones - which may/not be to your liking. (see "What is the maximum number of pickup tones that are available?" topic for more information)
You can use the T4-Switch with three pickup coils. However, the total number of unique pickup sounds will be limited to 16. Many customers do this because they will eventually upgrade their three pickup coil instrument to one with four pickup coils.
You can use the T3-Switch with two pickup coils. However, the total number of unique pickup sounds will be limited to 6. Many customers do this because they will eventually upgrade their two pickup coil instrument to one with three pickup coils.
Due to the physics of these 'S' type humbuckers and with both the coils and magnets being so close together) when the two coils of this humbucker are put out-of-phase with each other, the output drops about 25 percent. This single pickup switch combination requires that you increase the amplifier volume for this pickup switch combination. This behavior would not have even been known except for people who are using our products.
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