5 Way Strat Switch With Spring Action

Strat CRL 5 way switch

The one and only CRL guitar switch - made in the U.S.A. This replacement Strat 5 way switch comes complete with two dome-head nickel mounting screws. Switch tip not included. CRL was the brand of choice for the original Fender Stratocaster's dating back to the 1950's and to this day still comes with the spring-action lever.

Standard U.S. size

Fits 1/16" (1.58mm) x 1-1/16" (26.98mm) slot

1-5/8" (41.27mm) centre to centre screw spacing

1-3/8" (34.92mm) cavity depth

Wiring:

These days the 5 way Strat switch is taken for granted but in the first 3 decades of the Stratocaster’s history (during the 1950’s, 60’s and most of the 70’s) the standard switch fitted at the Fender factory was a 3 position selector. The classic in-between pickup sounds were still achievable but players had to resort to carefully balancing the lever between positions to get the combination of bridge and middle and middle and neck pickups, now commonly referred to as positions 2 and 4 on a 5 way switch. It was only around 1977 did Fender start to fit a 5 way switch as standard to make it much easier to select all 5 tones. There is a common misconception that the combined pickup sounds in positions 2 and 4 are out of phase - this is not true and actually the pickups remain in-phase. The true sound of 2 pickups being out of phase with each other is a much thinner tone with a drop in volume but with a big emphasis on mid-range - somewhat of an acquired taste!

There are several ways to wire a standard Stratocaster - the most traditional method is as Leo Fender had initially devised during the Strat's inception which is to have the middle tone control directly affecting the neck pickup and the lower tone altering the middle pickup, leaving the bridge pickup without any tone control options. Western Swing was prevalent in the 50’s (and also one of Leo’s favourite musical genres) and the best way to recreate the clear and singing tones of the pedal steel, as heard on the recordings of bands like Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, was to use the bright bridge pickup on the Strat. However, just as the 3 way switch was later replaced with a 5 way switch in 1977, guitar tones evolved over time and guitarists were not always wanting to have an ultra bright tone in the bridge position and so a simple wiring modification on the switch allows the lower tone to affect the bridge pickup so that the high treble frequencies can be tamed, leaving the middle tone pot to share the tonal duties for both middle and neck pickups.

Do you need a diagram for either of these two wiring methods discussed above? Simply email us with your request or add a note at the checkout stage of our website and we’ll happily include the correct wiring diagram for you.

Delivery:

Any order placed before 2.30pm on a working day will generally be sent the same day. If the order is placed after 2.30pm on a weekday or anytime during the weekend or a public holiday we will send the order the next working day.

UK Orders: 

• Royal Mail First Class - this costs £1.95 per order but becomes free if your order value is £30.00 or higher. Royal Mail typically aims to deliver First Class parcels for the next working day although can sometimes take up to 5 days. No signature is required upon delivery.
• DPD Courier - this service costs £6.50 per order but becomes free if your order value is £90.00 or higher. This is usually a next-working day service and DPD will send an email or text on the day of the delivery with a timed 1 hour delivery slot. (However DPD doesn't guarantee this) (If urgent please use RM Special Delivery) This service is only available for UK mainland addresses. A signature is required upon receipt of the parcel and deliveries can be made anytime up until 6.00pm on the day of the delivery. 
• Royal Mail Special Delivery - this service costs £9.95 and Royal Mail guarantee that the delivery will be made the next working day before 1.00pm. Royal Mail will email or text you with delivery updates and a signature is required upon receipt of the parcel.

 

 

International Orders:

We are pleased to announce that any EU orders placed on our website that amounts to a total of €150.00 or less will be inclusive of VAT and fees. Therefore, the price that you pay at our checkout is final pricing - no additional handling fees or import fees.  Any order that is above €150.00 will not be inclusive of VAT or import fees and these additional fees will need to be paid to your local postal service, once the goods arrive at your local customs. (Please note, the all-fee-inclusive scheme is only applicable to business-to-consumer (B2C) transactions and cannot be applied to any business-to-business (B2B) transactions)

 

• European Registered Post - for any address in Europe, this service costs £9.95 per order and is sent using Royal Mail Tracked service. In most cases, the parcel is handed over to the local postal service to deliver it. A signature is generally not required but will be tracked to ensure a safe delivery. Most parcels take an average of 3 - 7 working days to deliver.
• European Registered Courier - for any address in Europe, this service costs £30.00 per order and we will select a courier to deliver the parcel. A signature is required upon receipt of the parcel. Delivery times vary but typically take 2 - 5 working days.

 

• International Registered Post - for any address outside of Europe, this service costs £12.95 per order and is sent using the Royal Mail Tracked service. In most cases, the parcel is handed over to the local postal service to deliver it. A signature is generally not required but will be tracked to ensure a safe delivery. Most parcels take an average of 4 - 10 working days to deliver.
• International Registered Courier - for any address outside of Europe, this service costs £30.00 per order and we will select a courier to deliver the parcel. A signature is required upon receipt of the parcel. Delivery times vary but typically take 3 - 7 working days.

If you have not received your order after the stated times above, please email us requesting a tracking number and we will be able to tell you more information. It is best to check the status with us as after a few weeks because most local sorting offices will end up returning it back to us if they have had no contact with the customer.

Returns:

At Armstrong Music, we believe in providing our customers with the utmost satisfaction and peace of mind. That's why we proudly offer a 30-day, no quibble returns policy. We understand that sometimes a product may not meet your expectations or requirements and we want you to be completely confident in your purchase. If for any reason you're not fully satisfied with your order, simply return it to us within 30 days of purchase and we'll gladly provide a refund (minus original postage fees) or exchange. Our commitment to exceptional customer service extends to hassle-free returns, ensuring that you can shop with confidence knowing that we stand behind the quality and value of our products. We kindly request that the returned goods must be in their original state (no damage) and any goods or accessories that accompany the returned product must also come back to us. The goods should also be returned with their original box, packing and accessories.

If the return is due to missing or faulty parts then we will offer a full refund or replacement provided we are aware of this within 30 days. Any refund, which is due to a fault, other defect or a mistake on our part, will include a refund of the applicable delivery charge.

PICKGUARDS: Do not remove the protective cover or place any components on this pickguard until you have made a "dry run" on the instrument. Make sure all mounting holes and pickup cuts are positioned correctly. Pickguard replacement warranty will be void if the protective cover has been removed. Removing the protective film means that the item is not in a re-saleable condition and therefore we cannot accept it back for a refund. 

Please ensure that any returns are sent using a registered postal or courier service as we cannot be responsible for undelivered parcels being sent to us. Please post returns to the following address:

Armstrong Music
Woodreeve Farm
Capel Road
Ruckinge
Ashford
Kent
TN26 2EJ

This returns policy does not affect your legal rights.

We offer Paypal as the payment gateway on our website. 

PayPal accepts all major credit and debit cards and no cardholder information is ever passed unencrypted and any messages sent to our servers from PayPal are signed using MD5 hashing to prevent tampering. You can be completely assured that nothing you pass to PayPal's servers can be examined, used or modified by any third parties attempting to gain access to sensitive information.

When you pay with Paypal, all information is protected by SSL with an encryption key length of 168 bits (the highest level commercially available). Your personal information is stored on Paypal's servers and heavily guarded, both physically and electronically. To further shield your credit card and bank numbers, Paypal do not directly connect their firewall-protected servers to the internet.