| Author |
Topic: Rewiring Tele Pickup Switch |
Jack Stoner
From:
Kansas City, MO
|
Posted 17 Jan 2002 3:34 am |
|
I know this isn't steel. But, does anyone know if I can rewire the stock 5 position switch on my Nashville Tele so I can get the front and back pickups in the center position. As it's shipped from the factory the center position on the switch is for the center pickup.
The Nashville Tele has a center Strat pickup and the 5 position switch is wired like a Strat.
Stew-Max has a switch that will do this but if I can do it with the stock switch it saves $$. |
|
|
 |
ajm
From:
Los Angeles
|
Posted 17 Jan 2002 7:43 am
|
|
Not quite, but......
If you swap the leads on the switch for either neck and middle, or bridge and middle, you can get your bridge/neck combination in another switch position.
You're pretty electronics savvy so you can probably figure out easily what the remaining positions will give you.
Strat lovers can do this too, but the tone controls will also get moved around.
You could also wire up a blend control, but that project is a little more involved.
If there's a way to do it exactly like you want, then somebody here will probably know it.
|
|
|
|
D Schubert
From:
Columbia, MO, USA
|
Posted 17 Jan 2002 8:59 am
|
|
Another variant is to swap the wires for the middle and neck pickups AND to reverse the wires of the middle pickup, so that it's out-of-phase with it's neighbor. These would be the five positions:
bridge
bridge+neck
neck
neck+middle out-of-phase
middle
Another more involved trick is to wire up the bridge and neck pickups to a standard 3-way switch, and to get rid of the tone control altogether. Convert the tone pot to a separate volume control for the middle pickup so that it can be blended in with any of the other pickup combinations.
Also, check out the Telecaster Discussion Page -- www.tdpri.com -- a great source of "stealth wiring" tricks and other info.
|
|
|
|
Ed Kuhns
From:
Monroe, NY
|
Posted 17 Jan 2002 10:27 am
|
|
| Jack--I'm not sure HOW to do it but I'm sure it is possible because that's how my Tele is wired. I have a stock B-bender Tele which I had modified with a center pickup, and my center position of the 5-position switch is the neck plus bridge pickups. I wanted to keep that as one of the real classic Tele tones instead of having the center pickup by itself. I could look at the switch wiring and tell you how it was done if you want. Ed |
|
|
|
Jack Stoner
From:
Kansas City, MO
|
Posted 17 Jan 2002 5:24 pm
|
|
I did a cursory look at the switch and one side is completely empty (no wires) so it may be able to be rewired. Ed, I'd appreciate it if you would look at yours.
I picked Tuesday with a guy that had a B Bender Tele with the center strat pickup and he said his had been rewired to get the front and rear pickups in the switch center position. That's why I asked the question.
I'd like to keep it stock, as much as possible, and would prefer not to add another switch. |
|
|
|
Ed Miller Jr
From:
Coldwater,Mi USA
|
Posted 17 Jan 2002 7:00 pm
|
|
Jack, probably the easiest way to do that is to add a push pull pot as a tone control. zin combonation with the five way switch you could get neck- bridge and all three at once... just my two cents.
Ed |
|
|
|
Buck Dilly
From:
Branchville, NJ, USA * R.I.P.
|
Posted 18 Jan 2002 6:33 pm
|
|
| Why would you want to save money? Get the tones you want, and damn the cost. |
|
|
|
gary darr
From:
Somewhere out in Texas
|
Posted 18 Jan 2002 7:17 pm
|
|
/Jack, I think you'll like Ed's advise on the pull pot switch or you can do like I did mine (if you dont mind drilling a small hole between the vol and tone pot)and installing a mini toggle switch to engage the neck pickup into any of the typical strat five pos.It gives all the combinations..
------------------
sho-bud,session 500,american standard strat,shecter tele,peavy classic 50
|
|
|
|
Jack Stoner
From:
Kansas City, MO
|
Posted 19 Jan 2002 3:27 am
|
|
I may be in business. Blake Hawkins sent me a schematic that may work with the stock 5 position switch.
Also I'm getting some pictures of one that was modified.
Between the two I should be able to do it with the stock switch. |
|
|
|
Terry Downs
From:
Wylie, TX US
|
Posted 20 Jan 2002 7:56 pm
|
|
Jack,
There is a simplier approach that I fell in love with on my Tele's. It is a blend control and a 3 position switch. You wire the 3 position switch just like the middle pickup isn't even there. The center position will connect the bridge and neck together like normal. Convert your tone control to a blend control and connect it between the middle pickup output and the input to the volume control (which is the common output of the switch). This allows you to have all pickups on at once. If you really want a tone function too, make the pot a push pull switch type to make the control do both. The best feature about the blend control is how it shapes the tone of the bridge pickup with a small amount of the middle blended in. The wonderful thing that happens as you bleed a little middle pickup in with the bridge (as opposed to max switched in) is a comb filter that affects the treble strings less than the bass strings. Since the bridge pickup is slanted, the phase relationship of the middle to bridge pole piece aperture is different between treble strings and the bass strings. So, with a little middle mixed in, you can roll off the brittle sound of the treble strings and not affect the bass stings much. This allows you to set your amp with more treble and get your wound strings very bright, while not letting the plain strings bite your head off.
This is a big ingredient of the Brent Mason Tele. That is how Joe Glaser wired Brent's Tele. It actually has 3 knobs which are volume, blend, and tone. It has a 3 position switch. One of my guitars will soon get a push pull switch that will make the blend control a tone control when pulled out. That way the original look of the guitar is not changed. Once you implement this and hear what it does, you can play some Alan Jackson records and hear Brent using the blend control. Brent also explains some of this in his hot lick video. You can actually hear his guitar with the bridge+neck and all 3 pickups as he describes his guitar setup. At the time of the video, Brent had a special bridge pickup that had seperate coils for the strings 1-3 and strings 4-6. He now has a stock Seymour Duncan STK-T3 in the bridge position. I recently confirmed that from a conversation with Joe Glaser. I must warn you that the Brent Mason video should be carefully viewed.  It is humbling to say the least. I don't think he has any idea how super human he is. He can't explain what he does very well and some of his licks he can't hardly play slow. If you want to watch something that makes you sit there with your mouth open in amazement, get it!
Jack, I knew you had a Nashville Tele from previous posts. I should have recommended the blend control to you before now. It's just coincidence that it allows you to have neck+bridge and neck+middle+bridge with a 3 position switch.
Regards,
Terry
------------------
Terry Downs
http://nightshift.net
terry@nightshift.net
|
|
|
|
Jack Stoner
From:
Kansas City, MO
|
Posted 21 Jan 2002 3:28 am
|
|
| Terry, thanks for the info. That sounds like a very interesting setup and I've read about some of his modifications. But, I don't play much lead anymore (actually almost none) and just wanted the neck/bridge Tele sound. I'm going to order a StewMac Megaswitch that will replace the stock 5 position switch with a 5 position one that does exactly what I want. That way everything else stays stock on the guitar. |
|
|
|
Jack Stoner
From:
Kansas City, MO
|
Posted 10 Feb 2002 6:17 am
|
|
| Just an update;, I got the Stew Mac Megaswitch (Original E Model) yesteday and it did the trick. |
|
|
|
Michael Holland
From:
Nashville, Tennessee, USA
|
Posted 10 Feb 2002 7:52 am
|
|
Jack,
With the Megaswitch do you still have the 'in between Strat sounds'? Terry's post is fascinating, but it sounds like the out of phase sounds go away with the 3 way switch and the blend control. I mean, how ya gonna play "Lay Down Sally"?! |
|
|
|
Jack Stoner
From:
Kansas City, MO
|
Posted 10 Feb 2002 10:03 am
|
|
Michael, with the new switch I have Neck, Neck plus middle, Neck/Bridge, Middle plus Bridge and Bridge.
That gives the middle pickup added Strat type sounds plus the usual Tele combinations.
The stock pickup, in the center position, used the center pickup only like a Strat. The new pickup in the center position is the Neck/Bridge Tele configuration. |
|
|
|
