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Genny update: new p'up, new wiring.
Update #2: Ignore the "update" below. Now that I've played with this for a few months . . . I love it! 
Its perfect just the way it is. If you have an HSS guitar, you should try this wiring scheme. (Even if you don't have "tapped" pups.)
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Update Note: This update deleted.
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Anyway, I replaced the volume and tone pots with push/pulls, and swapped out the Stag Mag in the bridge of my Peavey Generation, with the vintage JB that I found. (Sorry Stag Mag. I'll find a happy home for you yet.) Nothing against the SM, but the improvement was profound. The old JB has a richness, and character that the SM just didn't do. (This JB is somewhere between 15 and 20 years old.) Part of the improvement is related to a couple of unusual wiring things that I did.
I used the volume p/p to "tap" the QP's, (Quarter Pounds), and the tone p/p to connect the Qp's in series. Like this:
One thing I did, was to swap the neck and middle "hot" leads on the 5-way. This has several interesting benefits. Generally, a 3-pup Tele, with a 5-way, will be wired like a Strat. Which means, of course, you can never have the "conventional" setting of neck & bridge. By swapping the neck & middle wires, the last three positions of the 5-way act like a conventional 3-way:
3. Neck
4. Neck & Bridge
5. Bridge
Also, if I place the 5-way straight up, (position #3), I have the neck by itself. One click back gives me the neck & bridge, one click forward gives me the neck & middle. And I can always go to position #1, if I want the middle by itself. (Which I rarely do.) This sounds more complicated than it really is. It actually works great, and all my 5-way-equipped axe's will be wired this way in the future.
The next benefit of this, is when I pull the tone knob, to get "series" operation of the QP's. Again, I just use the back 3 positions of the 5-way, to select:
3. Neck & middle (acting in series)
4. Neck & middle (series) with bridge
5. Bridge
Again, just like a 3-way, with the QP's acting in unison like a big humbucker. In this mode, position #2 mimicks #3, and position #1 becomes a kill switch.
And of course, all these different combinations can be had with the QP's tapped, or full on. The difference in tone between all the different positions is profound. I can't believe how much the character of the QP's changes when tapped. They immediately take on a glassy, yet still rich sound, thats unique from their full-on tone.
The second unusual thing I did was to wire the volume pot as a "variable load", rather than a volume control per se. Since I run into a J-Station and a mixing board, I just don't need a volume control. The addition of the 100k resistor prevents me from taking the load to zero. By turning the "volume" pot, I effectively change the pot load smoothly from 600k to 100k. To anyone who's ever heard the difference that changing a 250k pot to 500k makes, or vice-versa, I can glide from one pot to the other - plus and minus a bit more.
Its like subtle tone control, or a "character" control.
Anyway . . . the palette of sounds that I can get from this thing now, is amazing. And the icing on the cake is - they're all good. Sorry to be so long-winded. I'll close by re-iterating that the JB is very cool.
(Pics tomorrow.)
Artie
Its perfect just the way it is. If you have an HSS guitar, you should try this wiring scheme. (Even if you don't have "tapped" pups.)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Update Note: This update deleted.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Anyway, I replaced the volume and tone pots with push/pulls, and swapped out the Stag Mag in the bridge of my Peavey Generation, with the vintage JB that I found. (Sorry Stag Mag. I'll find a happy home for you yet.) Nothing against the SM, but the improvement was profound. The old JB has a richness, and character that the SM just didn't do. (This JB is somewhere between 15 and 20 years old.) Part of the improvement is related to a couple of unusual wiring things that I did.
I used the volume p/p to "tap" the QP's, (Quarter Pounds), and the tone p/p to connect the Qp's in series. Like this:
One thing I did, was to swap the neck and middle "hot" leads on the 5-way. This has several interesting benefits. Generally, a 3-pup Tele, with a 5-way, will be wired like a Strat. Which means, of course, you can never have the "conventional" setting of neck & bridge. By swapping the neck & middle wires, the last three positions of the 5-way act like a conventional 3-way:
3. Neck
4. Neck & Bridge
5. Bridge
Also, if I place the 5-way straight up, (position #3), I have the neck by itself. One click back gives me the neck & bridge, one click forward gives me the neck & middle. And I can always go to position #1, if I want the middle by itself. (Which I rarely do.) This sounds more complicated than it really is. It actually works great, and all my 5-way-equipped axe's will be wired this way in the future.
The next benefit of this, is when I pull the tone knob, to get "series" operation of the QP's. Again, I just use the back 3 positions of the 5-way, to select:
3. Neck & middle (acting in series)
4. Neck & middle (series) with bridge
5. Bridge
Again, just like a 3-way, with the QP's acting in unison like a big humbucker. In this mode, position #2 mimicks #3, and position #1 becomes a kill switch.
And of course, all these different combinations can be had with the QP's tapped, or full on. The difference in tone between all the different positions is profound. I can't believe how much the character of the QP's changes when tapped. They immediately take on a glassy, yet still rich sound, thats unique from their full-on tone.
The second unusual thing I did was to wire the volume pot as a "variable load", rather than a volume control per se. Since I run into a J-Station and a mixing board, I just don't need a volume control. The addition of the 100k resistor prevents me from taking the load to zero. By turning the "volume" pot, I effectively change the pot load smoothly from 600k to 100k. To anyone who's ever heard the difference that changing a 250k pot to 500k makes, or vice-versa, I can glide from one pot to the other - plus and minus a bit more.
Its like subtle tone control, or a "character" control.
Anyway . . . the palette of sounds that I can get from this thing now, is amazing. And the icing on the cake is - they're all good. Sorry to be so long-winded. I'll close by re-iterating that the JB is very cool.
(Pics tomorrow.)
Artie
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